Taipei - Taiwan's Yangming Marine Transport Corp plans to expand its fleet from the current 96 vessels to at least 125 by the year 2012, Yangming said on Friday.

"We have placed orders to build new ships and have signed lease contracts in order to expand and improve service, including launching new Far East-Europe/US routes," a Yangming press officer said, asking not to be named.

Yangming, one of the world's top container shipping lines, currently has 96 vessels - 87 container ships and 9 bulk carriers.

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. (dpa)