Isreal's Zim Integrated Shipping Services plans to buy two 2,450-TEU container ships for US$45.9 million each, with an option to buy two more similar-sized vessels.

Three are scheduled for delivery in 2010 and the fourth is to arrive in the first quarter of 2011. The ships will be paid for in Japanese yen owing to the favourable exchange rate with the US dollar.

This comes after an announcement earlier this month from Zim that it intended to buy eight ships from South Korean shipbuilders Hyundai Shipyards for US$1 billion.