7/31/2023

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Welcome to today's Pacific Basin 2023 Interim Results Announcement Call. I'm pleased to present Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Martin Furigard, and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Michael Jorgensen. For the first part of this call, all participants will be in listen-only mode, and afterwards, there will be a question and answer session. Mr. Furigard, please begin.

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for attending Pacific Basin's 2023 interim results earnings call. My name is Martin Forgo, CEO of Pacific Basin, and I'm pleased to have our new CFO, Michael Jorgensen, with me today, who will speak later on the call. Assuming that you have already gone through the presentation, we will briefly highlight some of the key points discussed in it before we proceed with the Q&A session. Please turn to slide three. I'm pleased to report that in the first half of 2023, we generated underlying profit of 76 million, a net profit of 85 million and EBITDA of 189 million US dollar. We yielded a return of equity of 9% analyzed with basic earnings per share of Hong Kong dollar 12.9 cents. Our large core business generated 96 million before overheads, despite the weak freight market, while our operating activity, which includes vessels chartered in for less than 12 months, contributed 17 million, having generated a margin of 1,550 net per day over 11,000 operating days. We continue to maintain a healthy financial position with available committed liquidity of US$375 million and net gearing of 7% as we continue to expand our own fleet over the period. Additionally, we have increased our list of unencumbered vessels with 65 currently unmortgaged. The board has declared an interim dividend of HK$6.5 per share amounting to a total of US dollar 43.7 million, which represents 51% of our net profit for the period. This decision is consistent with our distribution policy and reflect our confidence in our strong balance sheet, despite the current uncertainties surrounding global dryball demand and freight rates, which continue to impact our industry. Please turn to slide four. In the first half of the year, average market spot freight rates for handy size and supermaxes were 8,640 and 9,930 net per day, respectively. Despite increased dry ball demand overall in the first half, freight rates were under considerable pressure due to the unwinding of congestion that increased effective supply. Looking ahead, we expect great activity to increase with the onset of the East Coast, South America and US Gulf rain seasons. While China's reopening has helped dry bulk demand, additional stimulus would be needed to boost demand further. Please turn to slide five. Global dry bulk loading volumes grew approximately 2% year-on-year, mainly due to China reopening, which increased demand for both coal and iron ore. Minor bulk loadings decreased 0.1% in the period, due to reduced loading of cement and clinkers, forest products and aluminium. However, there was an 8% increase in bauxite loadings, primarily from Malia, and despite an export ban in Indonesia starting from June 2023. Grain loadings decreased by 3% year-on-year, primarily due to reduced grain export from Argentina caused by drought. In the US states, adverse weather conditions and logistical problems led to a higher cost for transporting grain on the Mississippi River, which made US grain prices uncompetitive, reducing grain export during the first half of 2023. Despite delays in the harvest and export process, Brazil was able to export a record amount of grain. On the other hand, coal loadings increased 6% year-on-year, largely because of the low base created by the temporary Indonesian coal export ban in January 2022 and record China imports. Iron ore loading increased 3% year-on-year due to beneficial weather conditions in both Australia and Brazil, as well as increased demand in China as economic activity increased post-COVID. Please turn to slide six. Our core business generated average handy size and supermax daily TCE earnings of 13,030 and 13,700 net per day, respectively, in the first half of 2023, which is a decrease of 51% and 60% compared to the very strong first half of 2022. For the third quarter, we have covered 82 and 92% of our committed vessel stays for handy size and supermaxes at $9,800 and $12,700 net per day, respectively. For the second half of 2023, we currently have cover for 57% and 72% of our core vessel stays for handy size and supermax at $10,000 and $12,770 net per day, respectively. Current forward freight agreements, commonly referred to as FFAs, for Q4, they are at 9,180 and 10,710 per day for Handisize and Supermax, respectively. Please turn to slide seven. In the first half, both our Handisize and our Supermax delivered an exceptional performance, and we outperformed the indices by 4,390, per day and 3,717 per day, respectively. Handy-sized and Supermax vessels have outperformed the index over the last seven and eight quarters, respectively. The Supermax outperformance benefited from 33 scrubbers installed across our core-owned fleet, with scrubbers contributing about $1,000.50 per day to our outperformance over the period. The current value of Supermax Grover's benefits is approximately $610 per day. Operating activity generated a positive margin of 1,550 net per day over 11,000 operating days. Operating days increased 20% compared to the same period last year. Operating activity margins benefited from the re-delivery of more expensive short-term time charter in vessels from previous periods. Please turn to slide eight. Our hand-designed owned vessel costs have decreased, mainly due to lower crew repatriation costs as COVID-related controls have been relaxed. We continue to improve our cost competitiveness with our indicative owned fleet cash break-even level reduced to $4,920 per day. Please turn to slide nine. Despite the increase in cost on a small number of long-term charter vessels, our blended supermax costs remain cost competitive. We continue to maintain our cost competitiveness with our indicative own fleet cash break-even level reduced to 5,010 per day. Please turn to slide 10. During the period, we continued to grow and renew our fleet, Specifically, at the beginning of the year, we capitalized on supermax vessel values, which softened due to market weakness, allowing us to make counter-cyclical purchases. Meanwhile, we continued to also focus on selling smaller, older, handy-sized vessels during the period. We acquired five ultramax vessels, one supermax vessel, and one handy-sized vessel, with all vessels delivered into our core fleet. We sold two handy-sized vessels over the period with both now being delivered. We received the first of three Japanese-built 40,000 deadweight ton handy-sized new buildings to our core fleet through long-term time charters and expect the remaining two to be delivered in the second half. Including all currently agreed sales and purchases, our fleet consists of 120 old Hattie size and Supermax vessels, and including chartered ships, we have over 280 vessels on the water. We continue to progress with the design of methanol-fueled zero-emission vessels in collaboration with our two Japanese partners. We expect to be ready to contract our first-generation dual-fueled zero-emission new buildings by the end of 2024, with delivery expected to be well ahead of our original 2030 target. I will now hand over to Michael, who will present the financials, and I'll be back afterwards with outlook and strategic summaries.

