The UAE-based United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) has signed a $190m financing with Kuwait-based Burgan Bank.

The loan is to be used to acquire two ultra-large container ships from South Korea-based Hyundai Heavy Industries. The ships have a 14,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEU) capacity and will be capable of running on conventional fuel and liquefied natural gas.

The ships are due to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2014.

UASC has a total of 17 vessels, comprising 11 14,000 TEU vessels and six 18,000 vessels, on order.

Shipping lines across the world are increasingly investing in larger ships as they are seen as economically more efficient.