Norway’s roro Höegh Autoliners revealed yesterday that it has sold a Singapore flagged-ship for a juicy price. The company which operates around 40 roro vessels has now struck a deal with an unnamed buyer for the 2006-built Höegh Kobe.
The deal was reached through its subsidiary Höegh Autoliners Shipping Pte. Ltd. for the sale of the owned vessel Höegh Kobe (IMO 9330616) for a price of USD 59m.
The 6,000 ceu Höegh Kobe was built at DSME shipyard in 2006 and she is sailing under the Singapore flag.
The company says the vessel is debt-free and will be delivered to the new owner by July 2024.
Andreas Enger, chief executive of Höegh Autoliners, said: “As the date of the delivery of the first newbuilding gets closer, the sale of Höegh Kobe presents another good opportunity to optimize the fleet.”
Last month Shipping Telegraph reported that the company has secured significant Enova funding for two ammonia-powered vessels.
The company has received an injection of almost $14m (NOK 146m) to use the alternative and sustainable fuel for two of its vessels. Höegh has applied for Enova funding for two of their 12 confirmed vessels to reduce the additional cost of this solution compared to a vessel that would be “ammonia ready”.
Now the owner claims significant progress in its ambition to make the Aurora Class the world’s first PCTC vessel to run on ammonia.
Höegh Autoliners has a total of 12 aurora-class vessels on order. The vessels transport rolling cargo such as cars, agricultural machinery, and mining equipment, as well as general solo cargo needing to be shipped.
All 12 vessels are designed with engines that run on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and low-sulfur oil, and with an ammonia-ready certification from DNV.
Each of Höegh Autoliners’ two planned ammonia vessels has been granted almost $7m (NOK 73m), with the total coming to almost $14m (NOK 146m).
Source: Höegh Autoliners
