DP World London has welcomed the Al Muraykh, one of the world's largest container ships, to its gateway port.

Owned by the United Arab Shipping Company (UASC), the Al Muraykh came into the London port carrying a recorded 18,601 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEU) and unloaded 3,800 containers.

The world-record breaking size of the ship means that it can carry up to 18,800 containers and it left Malaysia's Port Klang carrying the most ever shipping containers aboard to arrive at DP World London Gateway Port as its first stop in Europe.

Many of the goods being unloaded will be on the UK high streets over the next few days as part of the January sales.

Its high capacity leads to reduced CO2 emissions, which has made transporting goods more sustainable in this instance.

COO at UASC Mr Waleed Al Dawood spoke highly of the ship's capability of transporting such a vast number of containers while retaining strong green credentials.

Mr Dawood said that the ship's "voyage marks a very important milestone in our newbuilding and environmental sustainability program with this being the highest utilisation of our 18,800TEU eco-efficient class to date".