The Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has submitted for public information the request by Boluda Terminal Marítima de Tenerife to extend its concession in the Port of Santa Cruz de La Palma. The company seeks to extend its contract for the provision of the Public Container Terminal service for a period of ten years and six months, according to official sources consulted by Canarymaritime. In Gran Canaria, the Island Council has requested the central government to intervene with the anti-opas shield for national security reasons.
This administrative move to secure its presence in the Islands comes at a time of great strategic relevance. Boluda is in the process of selling a majority part of its maritime terminals division to the Moroccan state for 80 million euros. Specifically, through the state company Marsa Maroc, the Kingdom of Morocco will come to control 45% of these critical infrastructures in the Canary Islands, granting the neighboring country direct influence over logistics and supply to the Archipelago. Morocco has among its challenges to regularly export bananas to the United Kingdom by 2030.
The request for extension, supported by the Ports of the State Law, now opens a period of twenty days for any affected entity or person to examine the file and present objections. The procedure coincides with the growing concern about the control that a foreign state entity may exert over the terminals in Tenerife, Las Palmas, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, and now, La Palma, right when efforts are being made to ensure the long-term stability of the concession.
Interested parties can register their objections either in person at the Headquarters of the Port Authority in Santa Cruz de Tenerife or online. This sale operation to the Moroccan state, which progresses in parallel to these administrative procedures, places the Canary Islands’ port infrastructures at the center of a complex geopolitical game between Morocco and the United Kingdom regarding the Canary Islands, using foreign merchant vessels based in the Port of Las Palmas operating under a Canary name, that is, intermediaries.
News written by Gara Vega. Edited and verified by Pedro Marrero. Information cross-checked without institutional filters. This analysis has not been funded by official advertising nor conditioned by lobby interests.
