United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) said it had placed orders worth over $2 billion for very large container ships with South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries.

UASC ordered five vessels of 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) each, and five 14,000 TEU vessels. The ships are to be delivered starting in late 2014.

In addition, UASC signed options to buy one additional 18,000 TEU vessel and six 14,000 TEU ships. The price tag of over $2 billion includes those options, it said.

UASC was set up by the governments of Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in 1976 to improve trade links with the rest of the world.-Reuters