Larger ships will be able to use the docks at a town port thanks to a £3.3m investment in a new warehouse and crane.
The new warehouse at the Port of King's Lynn, run by Associated British Ports (ABP), will store grain and agri-bulks, enabling the different cargo areas to be re-organised.
A £1.1m crane has also been brought into the site.
Port manager Paul Brooks said when completed later this year, the warehouse would have six bays, each capable of accommodating a 3,500-tonne ship's cargo.
Ageing warehouses beside the docks will also be demolished to make way for a new timber yard.
Mr Brooks said that would enable different cargoes to be handled in separate areas of the port, increasing efficiency.
Today stevedores were unloading a cargo of steel reinforcing rods from the 101m Conger - the widest ship ever to use the port.
James Cooper, chief executive of ABP, said the investment in Lynn had been proposed by managers at the Norfolk port to improve the service it offered to shipping companies.
'I know there are people who think some of the smaller ports face long-term challenges but we see quite a lot of opportunity for King's Lynn going forward,' he said.
'It can reach into the East Midlands and Peterborough, serving the local market 50 miles away.'
North West Norfolk MP Sir Henry Bellingham said: 'It's an exciting day for King's Lynn. There's the new crane, the grain shed, the timber yard.
'Conger, the ship we saw being unloaded, is the broadest vessel ever to use the docks. The previous crane didn't have the ability to reach across her hold.'
Mr Bellingham added that a longer-term ambition was to restore the rail link which once connected the docks to the main line at Lynn station.
Lynn's Alexandra and Bentinck docks, along with its Riverside Quay, import construction timber and steel and export cargoes including malting grain and scrap metal.
Every job on the docks supports another 10 in the wider community. Contractors have been on site since early January working on pilings for the new bulk warehouse.
Port staff hope it will be ready to accept its first cargo in August.
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