KINGSTON, Jamaica — Kingston Wharves Limited (KWL) continued its efforts at being recognised as a premier port of call when it walked away with the prestigious ‘Best Multi-Purpose Port in the Caribbean’ award recently.

The award was presented at the just-concluded 46th Caribbean Shipping Association’s Annual General Meeting, Conference and Exhibition at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Trinidad.

According to a news release from the company on Monday, this latest award cements the port as the pre-eminent one in the region following an impressive string of other such awards won since 2006.

In that year (2006), KWL was also voted best multi-purpose port in the Caribbean. The Kingston-based outfit copped similar awards in 2007, 2009, as well as 2013.  In 2008 they were voted the ‘Most Efficient Port’ while in 2010, they walked away with the award for ‘Growth and Development’ as well as being ‘the Most Efficient’.

Commenting on this latest achievement, CEO Grantley Stephenson says that this is “just reward for the diligence and commitment with which KWL has gone about positioning itself as a premier port of call in the competitive shipping industry”.

“This has been a significant week for us against a background where we serviced the ‘Northern Jubilee’, the largest vessel ever to call at KWL, following it being re-directed to us consequent on the damage to Freeport in Bahamas as a result of Hurricane Matthew as well as the delivery of our newest high-powered crane to boost the efficiency of our output,” he added.

The Award is voted on by the port awards committee which is comprised of regional shipping lines, agents and other key port users. It is the awards committee’s remit to review and recognise the performance and operations of terminals in the Caribbean, Latin America and the Gulf of Mexico for the year preceding their annual general meeting.

Kingston Wharves Limited, which is currently on a five-year expansion drive, has reportedly achieved exponential growth over the last decade with three of the region’s premier shipping lines utilising its trans-shipment hub and operating weekly feeder services to Caribbean and Latin American ports.

Many shipping industry players representing the Caribbean, Latin America and Europe were reportedly participants at the annual general meeting, conference and exhibition, which took place from October 17 – 19.