Hapag-Lloyd has commissioned the South Korean shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding & MarineEngineering to make six ships, each with a capacity of over 23,500 TEU. The container liner shipping company had already placed an order for 6 ships of the identical size at the tip of 2020. Thus, the fleets are expanded by a dozen 23,500+ TEU ships in total.
Ships to possess dual-fuel engines that may use liquefied fossil fuel (LNG)
The large container ships are outfitted with a state-of-the-art high-pressure dual-fuel engine that will be extremely fuel-efficient. Their engine will operate LNG, but the vessels also will have sufficient tank capacity to control conventional fuel as an alternate. Hapag-Lloyd is focusing on liquefied gas as a medium-term solution because it reduces CO2 emissions by around 15 to 25 percent and emissions of sulfur dioxide and material by quite 90 percent. Fossil LNG is currently the foremost promising fuel on the trail towards zero emissions. The medium-term goal is to possess ships that operate in a climate-neutral way using synthetic fossil fuel (SNG).
Green financing in line with the Green Loan Principles of the Loan Market Association
The six additional ships are financed via a syndicated green loan within the amount of USD 852 million that encompasses a maturity of 12 years from the date of delivery. The transaction was concluded in accordance with the Green Loan Principles of the Loan Market Association (LMA) while also being verified by an independent expert within the kind of a secondary party opinion of the DNV. The credit facility is being backed by the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE), and therefore the syndicate consists of 10 banks.
“With this investment in the additional new buildings, we want to take another step in the ongoing modernisation of our fleet – in terms of both ship size and sustainability,” says Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd. “At the same time, we want to meet the persistently high demand and reduce our slot costs.”
As part of THE Alliance, the vessels will be deployed on Europe-Far East routes, considerably increasing Hapag-competitiveness Lloyd’s in this trade.
