South Korea creates state-backed ship financing company

In the wake of the collapse of Hanjin Shipping and the subsequent crisis beginning to sink South Korea’s shipbuilding industry – new vessel orders in the first nine months of the year were down some 87% year-on-year – the South Korean government has decided to set up a ship finance firm with an initial capitalisation of $870m to stave off further bankruptcies. One silver lining for the industry is that recent IMO rulings on sulphur emissions is expected to lead to a surge in demand for LNG-fuelled vessels, as well as LNG bunker ships for ports.