News / Hoegh gets help in switch to ammonia to power new car-carriers

Photo: Höegh Autoliners

Norway has stepped in to assist Höegh Autoliners in converting two ‘ammonia-ready’ car carrier vessels into ones that can actually use the fuel.

Enova, a technology fund controlled by the Norwegian state, is providing a NOK146m ($14m) ‘derisking’ investment for equipment to allow the ships to burn ammonia as fuel, including engines and associated fuel tanks.

The two vessels are part of a series of 12 pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs) under construction in China, each with a capacity of 9,100 ceu and LNG dual-fuel engines.

Höegh will be “at the forefront” of ammonia, “…and has ambitions to take measures to adapt to necessary changes and future requirements towards the low-emissions society,” said Astrid Lilliestråle, Enova’s director of technology and market development.

“The support from Enova, together with our innovative multi-fuel vessel design, significantly helps derisking the choice of bringing the first zero-carbon vessels to our industry,” said Höegh Autoliners CEO Andreas Enger.

“The race towards decarbonising the industry will take decades, not years. Nevertheless, no progress will be made without pioneering companies taking decisive steps to shape the future.”

With abundant oil and gas supplies, Norway, like other major oil-bearing countries, is hoping to keep pumping while exporting ‘blue’ variants of hydrogen and ammonia generated using carbon capture. In March last year, Equinor, the 70% state owned oil and gas firm, said it was targeting 2m bopd by 2030, and insisted in its 2022 annual report that “there will still be a need for oil and gas in the 2050 energy mix.”

Meanwhile Höegh Autoliners hit the headlines recently when Maersk sold its last 20m shares in the company, a 10.2% stake, for about NOK90 ($8.44) each.

Höegh’s LNG-to-ammonia strategy – with some biofuel added into the mix – diverges substantially from Maersk’s methanol-based one, although the Danish liner giant declined The Loadstar’s invitation to tender its rationale, at the time of the sale.

In what is bound to be a kick in the teeth, however, Höegh shares have not dropped below NOK100 since the beginning of the year, and have even reached highs of NOK129 in mid-February.