Safe Bulkers, Inc.

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Safe Brokers Conference call on the second quarter 2024 financial results. We have with us Mr. Paulus Hajiono, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Lucas Bampari, President, and Mr. Konstantinos Adamopoulos, Chief Financial Officer of the company. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session, at which time, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. Following this conference call, if you need any further information on the conference call or on the presentation, please contact Capital Link at 212-661-7566. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today. The archived webcast of this conference call will soon be made available on the Safe Bulkers website, www.safebulkers.com. Many of the remarks today contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Actual results may differ materially from the results projected from those forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that can cause the actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the second quarter 2024 earnings release, which is available on the Safe Bookers website, again, www.safebookers.com. I would now like to turn the conference call to one of your speakers today, the chairman and CEO of the company, Mr. Paulus Hagiono. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning to all. I'm Lukas Barbaris, president of CERIG BACOS. I will do the presentation. Key developments in the second quarter include the stock market compared to the previous year, the implementation of our new integrated management system in compliance with dry BMS standards, the order of two additional phase three new bits consistent with our fleet renewal strategy, and the issuance of our 2020 Thesis and Ability Report detailing our ESG practices and our vision for the future. Our strong liquidity and comfortable leverage enabled us to be flexible with our capital allocation, remain focused on long-term value creation, and at the same time reward our shareholders with a dividend of $0.05 per share of common stock. Following a comprehensive review of the forward-looking statements listed in slide 2, Our attention transitions to the market update in slide four. The CAPE market segment has been strong throughout the quarter. All eight of our CAPEs are presently period-chartered, boosting an average remaining chartered duration of 2.4 years with an average daily rate of $24,500. This provides us with a considerable degree of cash flow visibility. On the Panamax front, the chartered market counts at about 15,000. Progressing to the slide number five, we present here an overview of a CRB commodity index fluctuation in basic commodities prices. The geopolitical landscape with tensions in regions such as the Middle East, the Red Sea, and Ukraine underscores the heightened level of global uncertainty. Persistently elevated uncertainty around the inflation outlook has led central banks in major economies to become more cautious about the pace of policy easing, compared with their positions at the end of the first quarter. Consequently, markets' expectations of the number of policy rate cuts to be delivered in 2024 have been revised downward. Upside risk to inflation have increased, raising the prospect of higher for longer interest rates in the context of increased policy uncertainty. In terms of dry bulk, we enjoy a positive dry bulk outlook as supply has been outpaced by demand, setting the stage for additional dry bulk market growth. The limited supply of gases on one hand and the resilient demand on the other enhances rates over the short to medium period. We believe that the existing heat decarbonization efforts and the energy efficiency of utilities will gather all focus on market in the medium term. Overall, on the commodity side, demand for iron ore remains strong, for coal is stable despite energy transition forecasts, and for grains and metal bags stands at very healthy levels. The IMF April forecast of a 3.2% expansion in global GDP for both 2024 and 2025 is accompanied by control of inflationary pressures. According to BIMCO, the forecasted global driver demand growth stands at 3%, increased for 2024. China, being the major global importer and key driver of the market, seems to be having a short landing. Prioritization of energy security would come being the fastest way of that. drives the significant expansion of Siamese renewable energy in Kasnaku, as clearly evidenced by the renewable electricity generation during the first half of 2024, which increased by 20% year-on-year, outpassing the 6% cost-efficiency growth. Nevertheless, coal-fired power plants stabilize the demand for coal imports, as steam coal imports rose by almost 30% year-to-year, The trend would not expect to continue as steam coal shipments in the summer will decrease due to increased electric generation from renewables and due to stronger domestic mining in the second half of 2024. China's growth forecast has been raised to 5% for 2024. However, GDP is expected to slow to 4.5% in 2025 and continue to decelerate over the medium term due to challenges from an aging population and slowing productivity growth. Geopolitical developments, of course, have altered trading patterns and increased tonnage for dry bulk commodities. Rerouting away from the Red Sea and Panama Canal has also bolstered demand in smaller segments. The dry bulk market is hanging on despite the weakening and falling global steel and iron ore prices. Terps, especially, have been solid, averaging 32,000 a day in the second quarter, Dow moderately conveyed first quarter average of $24,000 per day, averaging $37,000 per day so far in the third quarter. A tight supply picture with modest growth this year and tightening effects from the long-haul market trade have played a key role. So far, the third quarter is looking similar to the second quarter with decent earnings. Global coal investment is set to grow by 2 percent in 2024, led by increases in India, Indonesia, and Australia. The resilience of India's robust domestic demand and sustained infrastructure investments seem to play a stabilizing factor, easing the effects of Chinese uncertainty. The growth forecast for India has also been raised to 70.3 percent for this year. reflecting the positive growth and enhanced profits for private consumption, especially in rural areas. Let's proceed now to examine the supply-side dynamics in slide 6. Currently, about 25% of the existing food is older than 15 years, as environmental regulations are seeking to reduce vessels being on the lower end of fuel efficiency, which gradually becomes less competitive, forcing them to be traced out. On top of that, the dry order book remains at about 9%, as the near-to-medium-term trajectory of the freight market remains optimistic, especially when taking into account the availability of dark space and restraining new orders due to incentives in decarbonization technologies. Safe Bunkers Fleet now counts 10 Phase III vessels on the water, all delivered after 2022, with the last delivery taking place just a few days ago. In addition, 32 vessels have been environmentally upgraded, and 11 are eco-vessels having superior design efficiencies. 85% of our fleet comprises of Japanese-built vessels, surpassing the global average of 40%, with our average fleet age of 9.9 years old. Overall, our fleet today is fundamentally upgraded and commercially more competitive than two years ago as a result of the ESG strategy implemented throughout this period, underscoring our commitment to sustainable business. We will continue to become even more commercially competitive as we have on our order book eight more Phase III vessels placed at prices well below the prevailing market to be delivered to us within the next two years. The dissipate combined impact of heat aging and season environmental regulations will position our fleet favorably to compete with the environmental-based charter market, the state regulatory framework, and greenhouse gas targets. Moving to slide 8, we present another view of our green fleet advantage, the breakdown presented in the top right graph. underscores the environmental credentials of our fleet, comprising of 46 vessels, with 32 having undergone environmental upgrades, 10 being phase 3, 11 being echo, and the remaining systems to be upgraded within this year. The bottom graph presents our fleet renewal strategy with the investment of 13 older vessels, acquisition of several second-hand vessels, delivery of 10 phase 3 newbies, and a steadfast order book comparison of eight more phase 3 vessels. resulting to a stable 10-year average fleet age over the past four years. As confirmed by slide 9, this suggestion of fleet expansion serves as a testament to our commitment towards sustainability. In slide 10, we present the same budget security attributes, such as outstanding 65-year track record, robot management ownership aligned with 14%, comfortable leverage of 32%, our output liquidity of 276 million, our significant contract backlog of 250 million, our green fleet advantage evidenced by 7.4% decrease in fleet air emissions, and by our dry BMS standard management system implementation in anticipation of forthcoming city environmental regulations. The quality and competitiveness of our fleet is strategically positioned to leverage on the regulatory landscape, remaining true in our commitment to expand by building a resilient company and regrowth our shareholders with a 21% and about 31% dividend payout ratio. Our effort is not only to have the best fleet in terms of energy efficiency, but also to upgrade our company managerially and be able to compete with anyone. I now pass the floor to our CFO, Konstantinos Adamopoulos, for our quarterly financial overview. Konstantinos, the floor is yours.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for waiting. I apologize about the technical difficulties. We will now return to our regularly scheduled conference. Thank you.