United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) has signed a newbuilding contract for nine 13,100 teu ships (A13) with Samsung Heavy Industries.
The contract constitutes the biggest containership newbuilding order ever placed by a GCC owned company, and is valued in excess of $1.5 billion.
At a signing ceremony, held at the Mina Al Salam hotel in Dubai on the 29 June, 2008, the chairman of the board of directors of UASC, Sheikh Ali Al Thani, said Samsung was chosen from a long list of highly reputed and skilled shipbuilders.
The first of the nine vessels will be delivered to UASC in October of 2010, and the rest will follow in short order, with the last vessel being delivered in the fourth quarter of 2011.
UASC currently operates a fleet of 41 fully cellular container vessels with three to be delivered this year and another 10 in 2009.  By the time the nine A13’s have been delivered, the fleet will comprise more than 60 modern container ships able to carry approximately 270,000 teu.
Sheikh Al Thani thanked customers and suppliers for their support to UASC and said the company was truly living up to its vision of linking the Middle East to the world.
UASC is owned by Arabian Gulf states Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Earlier, UASC formally took delivery of a new ship at a ceremony held at Ulsan in Korea. 
The new ship, named MV Al Manamah, is the fifth A7 ship built by Hyundai Heavy industries Limited for UASC against an order for eight ships.  The new ships have large capacity and can load 6,919 teu containers and operate at a service speed of 25.5 knots per hour. They can load 459 ffu units of reefer  containers and are also equipped to transport hazardous cargoes.
Speaking for UASC, Sheikh Daij bin Salman Al Khalifa, chairman of Bahrain’s General Organisation of Sea Ports (GOP) and board member, UASC, said the ships already delivered by Hyundai were performing extremely well and that the new ship would further help the company to meet the increasing demand for cost-effective and efficient shipping regionally and internationally.”
“With a resurgence in the shipping industry in recent times, it is time for shipping lines to support and modernise their fleet and further enhance the level of service to customers at competitive costs,” Shaikh Daij said.