THE London Gateway port at Corringham is getting read to play host to one of the biggest ships in the world.

Tomorrow (Sunday, 14 June) at around 8am HMM Algeciras, the largest container ship on earth, will dock after a short trip from Antwerp.

HMM Algeciras had been scheduled initially to dock at London Gateway's sister port in Southampton after visits to Hamburg and Antwerp this week but Southampton is getting close to its storage capacity and so has swapped a smaller service stop with London Gateway, freeing up some capacity on the south coast

She will be berthed at the DP World port for 24 hours before departure back to the Far East.

Recently built, she can accommodate up to 23,964 t.e.u (twenty foot equivalent units) which laid end to end is 90.75 miles or from the Grays station level crossing to the middle of Swindon in a straight line.

She is the first of 12 in this class, and measures 400 metres x 61 metres wide.

HMM Algeciras should arrive with about 19,000 containers on board, 24 containers wide and nine high above deck.