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    NYK gets 'green' loan' to fund its way to scrubber technology

    来源:    编辑:编辑部    发布:2019/03/26 11:43:29

    JAPANESE shipping giant NYK has secured a JPY9 billion (US$81 million) syndicated "green" loan, supported by eight domestic financial institutions, for the installation of scrubbers on its ships, reports London's Loadstar.

    Hyundai Merchant Marine said it had signed a MoU to establish a "win-win fund" for scrubber installation, with five South Korean companies investing KRW107 billion (US$95 million) to add to the carrier's own KRW46 billion outlay.

    NYK's five-year loan passed all of criteria of Green Loan Evaluation by the Japan Credit Rating Agency, which concluded that the proceeds would be allocated to green projects, "that have explicit improvement effects on the environment", and that scrubbers were a "highly effective" means to achieve this.

    Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) will equip all of its 16 owned vessels with the systems, While its twelve 23,000-TEU and eight 14,000-TEU newbuilds are having scrubbers installed from the start.

    HMM has also been negotiating with the owners of its 62 chartered-in ships for scrubbers to be fitted ahead of IMO 2020. A broker source told Loadstar there had been several amended fixtures involving HMM where the carrier is paying a premium for extensions from next year.

    The heavily subsidised carrier, which reported a loss of US$720 million last year following a deficit of $1.1 billion in 2017, is clearly targeting the IMO 2020 regulations as an opportunity for its recovery.

    "As the IMO's new environmental regulation is expected to impose a heavy burden on shipowners, carriers not properly prepared for IMO 2020 will be in huge trouble," it said.

    "Thus, HMM will fully prepare for IMO 2020 during the remaining period and will take this regulation as an opportunity for a quantum leap," it said.

    Hitherto Maersk said it was planning only "limited trials on a small number of ships", arguing that "on board mini-refineries are not the answer" to IMO 2020 requirements.

    MSC is pro-scrubbers, with CEO Diego Aponte saying the decision is "a no brainer" versus consuming more expensive low-sulphur fuel, or the extremely expensive conversion to LNG, which also comes with bunkering restrictions.