Due to political and economic disputes that go back to 2021, Algeria's Professional Association of Banks and Financial Institutions (ABEF) has decided to stop providing financial services related to the transhipment or transit operations of goods through Moroccan ports.
This decision, which was concluded on 10 January, prohibits goods that have been transported to Morocco from entering the country.
Consequently, container liners, such as Maersk and CMA CGM, introduced changes to some of the related services. Following is a list of restructured services.
Maersk
Maersk announced it is changing the transhipment ports serving Algerian ports as follows:
Algiers/Skidka
- Barcelona-Algiers (weekly) - first effective rotation starting from 5 February
- Barcelona-Skikda-Algiers (every 15 days) - first effective rotation starting from 22 January
Bejaia
- Algeciras - Barcelona - Bejaia (weekly) - first effective rotation starting from January 21st
Oran
- No changes in the vessel rotation with Algeciras as the transshipment port
CMA CGM
CMA CGM will tranship Algerian cargo in Algeciras or Valencia instead of Tanger Med. This will affect the port rotation on these services as follows:
- Carrier service name: AGAPOME (loop Ghazaouet). The Tanger is dropped.
- Port rotation: Algeciras - Ghazaouet
- First sailing: CONTSHIP CUB in Algeciras on 24 January
- Carrier service name: EURONAF (loop Oran/Mostaganem); Tanger is replaced by Algeciras.
- Port rotation: Livorno - Genoa - Marseille - Valencia - Algeciras - Oran - Mostaganem
- First sailing: CONTSHIP RAY in Algeciras on 18 January
- Carrier service name: EUROMAR, a call in Algeciras is added to the rotation.
- Port rotation: Tanger - Casablanca - Agadir - Tilbury - Rotterdam - Hamburg - Antwerp - Rotterdam - Le Havre - Vigo - Algeciras
- First sailing: CONTSHIP GIN in Algeciras on 18 January
Analysts believe the Algerian decision will negatively affect its economy since choosing to pass through ports other than Moroccan will increase the cost of transportation. This will eventually impact the prices of various goods in the Algerian markets.
