The port of Casablanca is on the way to profound changes. The vocation of the latter will be oriented towards unitised products with high added value (container and roll-on/roll-off), while the historic port (fishing zone, ship repair, Tarik) will evolve with a view to opening up to the city with, in particular, the Tarik pier which will become a cruise terminal in direct connection with the city centre. Controlling traffic in Casablanca should, therefore, bring a new lease of life to the city itself. This is what emerges from a report entitled "Morocco's port strategy to 2030" produced by the Ministry of Equipment and Transport. In the context of the changes in prospect, the port of Mohammedia will gradually see the transfer of other non-unitised products (bulk, neo-bulk, conventional). Indeed, the port of Mohammedia will see the outsourcing of its historic inner port, which is unsuited to modern maritime traffic conditions and handles dangerous products near the city centre, which will then be dedicated to pleasure boating and fishing. "It is becoming necessary today to ensure a controlled development of the port of Casablanca, in coherence with the objectives and constraints of the urban planning plan of the agglomeration. This control does not in any way imply stopping the development of the port of Casablanca, which must continue to develop, but by ensuring as harmonious a cohabitation as possible with the constraints of urban development," the report emphasises. In other words, it is a question of orienting the development of the port towards activities that will allow it to take advantage of its potential without suffocating the city, while allowing it to highlight a development potential that is adapted and efficient in a constraining hyper-urban context.

According to the report, this will require an improvement in the port's connectivity, with the intensification of links (rail) between port terminals, dry ports (Mita, Zenata), and the country's logistics platforms. For this, priority must be given to port traffic with rapid rotation (containers and ro-ro) and high added value. This option will contribute to controlling port flows on urban roads. In this respect, the construction of the North coastal port road should facilitate this control of pre- and post-carriage flows. This strategy will make it possible to maintain the competitiveness of Casablanca and give the Zenata port its true vocation as a dry port serving national logistics. "The extension of the port by the subsequent and phased creation of a new container terminal will take into account both the penetration of Tanger Med into the Moroccan domestic market and the growth between 2010 and 2030 of containerised traffic in the region. With this extension, the capacity of the port of Casablanca will be increased from 1,600,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) taking into account the opening of Terminal C3 to 3,300,000 TEU per year. The other non-unitised products (bulk, neo-bulk, conventional) will be transferred as soon as possible to the port of Mohammedia for part of the traffic (sugar and oils) and to a new port that will be built in the Kenitra region," the report specifies.

The restructuring of the historic port of Casablanca with the development of the Tarik pier for cruises (in addition to a cruise quay along the breakwater which will be able to accommodate the largest ships up to 350 m, while the Tarik cruise terminal will be limited to ships of 250-300 m, which currently represents the heart of the global cruise fleet) and the necessary maintenance of grain traffic constitute another major component of the port strategy for Casablanca. Industrial ship repair, currently positioned in the historic basins of the port of Casablanca, facing the city centre and the Medina, will be relocated to another location. Several solutions can be envisaged, which will have to be validated within the framework of a specific policy for this activity. The one that would allow a rapid redevelopment of the activity would be maintenance in Casablanca, but in another area of the port (backed by the East Terminal) or that of a move to another port with several possible options (Kenitra Atlantique, Jorf Lasfar external extension).