New York-listed Navigator Holdings has secured a $133.7m loan to finance two liquefied ethylene gas carriers under construction in China.

The handysize LPG carrier specialist said subsidiaries Navigator Parsec and Navigator Pleione signed the facility agreement with ABN AMRO Bank, Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank and Nordea Bank Abp.

The loan will fund up to 65% of pre-delivery and delivery instalments payable to Jiangnan Shipyard and trading arm China Shipbuilding Trading Company under contracts signed in November 2024. The balance will be covered by Navigator’s existing cash resources.

The two 48,500 cu m vessels are scheduled for delivery in November 2027 and January 2028. The facility carries a five-year tenor after delivery, with interest set at SOFR plus 1.50%, and is secured by, among other things, mortgages over the ships.

Navigator exercised options for the pair at Jiangnan in November 2024 at around $102.9m per ship. The vessels will match the specification of two earlier newbuilds announced in August that year. Designed to carry ethylene and ethane as well as LPG and clean ammonia, the ships will feature ethane dual-fuel engines and be ammonia fuel-ready. They will also be capable of transiting both the original and expanded Panama Canal locks.

Chief of finance Gary Chapman said the deal, secured on competitive terms from a supportive bank group, marks another step forward in the company’s fleet renewal programme. Navigator’s fleet currently includes 55 semi- or fully refrigerated liquefied gas carriers, of which 24 are ethylene and ethane capable.