DUBAI - THE United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) on Monday said it had ordered nine container ships costing over US$1.5 billion (S$2.04 billion) from the South Korean yard of Samsung Heavy Industries.

It said in a statment that the agreement was 'the biggest order for container ships ever made by a Gulf company.'

The first of the new ships should be delivered in October 2010 with the others before the end of 2011, the statement said.

It added that the UASC's current fleet included 41 container ships which would be joined by another three this year and 10 more in 2009.

The company, with headquarters in Kuwait, was set up in 1976 by six countries - Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. -- AFP