Oman’s Port of Salalah has achieved another maritime milestone by being the first and the only port in the sultanate to handle a container vessel of over 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) capacity, a report said.

Port of Salalah is a major regional gateway port and transhipment hub in the West Central Asia Region.

The port recently received the Mayview Maersk – which has a length of 399 m and a capacity of 18,270 TEUs, added the Oman Daily Observer report.

The previous record was MSC London of the Mediterranean Shipping Co, which also called Salalah. With the continued increase in the overall size of the vessels, such vessels are expected to be regular callers in main line hub ports like Salalah, said the report.

Port of Salalah’s CEO David Gledhill said that call is a testament not only to the infrastructure of the terminal but more importantly the confidence of the shipping lines in our employees’ ability to handle them in a safe and efficient manner.

He added that the port’s team has been successful in developing new feeder connections to other ports in the region and will continue to expand the same.