Dorian LPG Ltd.

Welcome to the Dorian LPG third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Additionally, a live audio webcast of today's conference call is available on Dorian LPG's website, which is www.dorianlpg.com. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ted Young, Chief Financial Officer. Thank you, Mr. Young. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Daryl. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining us for our third quarter 2023 results conference call. With me today are John Hajbateras, Chairman, President, and CEO of Dorian LPG Limited, and Tim Hanson, Chief Commercial Officer. As a reminder, this conference call webcast and a replay of this call will be available through February 8, 2023. Many of our remarks today contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations. These statements may often be identified with words such as expect, anticipate, believe, or similar indications of future expectations. Although we believe that such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that any forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors as well as general economic conditions. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions or estimates prove to be incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those we expressed today. Additionally, let me refer you to our unaudited results for the period ended December 31, 2022 that were filed this morning on Form 10-Q. In addition, please refer to our filings on Form 10-K where you'll find risk factors that cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements. Finally, you may find it useful to refer to the investor highlight slides posted this morning on our website. With that, I'll turn over the call to John Adjabateris.

Thank you, Ted. Good morning, and thank you for joining Ted, Tim, and me to discuss our third quarter financial year 2023 results. John LaCouris isn't with us this morning because he's having knee surgery. John LaCouris has contributed a slide you will find in the deck. with much interesting information which i think you will um may want to note and take and and we will follow with we will have some remarks read for by from him at the end of our presentation and and feel for any questions you may have after me tim will present and then um sorry after me ted will present and then uh tim Including the $1 irregular dividend announced today, we will have returned over $500 million to shareholders since our IPO. Our board has focused on returns to shareholders while retaining commercial flexibility and ensuring a strong balance sheet. We are still investing in our business, as evidenced by the four vessels joining our fleet in this calendar year, and our commitment to the installation of three additional scrubbers. For the quarter, our EBITDA was 76.2 million and net income was 51.3 million. The net income is the second highest in our corporate history. Our net debt to capitalization was about 34%. Ted will give you details and, of course, answer any questions you may have on our quarter's financial results. Global LPG market fundamentals strengthened in 2022. with increased volumes from both major export basins and more frequent cargo routes to Europe. Global exports increased 4% this past quarter and are up 6% for the year with support primarily from North America. Total exports for 2022 increased to 117.5 million from 110.9 million tons in 2021. U.S. exports increased 6% or 700,000 metric tons from the third calendar quarter, supported by favorable arbitrage economics which persist today. 2022 U.S. volumes were up 3%, an increase of 1.3 million tons from 2021. Middle East export volume showed continued growth despite maintenance in some terminals in the beginning of December. Annual volumes out of the region are up 18%, increasing by 6.4 million tons from 35.9 million tons in 2021 to 42.3 in 2022, driven by reversals to OPEC plus production cuts. Freight rates were this past quarter underpinned by a strong arbitrage and increased waiting time in Panama. Rates fell in early December as canal weighting eased, and some terminals in the Middle East underwent maintenance, and demand in Asia was subdued. We're now seeing a rapid reversal and an increase in freight rates in both basins. On the shore side, during its operation, we continue to work hard to ensure the well-being of our crew, especially our Ukrainian and Russian seafarers and their families. On the performance side, we have been very focused on our strategy to comply with the 2023 IMO emission regulations, the EXI, and the CII. We have built out dashboards and forecasting tools that assist our commercial team in optimizing our utilization and achieve a solid CII score for each vessel in the pool. Our team has spent the past two years preparing for these regulations and see this year as a turning point in the journey to decarbonize shipping. We will continue our research efforts and installations of various energy saving devices and premium paints to reduce consumption costs and carbon footprint. Looking ahead at the market estimates for US exports point to further growth in 23 and 24 and it's January short term outlook report. The EIA said it now estimates a US LPG exports will grow 15.9% in 2023 year over year. This is up from their October estimate of 11.3 in 2023. The U.S. is now producing well over 100 million tons of LPG a year, with 2022 numbers coming in at about 106 million tons. I'll hand you over to Ted now for his remarks.