Financial institutions in Asia are focusing their strategies on Greek shipowners covering the gap of the European banks that are navigating a way out of the shipping sector.
Petrofin Research’s latest annual survey, which focuses on bank financing to Greek-owned shipping, reveals that a total of 50 banks granted loans to domestic shipowners in 2022 compared to 56 in 2021.
The European banks’ share in the financing of the Greek shipping sector fell to 72.89%, from 74.33% in 2021 and 81.04% in 2016.
“The shift from European banks to lenders mainly in the Far East continued, as from the second half of 2022 onwards the lending disposition of Chinese and Japanese financial institutions increased,” according to Petrofin’s survey.
Far East financing to Greek-owned shipping “jumped” to 8.58 billion dollars in 2022, from 7.92 billion dollars in 2021. Accordingly, European financing decreased to 37.83 billion dollars from 39 billion dollars. Overall, on global terms, only banks in the Far East recorded significant growth.
“Bank lenders in the Far East continue to aggressively target Greek shipowners and provide improved terms,” the survey said.
