European banks see the possibility of lending more money to shipowners in 2024, Jan-Philipp Rohr, global head of shipping at Hamburg Commercial Bank, said at the Marine Money Finance Forum in Hamburg.
“All of us on the lending side have sufficient firepower because shipping companies have prepaid loans over the last two years, so there are a lot of opportunities for us to provide funding,” he said.
In the current upcycle, shipping companies have made huge profits, which has decreased the need for owners to borrow money.
“So currently they don’t need us. This is a challenge,” Rohr said.
But he sees opportunities in all major markets — tankers, dry bulk and containers.
Anastassia Tcherneva, head of shipping clients at ABN Amro Bank, also pointed out that the Dutch bank has a lot of firepower.
“Shipping companies need banks. Shipping banks have been there for good and for bad. European banks have been there for many, many years,” she said.
Tcherneva added that the energy and fuel transition could be a driver of more borrowing.
“We will be going through an expensive transition with a lot of capital commitment. We need all hands on deck to go through it,” she said.
“It is a matter of time before utilisation will go up.”
Michael de Visser, head of shipping at NIBC Bank, said: “We see a lot of opportunities because there is a lot of activity in the market.”
But there are many lenders that want to deploy capital.
“We see a lot of transactions that we lose to the competition because of very, very aggressive conditions,” de Visser said.
“Those that haven’t learned from the past, they are quite aggressive in their conditions. Many times these are ‘tourist’ banks. They come in in the good market and leave in the bad market.”
Vikram Hiranandani, managing director at Scorpio Tankers, agreed that the competition among banks benefits shipowners.
“They are very keen and eager to continue supporting their key clients and prospects,” he said.
“As a shipowner, it is music to our ears to know that there is a lot of financing capital available.”
