Chilean shipping company CSAV has secured financing for the purchase of seven ships from Samsung Heavy Industries.

A group of export credit agencies (ECAs) and commercial banks contributed a total of US$347mn to the export, namely Banco Santander (Chile), Deutsche Bank, Kexim, Korea Exchange Bank and Korea Development Bank.

Kexim agreed its portion of the loan in August and will pick up US$174mn of the tab. It also obtained a K-sure guarantee for the finance.

The seven 9300 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container vessels are the latest in a long line of Korean ships exported with the help of its national development banks and ECAs. Samsung Heavy Industries won the tender to provide the ships on the back of support pledged from the agencies and banks.

A Kexim official, who remains unnamed, says: “In order to fill the void left by European banks, it has become important to collaborate with commercial banks at home and abroad to amass the foreign currency funds needed to finance large-scale projects. Kexim will strengthen its ties with commercial banks by continuing to arrange deals that take advantage of its experience in ship financing, while passing down related know-how to the participating banks.”