Navigator Gas Secures Financing For Two Ammonia-Capable Carriers
A joint venture between a listed gas carrier operator and a Norwegian owner has secured a loan of 121.8 million dollars to finance two ammonia-capable gas carriers under construction in China, in one of the larger single financings so far for tonnage designed around the fuel. The two vessels are of 51,000 cubic metres and are being built at a Chinese yard for delivery through 2028.
The design is unusual in carrying ammonia in both roles at once. The ships will transport liquefied ammonia as cargo and burn it as propulsion fuel, and will also be capable of loading liquefied petroleum gas. That combination is the most coherent application of ammonia propulsion currently available, because a vessel that already carries the substance in its tanks does not face the bunkering problem that has held back every other segment: the fuel is aboard by definition and the crew are already trained and certified to handle it.
The facility covers up to seventy percent of construction costs and was provided by three banks, one Dutch, one French and one Singaporean. Lender participation on that scale matters more than the headline figure, because financing has been the practical constraint on alternative-fuel newbuildings rather than yard capacity or class approval. Banks have been reluctant to lend against vessels whose fuel supply chain does not yet exist and whose residual value in fifteen years depends on regulatory decisions not yet taken.
The wider orderbook remains modest. Classification records list forty-two ammonia-capable vessels on order towards 2030, of which nineteen are gas carriers, which is a small figure against a world fleet measured in tens of thousands. The concentration in gas carriers underlines the point about bunkering: nearly half of the ammonia-capable orderbook is in the one segment where the fuel is already the cargo, and the balance is spread thinly across everything else.
Practical experience is beginning to accumulate. A Belgian owner has taken delivery of two of four midsize gas carriers ordered in South Korea, with the remaining pair due next year, and reports that the ability to carry ammonia as cargo has meant that insurance terms and the shortage of bunkering infrastructure have not obstructed the vessel's deployment. That is a useful data point, and also a narrow one. It says the problem is soluble where the cargo and the fuel coincide. It says nothing yet about whether a container ship or a bulk carrier can be operated on ammonia in a trade where no terminal along the route can supply it.
