Norway’s Thor Dahl Management is looking to a Clarksons Project Finance private placement to firm up an order for hydrogen-powered shortsea vessels from India’s Cochin Shipyard.
The man behind the order is new shipowner Henning Torp, a former Thorvald Klaveness executive who has led Thor Dahl for seven years and became its principal in January in a management buyout.
Thor Dahl was previously controlled by two investors from well-known Norwegian shipowning families, Tom Bergesen and Johan Odvar Odfjell.
Torp told TradeWinds he expects to complete the Clarksons equity raise and firm up the order before the end of April.
He described zero-emissions shortsea shipping as a “new leg” for Thor Dahl, which currently owns two small containerships.
The first 5,000-dwt Norwegian-designed dual-fuel bulker is at the letter of intent stage, with options for two more. Delivery of the first ship would be expected in the second quarter of 2025.
The design allows for a range of 1,000 nautical miles (1,850 km) between bunkerings when sailing under zero-emission hydrogen propulsion. Backup diesel and electric systems would allow the ship to trade if hydrogen bunkering is unavailable.
The first ship’s total delivered cost will be €27.7m ($30.45m). Subsequent optional ships would be funded separately.
Norwegian state environmental finance agency Enova has contributed a NOK 97m ($9.26m) of support to the project in the form of a grant to new subsidiary Thor Dahl Bulk.
The Clarksons raise would add a further €12m.
The Thor Dahl project originally took the form of an entry in the DNV-sponsored Green Shipping Programme competition, which Egil Ulvan Rederi won with the sponsorship of charterers HeidelbergCement and Felleskjopet Agri, and also with a grant from Enova.
The goal of that project was to promote renewal in a market in which low margins have led to a severely overaged fleet, with little motivation for tonnage renewal.
The authors of the Clarksons prospectus reckon that 45% of the comparable shortsea dry bulk fleet is 25 years old or more and 25% is at least 35 years old. But the orderbook amounts to only about 3% of the fleet on the water.
Rates in the segment are improving, with time charter equivalent rates up from €4,000 per day to between €8,000 and €15,000 per day.
The Thor Dahl ships at Cochin would require rates of €6,250 per day to break even.
Torp and Thor Dahl have not done business with Cochin before, but Torp told TradeWinds the Indian yard has experience with advanced technology in offshore shipbuilding and also with Norway’s Asko Maritime semi-autonomous ship project.
According to a Clarksons prospectus, Thor Dahl and partners plan to contribute 16% of the equity in the private placement.
Before coming home to Norway in 2016 and taking on the chief executive role with Thor Dahl, Torp was head of the Thorvald Klaveness branch in Shanghai, with exposure to dry bulk trading and Klaveness’ former container ship fleet.
Torp did not disclose the specific terms of the management buyout agreement that made him owner of Thor Dahl Management in January, but he said the previous shareholders remain equity investors in individual vessels in the company’s existing and planned fleet.
