ING and the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a EUR 110m loan agreement on February 28, to finance Spliethoff for the retrofitting of 42 vessels of its fleet with scrubbers and ballast water management systems. This will enable Spliethoff to comply with IMO and EU regulations on emissions.
The loan is part of the ING and EIB €300m Green Shipping partnership signed in 2018, to support green and sustainable projects in the maritime transport sector with beneficial financial terms.
The EIB will provide €49.5 million to a €110.4m ING Bank NV arranged facility to finance the installation of scrubbers and ballast water management systems on 42 vessels for Spliethoff.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
Specifically 17 vessels will now incorporate both scrubbers and ballast water management systems, 5 ships will have scrubbers and 20 vessels will have ballast water management systems.
Michel Fransen, CFO of the Spliethoff Group, stated:
Scrubbers are a very environmentally friendly solution to comply with the 2020 regulations. LNG or hydrogen may have the potential to become even better alternatives in the future, but only in the longer term
Commenting on the finance, EIB Vice-President Vazil Hudak, noted that this agreement shows that greening the transport sector makes business sense, and is not just important for the environment. What is more, the help from the European Commission makes the maritime transport sector more easy to finance for the Bank, which is a good example of cross-European teamwork.
