Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Genco Shipping and Trading Limited Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call and Presentation. Before we begin, please note there will be a slide presentation accompanying today's conference call. That presentation can be obtained from Genco's website at www.gencoshipping.com. To inform everyone, today's conference is being recorded and is now being webcast at the company's website, www.jenkoshipping.com. We will conduct a question-and-answer session after the opening remarks. Instructions will follow at that time. A replay of the conference will be accessible anytime during the next two weeks by dialing 888-203-1112 or 719-457-0800. and entering the passcode 6606629. At this time, I will turn the conference over to the company. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Before I begin our presentation, I note that in this conference call, we will be making certain forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements use words such as anticipate, budget, estimate, expect, project, intend, plan, believe, and other words in terms of similar meaning in connection with a discussion of potential future events, circumstances, or future operating or financial performance. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and observations. For a discussion of factors that could cause results to differ, please see the company's press release that was issued yesterday, the materials relating to this call posted on the company's website, and the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year-end of December 31, 2019, and the company's reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K subsequently filed with the SEC. This time, I would like to introduce John Robensmith, Chief Executive Officer of Genco Shipping and Trading Limited.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Genco's second quarter 2020 conference call. I will begin today's call by providing an update on Genco's response to COVID-19. We will then review our year-to-date highlights, discuss our financial results for the quarter, and the industry's current fundamentals before opening the call up for questions. For additional information, please refer to our earnings presentation posted on our website. Since the onset of the pandemic, Genco has continued to prioritize the health and safety of both our crew members and our onshore teams. As a result, we have undertaken a number of proactive measures, specifically centered around ensuring the continuity of our business and protection of our crew while maintaining effective and safe headquarter operations. Since transitioning to a remote work environment in March, our office operations have continued as usual, and we have not experienced any disruptions to date. In addition, we continue to provide customers with the high-level service and support that has become a hallmark of our operations. Our teams onshore in New York and Singapore continue to work from home while our team in Copenhagen has returned to the office. Regarding our crew members, our focus remains on taking proactive actions to safeguard these individuals. To this end, we have provided crew with the necessary PPE, limited access of shore personnel boarding vessels, and have prominently posted COVID-19 safety instructions onboard vessels to supplement ongoing safety training. Over the last several months, the primary challenge of the industry has been executing crew rotations. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, government-imposed port restrictions, difficulty arranging travel and safeguarding the health of the on- and off-signing crew have all posted unique challenges that have prevented many ship owners from being able to undertake crew rotations in a safe and effective manner. As crew members worldwide have in many cases exceeded the duration of their contracts, there is an increased urgency to work towards completing more crew rotations in the coming months. We have taken proactive measures by implementing industry-leading protocols, which have resulted in successfully completing crew rotations involving approximately 70% of our fleet in recent months. Completing these has proven extremely difficult. This is due to COVID-19-related restrictions worldwide and a resurgence of restrictions in certain ports around the world, including Singapore and and Hong Kong that had been more accommodating recently. We continue to work diligently to repatriate more of the dedicated mariners on board our vessels. Furthermore, the global outbreak of COVID-19 resulted in meaningful slowdown in global economic activity levels through much of the first half of the year, leading to a decline in demand for certain raw materials that our vessels transport. Commencing in June, as countries began to ease restrictions, we have seen increased activity levels, together with augmented demand for commodities that we carry, translating into higher freight rates over the last two months. Despite recent market improvements, we continue to focus on preserving the strength of our balance sheet and our sizable liquidity position. As such, we closed on a $25 million evolving credit facility to further supplement our already substantial cash balance. Our strong balance sheet, along with an improving dry bulk market, has enabled Genco to declare our fourth consecutive quarterly dividend, highlighting our efforts to return capital to shareholders. This brings the total dividends declared to 71.5 cents per share since the third quarter of 2019. Going forward, effectively deploying our capital will remain a top priority and something that we will continuously evaluate as the dry bulk market and macro events further evolve. Looking ahead to the third quarter, freight rates have experienced a meaningful uplift as highlighted in our forward pictures today, which are nearly 75% higher than our second quarter time chart or equivalent rates. Our barbell approach to fleet composition consisting of owning both major and minor bulk vessels has once been proven to be a significant component of our business model as capeside freight rates demonstrated their upsides potential, crossing the $30,000 per day threshold at the end of June, while minor bulk earnings have risen steadily to year-to-date highs. Going forward, we believe the outlook is favorable for the dry bulk market for the balance of the year and into 2021, as the order book as a percentage of the fleet is at an all-time low, limiting net fleet growth while global economic activity levels continue to recover, coinciding with a seasonal uplift in cargo volumes. With our leading and sizable dry bulk platform, we believe we're in a position of strength to benefit from these positive fundamentals during a time in which we have further solidified our balance sheet and continue to return capital to shareholders. I will now turn the call over to Apostolos Sifolios, our Chief Financial Officer.