Wan Hai Lines has signed a TWD $3bn ($95.5m) sustainability-linked shipping loan with Standard Chartered bank.
The Taipei-listed carrier claims the 10-year agreement is the first green finance deal signed by a Taiwanese container shipping company.
The company has already committed to a 50% reduction in carbon intensity of its fleet by 2030, compared with the base year of 2008.
It will seek to build on that with the eco-loan, which will link with Wan Hai’s fleet carbon indicators.
Assessments of the carrier’s performance will be carried out by Sustainalytics, an independent provider of eco-research and ratings.
Wan Hai is seeking to improve its green credentials through fleet renewal and investments in energy-efficient engines and energy-saving equipment.
It has been selected as a constituent stock of the Taiwan Sustainability Index for six consecutive years.
The deal is not the first sustainability-linked loan involving a Taiwanese shipping company.
U-Ming Marine Transport secured a $45m sustainability-linked loan in April 2021 to finance an LNG dual-fuel 190,000-dwt bulker ordered on the back of a 10-year charter by Anglo American.
The first sustainability loan in the containership leasing sector was to Seaspan Corp in October 2020.
The subsidiary of New York-listed Atlas Corp arranged a sustainability-linked loan worth $200m, maturing over six years with French lenders Societe Generale and BNP Paribas.
Several liner operators have followed, including Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd, which secured a $889m green financing package in February 2021 for newbuildings.
