Hapag-Lloyd has concluded “green” financing for the 24 large container ships that were ordered last October.
The newbuildings have a total capacity of 312,000 TEU with an investment volume of around $4 billion. According to the Hamburg-based shipping company, it is using several of the financial instruments available on the market to finance them.
Hapag-Lloyd is using four components to pay the total price. Around $900 million of the purchase price will be financed from own funds. A further $500 million will be provided through bilateral mortgage loans from two banks. A further $1.8 billion will be financed through three leasing structures. The remaining USD 1.1 billion comes from a syndicated credit facility secured by the China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure). The financing share amounts to a total of around 80% of the investment volume with terms of between 10 and 18 years.
The financing is based on the Hapag-Lloyd Green Financing Framework, which in turn complies with the standards of the Green Loan Principles of the Loan Market Association (LMA). This is confirmed by an independent expert opinion from the international classification society DNV, as is the high efficiency of the ships and their compliance with EU taxonomy requirements.
Hapag-Lloyd aims to reduce emissions by a third by 2030
“We are continuously modernizing our fleet in order to achieve high service quality on the one hand and our ambitious decarbonization targets on the other,” said Mark Frese, CFO and CPO of Hapag-Lloyd AG. “We are also pleased to be able to finance newbuilding projects in China for the first time with the Sinosure transaction.”
Hapag-Lloyd is fully committed to the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Agreement. By 2030, the fleet’s absolute greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by around a third compared to 2022 – a further step towards net-zero fleet operations by 2045.
The 24 ships will be built in China and equipped with ultra-modern, low-emission and fuel-efficient high-pressure dual-fuel liquid gas engines. In addition, these vessels can run on biomethane, which could reduce CO2 emissions by up to 95% compared to conventional propulsion systems, according to the company. The new ships are also ammonia-ready. Delivery will take place between 2027 and 2029.
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding is building twelve dual-fuel ships with 17,000 TEU each. The reefer capacity is therefore 1,600 slots. Twelve further ships, each with a capacity of 9,200 TEU, will be built by New Times Shipbuilding. With this order, the Hamburg-based company aims to consolidate its position as No. 5 in the ranking of the largest container shipping companies.