Spliethoff Secures Loan for 22-Ship Scrubber Retrofit

Dutch ship management company Spliethoff has secured an EUR 110.4 million loan for the installation of scrubbers and ballast water management systems on 42 vessels.

The loan is financed by Dutch financial services company ING and the European Investment Bank as part of their EUR 300 million Green Shipping partnership signed in 2018.

The loan will allow Spliethoff to have 17 vessels retrofitted with both exhaust gas cleaning systems and ballast water management systems, 5 vessels retrofitted with exhaust gas cleaning systems and 20 vessels equipped with ballast water management systems.

The retrofitted vessels will operate with significantly reduced emissions of sulphur oxide (SOx) and particulate matter (PM) pollutants and prevent the sea borne transfer of invasive species and diseases in ballast water.

“We have been installing scrubbers on our fleet since 2013 and are very happy with the results so far. Scrubbers are a very environmentally friendly solution to comply with the 2020 regulations,” Michel Fransen, CFO of the Spliethoff Group said.

“LNG or hydrogen may have the potential to become even better alternatives in the future, but only in the longer term. The investment in scrubbers also safeguards the interest of our shareholders against uncertainties in fuel availability and pricing.”

“Our joint program with ING shows that greening the transport sector makes business sense, other than just being important for the environment,” EIB vice-president Vazil Hudak stated.

“The support from the European Commission helps to make the maritime transport sector easier to finance for the Bank, a good example of cross-European teamwork.”

Spliethoff operates a fleet of about 50 Dutch-flagged, multipurpose vessels, ranging from 12,000 to 23,000 DWT. The Spliethoff Group had 24 vessels outfitted with scrubbers as of July 2018.