speaker
Michael Jorgensen
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you very much, Martin, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm very delighted to join Pacific Basin as its new CFO and I'm eager to engage with the investor and media community. Without further ado, let's dive into the next slide. Please turn to slide 12 for an overview of our P&L performance. As you can see, given our lower TTE earnings, both our underlying profit and EBITDA were lower, despite decreased owned vessel and chartered costs. Our G&A has decreased, mainly due to lower discretionary remuneration provisions given our result for the period. Below underlying profit, our net profit was further improved by gains on vessel disposals and our hedging portfolio. Please turn to slide 13. Our operating cash inflow for the period was $150 million, and that is inclusive of all long and short-term charter hire payments. This compares with $486 million in the first half of 2022. We had $43 million in proceeds from the sale of three smaller handy-sized vessels and one Ultramax vessel, which we delivered in the period. Cabin spending remains well controlled, and for the first half of 2023, total US dollar $210 million, of which we paid approximately $187 million, for one second-hand handy-sized vessel, two second-hand supermarket vessels, six second-hand Ultimax vessels, and around $22 million for dry dockings and ballast water treatment systems. We expect CapEx for 2023 to be approximately 60 million, predominantly related to dry dockings and ballast water treatment systems and excluding any vessel purchases. We paid 174 million US dollars in dividends related to the 2022 final basic and special dividend of 26 Hong Kong cents per share, which were paid in May 2023. Our borrowings decreased due to net repayments of 38 million. Please turn to slide 14. Despite significant shareholder distribution, we continue to maintain a healthy financial position with 375 million of available committee liquidity and reduce debt while expanding our fleet. Our net borrowings now represent 7% of the net book value of our old vessels. And as Martin previously mentioned, we have increased our list of unencumbered vessels with 65 currently unmortgaged. Our goal going forward is to ensure that we maintain our strong available liquidity position for potential growth investments while still providing returns to our shareholders through payment of dividends. We have a distribution policy of paying out at least 50% of annual net profits. I will now hand you back to Martin for his outlook and stretch slides. Thank you, Michael.

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

Please turn to slide 16. China COVID reopening policies are supporting dry-boil demand. Coal loadings to China increased over 70% on year due to energy security concerns and low hydroelectric output, despite record domestic coal production. China has continued to import coal from Australia, but still relies heavily on Indonesia and Russia for its coal imports. Christoph Strobeler, China, China is mine about demand increase 5% over the period with the main minor ball, including bauxite all and concentrates and forest products, please turn to slide 18. Christoph Strobeler, I new building prices uncertainty around emission regulations and long delivery time of about three years have continued to just discourage any significant new ship ordering over the period. First half 2023 new building ordering was down 18% compared to first half 2022, and the dry bulk order book is at near decade low of 7.4% of total fleet. World shipyard capacity remains limited and well below peak capacity of 10 years ago, with the majority of incremental new shipyard capacity concentrated on high margin non-dry bulk vessels. We continue to think that new building order will remain limited as designs for zero emission capable vessels are developed over time. Please turn to slide 19. In July, IMO adopted a revised and more ambitious greenhouse gas strategy with the goal for international shipping to achieve net zero emissions by or around 2050. Indicative interim checkpoints. IMO's target is therefore now aligned with our own net zero by 2050 target to which we committed in 2021. Initial targets will be a reduction of 20% of total emissions by 2030 and 70% reduction by 2040. These regulatory pressures are on the rise and we expect new regulations to be introduced in the future. The consequence of decarbonization regulations will result in the need for vessels to further reduce speed over time and in due course for accelerated scrapping as older and less efficient vessels become no longer fit for trading. The low order book and efforts to reduce carbon intensity will potentially create a shortage of vessels and provide long-term structural undersupply to the market. Please turn to slide 22. In the short term, we believe that global dry bulk demand will continue to be impacted by higher interest rates, inflation, and weaker global economic activity with the potential for a recession in some countries. While China's reopening has helped dry bulk demand, additional stimulus would be needed to boost demand further. These headwinds will continue to have a negative effect on dry bulk freight rates in the short term and potentially for the remainder of 2023. In the longer term, We remain optimistic about the supported fundamentals of our industry. Dry-boiled demand is expected to be supported by substantial global infrastructure investments with a focus on emerging markets such as India and ASEAN countries, as well as concern over food and energy security worldwide. Our view is that environmental regulations, both existing and upcoming, will deter excessive new vessel orders for some time and support dryball rates. We have a positive outlook on the future of the dryball market and expect to generate more sustainable earnings in the long term due to underlying demand and supply fundamentals. We are excited about the future of dry ball shipping, supported by a modern fleet that can meet the diverse needs of our customers. Our staff operates globally with a local presence, which we utilize to drive insight and knowledge back into our business so we can deliver the best service and access cargo opportunities. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our 2023 interim results presentation. I will now hand over the call to our operator for Q&A.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

