Tangier
Africa's manufacturing gateway hosts the continent's largest auto plant and the Med's busiest port — 14km from Europe, exporting more cars to the EU than China.
Morocco became the largest automotive exporter to the European Union in 2023 — ahead of China and Japan — and most of those vehicles left from a port that did not exist twenty years ago. Tangier, a city of roughly one million people on the Strait of Gibraltar, sits 14 kilometres from Spain at the junction of the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Wikipedia leads with the International Zone era, Beat Generation writers, and Berber history. What it undersells is that Tangier has been re-engineered into Africa's most consequential manufacturing gateway.
Tanger Med port, opened in 2007, now ranks 17th globally and first in both the Mediterranean and Africa. It handles 9 million TEUs annually, connects to 184 ports across 70 countries, and can reach Spain within 24 hours, France in 48, and the rest of Europe in 72. In 2023, the port exported 578,446 vehicles to 24 countries. The Renault Tanger Méditerranée plant — 300 hectares, 400,000-vehicle annual capacity, zero-carbon and zero-liquid-discharge operations — is Africa's largest automotive factory. Stellantis operates alongside it. BYD has committed billions to a new facility. Chinese battery manufacturer Gotion pledged $6.4 billion for an EV battery plant.
The surrounding free trade zones house over 400 companies employing 45,000+ workers. Tanger Automotive City is doubling from 517 to 1,185 hectares. Morocco's total automotive production capacity approaches 960,000 vehicles annually, with more than 270 suppliers clustered around the port. Investments in the region rebounded 55% in 2024 to MAD 25.4 billion ($2.5 billion). The northern region generates 10.4% of Morocco's GDP.
The biological parallel is the octopus. Octopuses are ambush strategists — positioning themselves at a chokepoint, extending multiple specialised arms to capture prey from different directions simultaneously. Tangier has positioned itself at the world's most strategic maritime chokepoint and extended arms into automotive, aerospace, electronics, textiles, and logistics simultaneously. Each arm operates semi-independently but feeds the same organism. The strategy works because of the position: 14 kilometres from Europe, with free-trade access to both sides.