Germany's Hapag-Lloyd Secures Green Funds for LNG Containerships
German shipping line Hapag-Lloyd has secured $890mn in green financing for the construction of six LNG-fuelled containerships, it reported on February 8.
Hapag-Lloyd placed a $1bn order for the six dual-fuel vessels at South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering yard in December. It has now secured a $417mn syndicated loan from 11 banks with a 12-year maturity to cover the cost of three of the ships. The facility is backed by Korea Trade Insurance Corp, while KfW IPEX-Bank and BNP Paribas oversaw its structuring.
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The shipping line has also obtained $472mn in lease financing for the other vessels, with a 17-year maturity plus construction-phase financing. It was structured by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Leasing. Both transactions comply with the Green Loan Principles of the Loan Market Association (LMA), Hapag-Lloyd said.
"Our first green financings are a major milestone for us, as we are breaking new ground in the container shipping segment by financing newbuilding projects geared towards sustainability," Hapag-Lloyd CFO Mark Frese said. "The transactions will help us to modernise our fleet while further reducing our CO2 footprint at the same time."
The six containerships, with 23,500 twenty-foot equivalent unit (teu) cargo capacities, will be delivered between April and December 2023 and operate along Europe-Far East routes. They emit 15-25% less CO2 than conventional vessels, meaning they not only operate in accordance with the LMA's Green Loan Principles but also the EU's Taxonomy's technical screening criteria for sea and coastal freight water transport.
Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world's biggest shipping companies with a fleet of 234 containerships and a total transport capacity of 1.7mn teu.
(banner image courtesy of Hapag-Lloyd)