The Port of Algeciras has completed a decade of consistent 100-plus tonnes of annual throughput in 2025, a statistic that coincides neatly with both the 50th anniversary of the beginning of containerised cargo and with Maersk’s 40th anniversary of operations at the Spanish port.
As confirmed by Mr. Gerardo Landaluce (Port of Algeciras Chairman), apart from the 100´7 million tonnes of Total Throughput (down 3´2%), Container Throughput closed the year at 4´74 million TEUs (up 0´5%), the stand-out traffic increase being witnessed in import-export containers contrasting with the light downturn in transhipment traffic. The great performance of Straits traffic, both in passenger numbers and cargo throughput was also significant. The former rose to 6´35 million (up 6´7%), with more than a million-and-a-half people being ferried across on the Tarifa-Tangiers City line (up 14.00%), and road traffic pushing half a million HGVs on the Algeciras-Tanger Med line alone (up 4´7%): the forecast is for 800.000 HGVs in the very near future.
This level of Straits traffic is what has allowed the Hercules Plan to reach cruising speed in 2026, a plan set up to optimise every single square metre of space at the Port of Algeciras. This is one of the prime objectives set down by the Chairman of our Board, following an “intense and complex” 2025 that was highlighted by uncertainty on the geopolitical and geoeconomic stage. Despite all this, the Port of Algeciras has completed a decade of consistent annual throughput of over 100 million tonnes each year; it remains Europe’s most efficient port (source: the World Bank) and has strengthened its position as a crucial part of the Gemini Cooperation shipping alliance reliability.
Of the €580 million detailed in APBA’s Business Plan until 2030, €200 million are to be invested in the above-mentioned Hercules Plan, which foresees the expansion of La Galera Quay – currently under construction and ready for operations in 2027; and the rerouting of some of the port’s internal arteries, along with other works that should see every square metre of land optimised even more fully.
Mr. Landaluce has announced the forthcoming presentation of the new Port of Algeciras Strategic Plan. Its Green Strategy will be a central pillar and includes measures that provide for 36,500 tonnes of CO2 emissions to be reduced every year; another key element is the deployment of OPS (On-Shore Power Supply), the electrical link-up for ships berthed at the quays of Algeciras and Tarifa.
He also acknowledged “great difficulties” in applying ETS (EU’s Emissions Trading System) in its third year of enforcement, although he remains optimistic that the EU will review the measure in 2026 in the light of factual evidence that proves market distortion: “We are going to set about working very hard to exploit this window of opportunity”, he stated, insisting on the need for maritime emissions be regulated at a global level by measures such as the International Maritime Organisation’s NET ZERO proposal.