The United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) has landed a Societe Generale US$205 million loan to finance the purchase of two more of the nine 13,100-TEU ships ordered from Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries, which delivered the first of them in April.

Having declared that it is ready for the big time in world shipping with its massive expansion programme, this is UASC's second loan in a month, reported Newark's Journal of Commerce. The company has already raised $1.75 billion in financing.