Page 19: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Jul/Aug 2023)

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RENEWABLE ENERGY FLOATING WIND

We anticipate such vessels to cost signifcantly more equity vehicles suffered heavy losses from OSV investments. than existing large anchor handler designs, with reported Finance is still available from new market entrants and alter- estimates in the range of $175-200 million. Such invest- native capital providers. However, the appetite for fnancing ment requires high day rates and long-term charter com- new vessels comes with many restrictions.

mitments, which are generally not available today. One thing is certain: shipbuilders will need answers

And then there are questions about economics as devel- (and commitments) sooner rather than later if the foat- opers face increasing pressure to keep rising project costs at ing wind industry hopes to minimize the severity of pro- bay. Many of the builders capable of producing high-spec jected vessel shortages.

anchor handlers—including yards in China, Norway and

Singapore—and their fnancial partners continue to deal with the damage of low utilization and newbuilding activ- ity in the OSV segment post 2014.

Many owners experienced fnancial diffculties and were

Intelatus Global Partners has recently published a foating wind installation vessel forecast report, unable to pay down debts accumulated during newbuild ex- available here: https://intelatus.com/Business/ pansion programs initiated between 2008 and 2013, while

FloatingWindInstallationVessels. For more information many of the traditional shipping banks that funded the new- or to inquire about the report, contact Philip Lewis at building boom took signifcant impairments, which have left [email protected].

them cautious about lending to OSV projects. Many private july/august 2023 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 19