LPG carriers are the vessels that move the fuel heating homes across Europe, the feedstock filling South Korea's petrochemical complexes, and the gas powering cooking stoves across South Asia. They are also, increasingly, ships that run on the same commodity they carry. The dual-fuel VLGC, burning LPG as both cargo and propellant, has become one of the more interesting engineering stories in commercial shipping over the past five years. For prospective MAT holders evaluating vessel assets on...

Two Structures, One Problem For most of the twentieth century, owning a commercial ship required institutional capital. A bank, a fund, or a family-owned shipping conglomerate. Not because ships were scarce, but because the financial structures that made ship ownership possible were built exclusively for large-ticket buyers. Securitization addressed part of this problem. It converted predictable cash flows, charter payments and freight receivables, into rated notes sold to institutional...

Key Takeaways OPEX represents 35-45% of ship operational costs on an annual basis, with crewing as the largest single category at 35-40% of OPEX CAPEX occurs in irregular intervals but can equal or exceed annual OPEX during drydocking years Cost spikes stem from multiple sources including bunker volatility, regulatory changes, insurance hardening, technical failures, and crew market conditions Charter type determines cost allocation between owners and charterers, significantly affecting each...