The port of Mombasa today (Thursday) received the longest ever container ship, Mv MSC Kotka.

The ship docked at the port minutes after 10am from the port of Durban.

Speaking after receiving the ship, Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) General Manager cargo operations Sudi Mwasinago said the arrival of the ship at the port testifies the efficiency of the port.

"This ship does not go to just any port, it goes to a port which is efficient and can handle the amount of cargo that it carries and this tells you how efficient our port is" said Mwasinago.

Adding " The ship is not going to discharge anything, she is going to load 5,8777 containers, that's a very big volume".

Mwasinago credited the investment at the port to its efficiency and confidence from customers.

" This is the largest ship that we have ever received here at the port. At the moment the port boasts of 100 capacity of 47,000 containers. Last year we handled the total tonnage of 35.9 million tonnes, that was a growth of 6.2% from 2022 when we handled 33.8 million tonnes" noted Mwasinago.

"In the containers side last year we did 1,623,080 tus of containers compared to 2022 when we did 1,450,000 tus this was a record growth of 12%".

The ship which next port of call is Abu Dhabi is 318 metres long with a tonnage of 130,000 tonnes.