The Kenya Ports Authority has welcomed one of the world's largest cargo ships which docked in Mombasa on Thursday.
KPA received the 300-meter long Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)
MAXINE loaded with over 4,500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUS).
The ship, in its maiden voyage, beat the previous record of container carrier Livorno of 1,265 moves registered late June.
"The Port of Mombasa has registered a new performance record of 1,450 moves within an eight-hour shift in the container operations," KPA said in a statement.
MSC Maxine, with a container capacity of 9,411 TEUs, the largest container carrier to dock at the Port, also recorded an average of 181 gross moves per hour to break Liberian registered Livorno’s record of 140 gross moves per hour.
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"Gross moves per hour is a maritime productivity term that defines the total container movement on loading, offloading and repositioning divided by the number of hours for which the vessel is at berth."
The Panama-flagged vessel has a length overall of 300m, a breadth of 48m, height of 62m and deadweight of 110,629 tonnes and a gross tonnage of 94,469.
"This is the third container operations record set within this year. The new record is an improvement of 20 per cent from the prior record at the Mombasa Port set in June 2018," KPA said.
Before sailing out of the Port of Mombasa, the vessel is expected to have discharged a total of 1,483 units full and 577 units of Transhipment containers for Dar es Salaam.
The ship will also load 430 units full and 2,200 units of empties.
Acting KPA managing director Daniel Manduku attributed the improved performance to a well-coordinated operation and diligence from the workforce.
"The record performance is demonstrable proof that with right equipment, appropriate planning and a motivated workforce, the fluidity of cargo operations can continue achieving the requisite efficiencies that all port stakeholders are seeking," he said.
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He commended the operations team for the record performance regardless of the heavy downpour being experienced in Mombasa this week.
The Master of the vessel Captain Shashi Bhushan expressed delight on the historic performance adding "the KPA Pilot was very super and confident."
"He gave me vital information before we started the manual, we followed what we planned and safely came to the berth."
"KPA has kept pace with its modernization of its cargo and ship handling equipment," Manduku said.
He said the authority has acquired one new Ship-to-Shore gantry crane (STS), 12 Rubber Tyred Gantry (RTG) Cranes and six rail mounted gantry cranes.
In addition, KPA has received one Tug boat and four Eco Hoppers.
