Tangier Med Shipping Routes — Mediterranean Transshipment Hub vs Gioia Tauro

Q: How long does it take to ship a container from Shanghai to Tangier Med?

About 50.1 days door-to-door on a direct service (3.2 gate-in + 36.8 sailing + 10.1 gate-out).

Q: Is Shanghai to Tangier Med faster than Shanghai to Gioia Tauro?

Shanghai → Tangier Med is about 9.1 days faster door-to-door (50.1 days to Tangier Med vs 59.2 days to Gioia Tauro).

Q: What is the typical transshipment dwell at the Port of Tangier Med?

About 5.0 days typical (most containers between 3 and 9 days).

Q: Is transshipment faster at Tangier Med or Gioia Tauro?

Tangier Med is about 1.0 days faster at the median. 5.0 days at Tangier Med vs 6.0 days at Gioia Tauro.

Q: What are typical transit times from Tangier Med?

Door-to-door transit times for selected long-haul lanes from Tangier Med: Tangier Med to Freetown about 36 days door-to-door; Tangier Med to Conakry about 35 days door-to-door; Tangier Med to Casablanca about 28 days door-to-door; Tangier Med to Antwerp about 22 days door-to-door; Tangier Med to Bremerhaven about 23 days door-to-door; Tangier Med to Paranagua about 30 days door-to-door.

We track container traffic at the Port of Tangier Med (PORT TANGIER MEDITERRANEE) across 3 named terminals. Below, the verified data: terminal layout, the long-haul lanes touched by Tangier Med, a side-by-side comparison with Gioia Tauro on Shanghai-direct transit time and transshipment dwell, and a focused map of how Tangier Med actually channels traffic from the US East Coast and Europe onward to West Africa.

Container Terminals

Tracked Berths

Trans-Oceanic Routes

5,179

Tracked Containers

Container Terminals at the Port of Tangier Med

3 container terminals make up the Port of Tangier Med in our records. For each terminal we publish only what we can verify directly from observed vessel calls: the largest draft and longest LOA we have recorded, the terminal's central coordinates, and the spatial distribution of tracked vessel positions on the map. We do not publish berth-level counts, since individual berths within a terminal cannot always be unambiguously separated from spatial Container Tracking data.

Trans-Oceanic Routes from Tangier Med

Below are the long-haul shipping lanes (median transit ≥ 10 days) we have tracked from Tangier Med. Tangier Med is a pure transshipment hub; the lanes shown here are the onward vessel rotations from Tangier Med to its onward destinations — primarily West Africa and back to Europe. Each card shows the median container shipping transit time, the 25th–75th percentile range, and the number of tracked containers. Click any card to open the full Tangier Med → destination lane on our route explorer.

Tangier Med's Onward Reach — Interactive Route Map

Every long-haul lane from Tangier Med on a single map, drawn along its actual sea route. Line thickness reflects how many routes share that lane. Click any destination port for transit-time stats and a link to its port profile. Use the Simulate disruption controls to close the Suez or Panama canals and watch the network re-route in real time.

Simulate disruption

Default routing — all canals open

Tangier Med (origin) Destination port No-sail zone Lane traffic few → many routes

Direct sailing — Shanghai → Tangier Med vs Shanghai → Gioia Tauro

Tangier Med and Gioia Tauro are both Mediterranean transshipment hubs. Below is the time it takes to reach each from Shanghai on a direct mainline service (no transshipment), decomposed into gate-in dwell at Shanghai, vessel transit, and gate-out dwell at the destination. Most containers don't end their journey at either hub — they continue onward through transshipment (covered in Section B).

Transshipment dwell — Tangier Med vs Gioia Tauro

How long does a container actually wait at each hub between vessels? Below: median TS dwell at Tangier Med and at Gioia Tauro, plus the typical range each, from our tracked-shipment data.

In our tracked-shipment data, the carriers moving the most containers through Tangier Med are Maersk (24,428) and COSCO (17). At Gioia Tauro, the top carriers are MSC (28,517) and Maersk (3).

Tangier Med — gateway from US East Coast and Europe to West Africa

Tangier Med's distinctive transshipment role in our data is as a West Africa gateway. The map shows the inbound vessel-leg sailing times from US East Coast and Europe, the typical TS dwell at the hub, and the onward sailing times to West African destinations — plus the major Tangier Med → Europe rotations on the same map. Every figure pulled directly from our tracked-shipment data.

US East Coast origin European origin Tangier Med (hub) West African destination European destination

Each line is labelled with the median vessel-leg sailing time and the count of tracked container observations on that lane. Hub TS dwell at Tangier Med is the median from 13,401 tracked observations.

For comparison — Gioia Tauro connects the US East Coast to the East Mediterranean

Gioia Tauro plays a different transshipment role than Tangier Med. The map shows the vessel-leg sailing time from each US East Coast origin to Gioia Tauro, the typical TS dwell at the hub, and the onward sailing times to East Mediterranean destinations. Same data source as the previous map.

US East Coast origin Gioia Tauro (hub) East Mediterranean destination

Hub TS dwell at Gioia Tauro is the median from 15,031 tracked observations.

Frequently asked: Tangier Med container shipping

Quick answers to the questions maritime operators search for, with figures pulled directly from our tracked-shipment data and the simulator above.

How long does it take to ship a container from Shanghai to Tangier Med?

About 50.1 days door-to-door on a direct service (no transshipment). That breaks down into 3.2 days gate-in dwell at Shanghai + 36.8 days vessel sailing + 10.1 days gate-out dwell at Tangier Med, across 80 direct shipments in our data.

Is Shanghai to Tangier Med faster than Shanghai to Gioia Tauro?

Shanghai → Tangier Med is faster in our data, by about 9.1 days. Door-to-door medians: Shanghai → Tangier Med: 50.1 days (sailing leg 36.8d, 80 direct shipments). Shanghai → Gioia Tauro: 59.2 days (sailing leg 52.0d, 51 direct shipments). Most of the gap comes from the vessel-sailing leg, not from terminal dwell.

What is the typical transshipment dwell at the Port of Tangier Med?

About 5.0 days. Half of all transshipped containers in our data spend between 3 and 9 days at the Port of Tangier Med — the time between being unloaded from the inbound vessel and reloaded onto the outbound vessel (13,401 tracked records).

Is transshipment faster at Tangier Med or Gioia Tauro?

Tangier Med is faster at transshipment in our data, by about 1.0 days at the median. Tangier Med: 5.0 days median TS dwell (most containers between 3 and 9 days, 13,401 tracked records). Gioia Tauro: 6.0 days (most between 4 and 9 days, 15,031 tracked records).

What are typical transit times from Tangier Med?

Door-to-door times for selected long-haul lanes (gate-in dwell at Tangier Med + vessel sailing + gate-out dwell at the destination port). Click any destination to open that lane on the route explorer — the same numbers will appear there:

Tangier Med → Freetown — about 36 days door-to-door
Tangier Med → Conakry — about 35 days door-to-door
Tangier Med → Casablanca — about 28 days door-to-door
Tangier Med → Antwerp — about 22 days door-to-door
Tangier Med → Bremerhaven — about 23 days door-to-door
Tangier Med → Paranagua — about 30 days door-to-door

For other lanes, click any destination on the map above or browse the route cards in the previous section.

Last updated 17 May 2026 — numbers, charts and FAQ figures are regenerated automatically every time our shipment-tracking pipeline ingests fresh carrier data.