For the 200 or so container ships that pass through it daily, the Strait of Gibraltar, the narrow sea passage between Spain and North Africa, presents both a threat and an opportunity. The crew must keep a close eye on the radar, alert to the high risk of collision between the many vessels entering and leaving the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, the concentration of traffic makes the area an ideal spot to trans-ship cargo, unloading or picking up containers heading to or from ports the vessel will not serve directly.
For many years, the choice for lines wanting to trans-ship around Gibraltar was limited to the Port of Algeciras, just north of the strait’s Mediterranean end on the Spanish side of the Bay of Gibraltar. The facility, established in 1986 and operated by APM Terminals, part of Denmark’s AP Møller-Maersk Group, has become one of the world’s most important centres not only for transfers between deep-sea, mainline services and smaller feeder ships, but also between mainline ships heading to different destinations. Algeciras’s markets include the ports of north and west Africa, as well as destinations further away in the Americas and Asia.
