Norwegian Klaveness Combination Carriers ASA (KCC)), just now announces that a 100% owned subsidiary today concluded the shipbuilding contract for the construction of three third generation CABU vessels with Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. and Jiangsu Yangzi Xinfu Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. This announcement of this shipbuilding contract is in line with the Letter of Intent (“LOI”) announced 23 May 2023 and already mentioned here in Shipping Telegraph.
The three newbuild vessels are estimated to be delivered in Q1-Q3 in 2026 and the equity portion of the investment is fully funded, partly through a private placement of NOK 550 million in May 2023.
These newbuilds will replace the existing CABU vessels built 2001-2002 and compared to the old vessels these newbuild vessels are estimated to have 25-30% higher earnings capacity and around 35% lower CO2 emissions due to their increased cargo carrying capacity and substantially lower fuel consumption, the company states.
The three newbuilds will be key for KCC to position the company for the expected growing caustic soda import volumes to Australia, and for meeting its ambitious targets of an approximately 45% reduction in its carbon intensity within 2030 relative to its actual 2018 performance, the company said today.
