New Casablanca Shipyard Bolsters Port’s Standing on Global Shipbuilding Arena
Casablanca - The new shipyard in Casablanca, inaugurated Thursday by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, is a major project that will strengthen the port's standing on the global shipbuilding industry, both in terms of construction and repair.
This large-scale project also aims to restructure and further promote the shipbuilding and repair sector in Morocco, attract more investment in this field, meet domestic demand in this area and part of international demand, and enshrine the Kingdom’s position on the global market.
For Director General of the National Ports Agency (ANP) Mustapha Farès, this new shipyard is “an essential milestone in building a strong and competitive national shipbuilding industry.”
Thanks to Morocco’s geostrategic position, this project is likely to leverage the Kingdom’s Atlantic coastline, he told MAP, adding that it will also play a major role in strengthening maritime interconnection, thereby bolstering the country’s standing among major maritime nations.
For his part, Director of Infrastructure and Studies at the ANP Mohamed Jaja said that this project, carried out by the Agency, will foster the creation of an industrial ecosystem linked to shipbuilding and repair.
This project falls fully in line with the enlightened vision of His Majesty King Mohammed VI in favor of developing a national shipbuilding industry to push this sector up to the standards of excellence achieved in aviation and automotive sectors, he said in a statement to the press during the inauguration ceremony of the shipyard by the Sovereign.
With an investment of around MAD 2.5 billion, this project involved the construction of a dry dock 240 m long, 40 m wide, and 8.10 m deep, capable of accommodating ships 220 m long and 32 m wide, the installation of a 150 m x 28 m lifting platform with a capacity of 9,700 tons, and a 60 m long, 13 m wide and 8.7 m deep dock equipped with a 450-ton strap lift.
This project, which also involved the development of 21 hectares of embankments and 660 m of quays, is part of the restructuring and development program for the Casablanca port complex, geared at strengthening the economic and tourist influence of this metropolis.
This comprehensive program, which involved investments of around MAD 5 billion, focused on the construction of the new shipyard, the development of a fishing port, the development of a cruise terminal, and the construction of an administrative complex bringing together all stakeholders of the Port of Casablanca.
Editorial team/le7tv
