German lender KfW IPEX-Bank is providing more cash for the expansion of Royal Arctic Line's (RAL) fleet.

The bank said it will loan EUR 16.43m ($18.65m) towards the Greenland company's two new feederships due from the Nodosa yard in Spain in 2020 and 2021.

The order has a high proportion of German components, it said.

KfW is working with the German Maritime Export Initiative (GeMaX).

The financing is covered by insurance from Spanish state export credit insurer CESCE and uses fixed-rate funding offered by the Spanish CIRR (commercial interest reference rate) scheme.

The vessels are designed for year-round operation to supply the inhabitants of remote settlements along the Greenland coast that are not connected to each other by land.

The 36-metre vessels are specially equipped with on-board cranes, highest ice class and refrigerated container connections for transporting deep-frozen fish for export.

Andreas Ufer a member of the management board of KfW IPEX-Bank, said: "We are delighted to be able to continue reliably to finance and secure the fleet renewal for Royal Arctic Line, our valued customer for many years.

"We thereby not only contribute to supplying the Greenland population, but also to modernising the maritime infrastructure of the North Sea".

Last year, KfW provided EUR 30m for two RAL feederships on order at Zamakona in Spain.