Greek ship financing consulting company Petrofin Research indicate that global ship financing gap would be as high as $21.3bn to $34bn in the next three years.

According to Petrofin Research, loans for newbuildings are estimated to be about $76bn to $89bn while credit for secondhand and debt financing total $50bn in the next three year. That is to say, the combined loan demand would come up to as much as $126.3bn to $139bn. However, banks loans’ gap to the demand would reach up to $34bn, Petrolin says.

Besides, Denmark bulker shipowner Norden A/S point out that global shipping loan defaults are likely to surge in the next 12 months. Norden says many shipowners fail in asset-liability and bad loans management and thus lose their financing support from European banks. Many shipowners are now in renegotiation with banks for overdue and problem loans.

According to Norden, ship financing market is to witness loan defaults surge in the following 12 months, which is endurance racing for shipowners and some of them may fail to reach the terminal.