Mumbai-based Transworld group is ordering four 1,400-TEU containerships from Singapore Technologies Marine to be delivered at six month intervals starting in June 07, reported Indian financial news website Live Mint.com.

Transworld has three overseas feeder shipping companies: Orient Express Lines (Mauritius), Orient Express Lines (Dubai) and Orient Express Lines (Singapore).

According to Anil Devli, executive director, Shreyas Shipping & Logistics, another Transworld unit, the newbuild acquisition is fully funded through the State Bank of India.

Of the four containerships, one will be run by Shreyas while the other three will be run by the Orient Express division. "The total cost of this fleet acquisition is $100 million," said V Ramnarayan vice chairman and managing director of Transworld.

With imports and exports out of India, growing in double-digit percentages every year, traders are increasingly moving to the international standard of shipping goods in containers which allow for proper packaging and protection.

According to a report by credit rating agency Credit Analysis & Research, 70 per cent of India's external trade by value is carried by ships. The report also says that 50 per cent of the world's 2006 container traffic of 417 million TEU comes from Asia.