Yangming has placed orders with Taiwan's China Shipbuilding Corp to build 17 ships, mostly container vessels. Of these, 10 will be container ships, from 4,250-82,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent unit) and will be delivered in 2008 and the rest delivered before 2012.
Yangming has also signed 5 to 10-year contracts to lease container ships from foreign ship owners, the press officer said.
Taiwan is home to two of the world's leading container shipping companies - Evergreen Marine and Yangming Marine. Evergreen has 170 container ships.