German lender KfW IPEX-Bank is providing EUR 30 million (USD 34 million) to finance two new feeder container vessels for Greenland’s Royal Arctic Line.
The financing is backed by cover from the Spanish export credit insurer CESCE and includes funds from the Spanish CIRR (Commercial Interest Reference Rate).
Scheduled for delivery in 2020, the new vessels were earlier ordered from Zamakona Shipyard in Spain. Featuring around 30% of components supplied from Germany, the units will replace older vessels in RAL’s fleet.
The 67m-long-vessels will have one of the highest ice classes, on-board cranes and a dynamic positioning system (DP) as well as connections for refrigerated containers to transport deep-frozen fish for exporting.
KfW IPEX-Bank’s most recent financing for Royal Arctic Line was for a 2,150 TEU container vessel that is envisaged to improve liner traffic between Denmark and Greenland from 2019, together with two other, identically constructed newbuilds of the Icelandic shipping company Eimskip.