Nordic American Tankers (nyse: Nat) –report as Per September 30, 2019. Tanker Upswing Continues.
Hamilton, Bermuda, November 25, 2019
Highlights: We currently have the strongest tanker market that we have seen in decades. In our fleet of 23 suezmaxes, 21 are in the short term market, providing immediate benefit for nat. The fourth quarter is building a strong momentum for 2020. We expect this to continue. Political frictions often lead to a stronger tanker market.
As of the date of this report, about 70% of the spot trading days of our fleet for 4Q19 have been booked at an average TCE of $34,000/day. Spot rates are continuing its upward momentum. The Time Charter equivalent (TCE) for our ships for the third quarter came in at $15,900/day, which was better than both the second quarter this year at $14,800/day and the third quarter last year that saw $12,000/day.
Important structural changes stimulating demand for our suezmax tankers are taking place. New rules by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) coming into force on January 1, 2020 is one change. Oil exports from USA is another important factor. We see increased crude oil volumes and longer sailing distances, creating more transportation work for our vessels.
Investors and lenders are reluctant to inject capital into private companies undertaking speculative ordering of ships –which is not part of a fleet renewal. This limits supply of ships, which is good for tanker owners and increases the attractiveness of NAT as a publicly listed company.
Year-on-year the trend has continued with better earnings in 2019 versus 2018, confirming that the tide for the tanker market has definitely turned.
With this report we announce our 89th consecutive quarterly dividend distribution. the dividend this time is a reflection of third quarter not being materially different from the second quarter. 2 cent per share dividend will be payable on December 18, 2019, to shareholders of record December 5, 2019.
A stronger tanker market going forward will form the basis for increased dividend. NAT is a dividend company.
The quality of the NAT fleet is first rate, reflected in the Vetting record of our ships. Vetting is the assessment of oil companies to establish the technical and operational quality of our fleet.
2019 has so far been a busy period for NAT: A sales program of 10 NAT suezmaxes ended in early 2019, A Loan of $306 million was raised via a bank in Dallas, Texas, in order to repay all debt to three Scandinavian lenders, a $40 million ATM (at the market offering) was established in the spring of 2019 – only About $1.3 million of this ATM has been used. Nordic American Offshore has been re-arranged and is now operating as a NYSE listed company under the name of Hermitage offshore services. The Scorpio group is the main shareholder.
Detailed financial information for this and other periods is included later in the full report – see link below.
For full report, please cllick the following link: NAT 3Q2019 reportCAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts.The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words “believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “estimate,” “forecast,” “project,” “plan,” “potential,” “will,” “may,” “should,” “expect,” “pending” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management’s examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.Important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand in the tanker market, as a result of changes in OPEC’s petroleum production levels and worldwide oil consumption and storage, changes in our operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, the market for our vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, vessels breakdowns and instances of off-hires and other important factors described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the prospectus and related prospectus supplement, our Annual Report on Form 20-F, and our reports on Form 6-K.AttachmentNAT 3Q2019 report