The dry cargo shipping company had a net profit of 28.5 million dollars in the first quarter. Of this, 20.5 million dollars was profit from the sale of one of the ships, the Newcastlemax carrier “Bulk Shanghai”.
“Bulk Seoul” has also been sold, but was only delivered to the new owner at the beginning of April. Here, the gain is estimated to be roughly the same and recognized as income in the second quarter.
The average time charter earnings per ship per day ended at approximately 30,000 dollars in the first three-month period of the year.
Have refinanced
The rate of necessity to operate the remaining six ships in the fleet in cash balance is estimated at 11,800 dollars per ship per day after refinancing with a new five-year interest-free bank facility. According to chairman Magnus Halvorsen, this means that the company needs a capesize market of just under 7,000 dollars a day to be in a position to pay dividends.
For April, a dividend of 0.14 dollars per share is paid. share after shareholders previously received $1.99 for the months January to March. It included $1.68 per share in an extraordinary payment following the sale of the two ships.
During the quarter, 2020 Bulkers carried out the docking of two ships that will be five years old in August and September.
– We chose to do this a few months earlier to avoid having the ships “off-hire” in the third quarter, which is normally high season, says the chairman.
Strong market
Halvorsen describes the market so far in 2024 as very strong, driven by a 9 percent growth in tonne-mile demand for capesize, which is mainly due to increased export volumes of iron ore out of Brazil and still good volumes of bauxite from West Africa.
– We have positioned ourselves for a strong market and now have all our ships exposed to the spot market. It has strengthened significantly recently and a modern Newcastlemax with a scrubber now earns around 40,000 dollars, he says.
According to the 2020 Bulkers’ investor presentation, the FFA (Forward Freight Agreement) curve for the rest of 2024 indicates a monthly dividend capacity of approximately NOK 2.5 for the rest of the year.
| (Million dollars) | 1.qv./24 | 1.qv./23 |
| Operating income | 40.5 | 12.6 |
| Operating profit | 31.7 | 3.5 |
| Result before taxes | 28.7 | 0.8 |
| Result | 28.5 | 0.8 |
WATCH LIVE: Webcast from the quarterly presentation at 3 p.m
