LNG

Höegh LNG Partners, the company with five ships and listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has notified the NYSE of the anticipated closing date of around September 23 when its merger with Höegh LNG Holdings is finalised and its shares delisted.

Dynagas LNG Partners, the owner of six LNG carriers and mostly involved in Russian cargo liftings, has confirmed in its latest earnings report that three of its carrier charters are now controlled by the German government because they were under contract to Russian natural gas company Gazprom.

Seaspan Corp. a subsidiary of New York Stock Exchange-listed Atlas Corp. and with a fleet of 127 containerships, has entered into a long-term charter deal worth $1.5 billion with Israel’s ZIM Integrated Shipping for 10 LNG-powered, dual-fuel newbuilds.

Seaspan said the 10 vessels of 7,000 twenty-foot unit (TEU) capacity are expected to be delivered from the fourth quarter of 2023 and through 2024.

Seaspan said the construction of the LNG-capable containerships are being assigned to shipyards and will be financed from existing liquidity, cash flow from operations and additional borrowings.

The company, which provides many of the world’s shipping lines with alternatives to vessel ownership by offering long-term leases on ships, said the 10 modern 7,000 TEU dual-fuel, LNG-capable containerships will have an aggregate purchase price of around $1.05Bln and 12-year charters totalling about $1.8Bln of gross contracted cash flow.

This is the second major Seaspan-ZIM charter deal after the February 2021 agreement for 10 LNG-fuelled containerships of 15,000 TEU capacity to serve across ZIM's various global niche trading routes.

Seaspan, which has main offices in Hong Kong and Vancouver in Canada, as well as a crewing office in Mumbai in India, said the deal with Haifa-based ZIM Shipping was a “forward-thinking” project.

“We see these modern 7,000 TEUs to be the natural successor to the ageing global pool of conventional vessels in the 4,000 to 9,000 TEU range, where relatively little fleet renewal has taken place,” said Bing Chen, Chairman, President and Chief Executive of Seaspan.

“We are experiencing strong customer interest for this vessel size,” he added.

Eli Glickman, ZIM’s President and CEO said he was delighted with the deal.

Clarksons Platou Securities, the investment banking arm of the London-based Clarksons Group, acted as financial and professional advisor to ZIM in connection with this transaction.

“We are very pleased to once again partner with Seaspan as we strategically enhance our operating fleet to further facilitate our long-term strategy,” explained Glickman.

“With this second long-term chartering agreement, we are securing access to our core fleet, while maintaining operational agility with respect to the total number of vessels we operate. We are investing in state-of-the-art ‘green’ vessels that use the cleanest technology currently available,” stated the ZIM CEO.

Graham Talbot, Chief Financial Officer of Seaspan, said the company continued to execute its growth plan in a prudent manner.

“In line with all of our vessel investments, we have de-risked the $1.05Bln capital expenditure associated with the dual-fuel LNG containerships by signing long-term charters with a leading global line,” he added.

“We remain diligent on our path toward an investment grade credit rating, and operational scale will play an important role in this pursuit,” explained Talbot.

Since December 2020, and including the latest ZIM deal, Seaspan has announced 55 newbuild vessel orders. 

Oct 7 (LNG) – One of the world’s main LNG shipping-focused conferences, Capital Link’s Annual New York Maritime Forum, is taking place on a virtual basis over two days on October 14-15. The conference will feature senior executives from 50 leading maritime companies, financiers and industry participants. The event is organized in partnership with DNB ASA, Norway’s largest bank and in cooperation with Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. Registration for the event is complimentary.

   “The digital format of the event this year transforms NYMF into a truly global event,” said the organizers. The Forum has been held in New York City for the past 11 years and covers liquefied petroleum gas and LNG issues in the international shipping markets. Speakers next week include: Tony Lauritzen, Chief Executive of LNG fleet owner Dynagas LNG Partners, Oyestein Kalleklev, CEO of Flex LNG and Mark Kremin, President and CEO of Teekay LNG Partners.

TechnipFMC, Franco-US energy and LNG engineering company, said its split into two separate listed companies was on track for the first half of 2020 as it posted a 6 percent increase in third-quarter revenues to $3.33 billion as new large-scale LNG contracts were awarded.