Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd has ordered six additional ultra large LNG-powered container vessels at South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.
DSME revealed the order worth nearly $1 billion on Monday but it only said it would build the 23,500+ TEU vessels for a European owner.
Daewoo will deliver the giant LNG-powered ships in 2024.
Hapag-Lloyd has last year ordered six ultra-large LNG-powered container vessels at the Korean yard for about $1 billion.
The German liner will take delivery of these 23,500+ TEU vessels between April and December 2023.
This puts the total to 12 LNG-powered vessels but Hapag-Lloyd also owns the world’s first converted LNG-powered containership Brussels Express.
Green loan
Hapag-Lloyd said it has financed the six additional ships via a syndicated green loan in the amount of $852 million that has 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 in the form of a secondary party opinion of the DNV, it said.
The Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE), and a syndicate consisting of 10 banks have backed the credit facility.
The “most promising fuel” on the path towards zero emissions
The large container ships will feature high-pressure dual-fuel engine that would be “extremely” fuel-efficient.
Their engine will operate on LNG, but the vessels will also have sufficient tank capacity to operate on conventional fuel as an alternative.
Hapag-Lloyd is focusing on liquefied natural gas as a medium-term solution, as it reduces CO2 emissions by around 15 to 25 percent and emissions of sulphur dioxide and particulate matter by more than 90 percent, it said.
LNG is currently the “most promising fuel” on the path towards zero emissions.
The medium-term goal is to have ships that operate in a climate-neutral way using synthetic natural gas (SNG), it said.
“With this investment in the additional newbuildings, we want to take another step in the ongoing modernisation of our fleet – in terms of both ship size and sustainability,” said Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd.
“At the same time, we want to meet the persistently high demand and reduce our slot costs,” he said.
Hapag-Lloyd will deploy the new ships on the Europe-Far East routes as part of The Alliance, a shipping consortium consisting of the German liner, ONE, Yang Ming, and HMM.
