China’s biggest ship lease finance company says it has an appetite to fund projects from shipowners for vessels driven by lower carbon emission fuels.
The chairman of Bank of Communications Financial Leasing said “green” lower emissions ships now comprise about 50% of its $18bn portfolio, and it has an appetite for more such newbuildings.
Xu Bin told the Marine Money Greek Ship Finance Forum in Athens that the institution was alert to the rapid shift towards the need for new ships to be fuelled by ammonia, methanol and electricity.
“Nowadays the low-carbon sustainable development towards marine environmental protection, green shipping and energy reduction are the trending topics across the industry,” he said.
“Our company pays close attention to the trends of the development of green shipping and proactively works with shipowners to explore potential projects featuring these concepts, including financing for battery-powered vessels, ammonia-powered vessels and methanol-powered vessels.”
Xu added: “In 2022, our green shipping-related draw-down reached over 50% of our total amount. And that number is expected to move even higher.”
His speech was delivered in Chinese and translated into English. It was delivered to an auditorium packed with executives from the local shipping community, including many senior figures from both listed and private shipowners.
Greek owners are accelerating their investment in lower-carbon dual-fuel engines when ordering ships after having been slow to take up at first.
BoCom Leasing is now the world’s third-largest ship financier, with a fleet of 415 ships.
The conference marked the 25th anniversary of Marine Money’s first Greek ship finance event, set up by its chairman, Jim Lawrence.
Xu committed his group to exercising restraint in lending.
“In the last three years, due to the stretching of the global supply chain, freight rates soared, and many shipping companies achieved sizeable profits along with an increasing demand for newbuildings,” he said.
“The orderbook and the valuation of the vessels reached a new record level.
“In the current booming market, we will continue to be calm with self-restraint, giving you our competence deepening research into long-term trends and protect the long-awaited recovery.”
Xu added that the global economy and financial markets are undergoing profound changes.
“BoCom Leasing would like to share its resources to all parties. All companies will have to share resources to build a healthy shipping and financial ecosystem,” he said.
“After 15 years of development, BoCom Leasing has become a major player in the shipping finance industry. The company has always adhered to the strategy of providing professional and international service to the market participants, constantly supporting capacity building.”
