Norwegian state-owned enterprise Enova on Wednesday (5 February) announced 15 projects have been awarded pre-project funding to explore investments in bunkering facilities for ammonia as a marine fuel.

The projects cover the Norwegian coast from the Oslo Fjord in the south to Troms in the north.

"We received more applications than we had expected in this round. This shows that many players are working purposefully on projects to offer bunkering of ammonia to the maritime sector, and this is gratifying to see,” said Børge Noddeland, who is responsible for the Pre-project maritime technology support programme.

The companies to receive support for their projects are:

• Ammonia AS
• AZANE Fuel Solutions 
• Boreal sjø AS
• Grieg Group Ammonia Distribution Vessels AS
• Hitra Municipality 
• Iverson eFuels AS 
• Neptun Tromsø AS
• Skiga AS

The projects receive up to NOK 500,000 (USD 44,463) in support, and have six months to mature the projects towards a possible investment decision and realisation of the projects. In the next round, the best projects will be able to apply for investment support from Enova for the upcoming support programme "Bunkering plants for ammonia." 

"To succeed with this initiative, we are dependent on good projects in all parts of the value chain. Now an important next step is to establish infrastructure for bunkering ammonia along the Norwegian coast,” said Sigmund Ø. Størset, goal manager for hydrogen at Enova.

“It is therefore very positive to see that so many players are working on this part of the value chain, and that the geographical spread of the projects covers large parts of the Norwegian coast.”

Photo credit: Max van den Oetelaar on Unsplash
Published: 6 February, 2025

Hapag-Lloyd on Tuesday (4 February) said it has fully secured USD 4 billion long-term financing for 24 new LNG dual-fuel, ammonia-ready containerships that it ordered from two Chinese shipyards last October. 

Of these, 12 newbuildings – each with a capacity of 16,800 TEU – will be built by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group. These units will be used to expand the capacity of services that are already in place. 

An additional 12 ships, each with a capacity of 9,200 TEU, have been ordered from New Times Shipbuilding Company Ltd. and will replace older units in the Hapag-Lloyd fleet that will be nearing the end of their service life in this decade.

The ships will be equipped with low-emission and fuel-efficient high-pressure liquefied gas dual-fuel engines. 

In addition, these vessels can be operated using biomethane, which can reduce CO2e emissions by up to 95% compared to conventional propulsion systems. The new ships will also be ammonia ready.

Hapag-Lloyd will take delivery of the new vessels between 2027 and 2029. The newbuildings will have a combined capacity of 312,000 TEU.

The financing consists of four components. Around USD 900 million of the purchase price will be financed using the company’s own funds. A total of USD 500 million will be made available from two banks in the form of bilateral mortgage loans.

Another part, in the amount of USD 1.8 billion, will be financed via three leasing structures, and USD 1.1 billion will be financed via a syndicated credit facility backed by the China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure). The financing share amounts to a total of around 80% of the investment volume, with maturities ranging between 10 and 18 years.

The financing will be carried out on the basis of Hapag-Lloyd’s Green Financing Framework, which in turn complies with the standards of the Green Loan Principles of the Loan Market Association (LMA). This has been verified by an independent expert opinion of the international classification society DNV, as has the high efficiency of the ships and their compliance with the EU Taxonomy.

“We are continuously modernizing our fleet in order to deliver a high quality of service and to achieve our ambitious decarbonization goals,” said Mark Frese, CFO/CPO of Hapag-Lloyd AG. 

“The successful conclusion of several attractive financial transactions confirms that green financing components are becoming increasingly important. In addition, we are pleased to be able to finance newbuild projects in China for the first time with the Sinosure transaction.”

Photo credit: Hapag-Lloyd
Published: 5 February, 2025

Latest figures from classification society DNV’s Alternative Fuels Insight (AFI) platform saw a total of 12 new orders for alternative-fueled vessels were placed in January 2025, marking a continuation of the trend towards the fuel in the second half of 2024. 

DNV said all new orders placed came from the container segment. 

Jason Stefanatos, Global Decarbonization Director at DNV Maritime, said: “Although we have seen fewer orders for alternative-fueled vessels in January compared to other months, it follows a record-breaking year in 2024, and  the overall outlook continues to be encouraging.  

“The orderbook continues to be dominated by LNG, indicating a continuation of trends from the second half of last year.

“In addition, the dominance of container vessels in the orderbook indicates that demands from cargo owners and consumers for more sustainable practices remain heavily influential in driving the uptake of alternative-fueled vessels.

“While LNG and methanol markets are maturing, with increasing numbers of vessels being ordered and delivered, we also see that shipowners are diversifying their fuel options and exploring other fuels, such as ammonia.”

Photo credit: DNV
Published: 4 February, 2025