KfW IPEX-Bank’s business volume in 2024 almost reached the previous year’s record level. New commitments totaled € 23.9 billion.
KfW’s subsidiary is the division for export and project finance, including ship financing. It remained only € 300,000 below the volume of the previous year, when € 24.2 billion was extended.
According to the Frankfurt-based bank, the main drivers of new business were large-scale projects for the energy and mobility transition as well as projects to strengthen the energy infrastructure and secure the supply of raw materials in Germany.
In particular, KfW IPEX-Bank contributed to the global energy transition with financing for a number of onshore and offshore wind farms as well as solar projects and battery storage facilities totaling €1.8 billion. But it has also been involved in the transformation of the global economy with financing for projects such as Europe’s first climate-neutral container terminal in the port of Duisburg, a sustainable data center in Offenbach, climate-friendly copper production in Chile and sustainable steel production with hydrogen in Sweden.
In the still young Mobility / Infrastructure segment, which also includes maritime projects, €12.3 billion was awarded. Bank refinancing, which also includes ship CIRR, accounted for a further €1.5 billion. With the ship CIRR funding program, buyers of ships or ship components from a German shipyard can receive a fixed-rate loan based on the CIRR interest rate (Commercial Interest Reference Rate), which applies for the entire term of the loan.
Last year, new ro-ro ferries for the Faroe Islands and newbuilds for the shipping company Cobelfret were among the ships financed under the program.