We will now begin our Q&A session. If you have a question for today's speakers, please join the Zoom link with the Join Video Conference button. Press the raise hand button and you will enter a queue. After you are announced, please unmute yourself, state your name and company, and ask your question. If you find that your question has been answered before it is your turn to speak, please press the lower hand button to leave the queue. You may also type your questions in the Q&A box. Our first question today is from Parish Jain. Parish, please unmute yourself and go ahead with your question. Lovely. Thank you.

speaker
Parish Jain
Analyst/Participant

Hello, Martin. Hi, Michael. Welcome on board. Can you hear me well? Yes, we can hear you, Parish. Lovely. I have two questions, essentially. First to Martin Milford. How do you see the second-hand vessel market at the moment? And would you, shall we expect that your intensity in terms of acquiring the right type of vessels that you started at the start of the year will continue going into the second half? I.e., is there a capex target that we shall work around for the remainder of the year? And secondly, in terms of the operating cost, is it fair to assume that we find a new nominee in the first half? And if that's the case, then at your current rate, is it fair to assume that probably the second half profitability will be more around breakeven than anything else? Thank you.

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, so I guess the first question is about the CapEx and the development in the second-hand prices, if I understood it right, Parish. Yes. I think we have, what we've seen actually is that, you know, in the first half that actually in the beginning of the year, there was a dip in the prices and that's actually when we bought and then we saw increases in the prices. And if you look at Clarkson's, numbers, you know, I think we said 5% increase over the first half year in it. And of course, with the spot market at the moment, you know, we of course sit and look a little bit at the secondhand prices to see how that is developing. But you can say a modern, a modern, nice ship is probably also held up a little bit by the replacement costs. So, you know, the new building prices are still actually very, very, actually historically high. So for a modern ship, one thing is the spot market, another thing is what is the replacement cost at the shipyards. We are still buyers of ships. We have bought early this year and probably at the moment we sit and look a little bit at the market and wait for if there's some good opportunities comes along during the year. And then the second question was about the operating cost. Yeah. And I think as we said, our operating costs, we feel they are under control and you can say we are back to levels we saw before the COVID. Of course, during COVID, there was some increase, some pressure on some of the OPEX costs, but we are on the way back to normal and As we say, our cost break even is, I would say, industry low. So we are in a very good position on that. And then you can say respect to the market and what's the next six months going to do. You know, I think, of course, we look at the FFA. And as we said, you know, the FFA looks actually like it. There is some expectations in the market that the rates will come up. from where they are now. And I think it's, of course, some seasonal, which is quite normal in our market, there is some seasonal changes. So normally third and fourth quarter is stronger than the summer market. So we are actually in that sense positive about the market that there will be some seasonal changes to it.

speaker
Parish Jain
Analyst/Participant

And one final question, and then I'll get back into the queue. Have you seen any short-term impact of the Black Sea grain trade, especially with Russia pulling out of the contract, or it's more or less a non-event?

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, you know, I think it would have been better if we don't have a conflict in Ukraine. I think that would be in many ways for everybody, but also for our market would probably be better. But I think the export out of Ukraine was always already down quite a bit. I think it's down to one and a half million tons So, of course, it has an impact. I think that one and a half million tons can probably be replaced somewhere else. And when that is done, then actually, I would say it's a longer ton mile. So, you know, I don't think it has any major impact on our business at the moment. But of course, you can say they were plus five million tons a month before the invasion, before the war. And of course, I'm not sure all of that has been replaced from other places. in it so we you know it would be nice if we could get back to that part but i don't think the last part is not that is not going to make a big difference at the moment lovely uh thank you gents i'll get back into the queue thank you thank you the next question comes from our online can you provide your outlook on the minor bulk market in the second half and what are the expected drivers Yeah, I think we, first of all, I think it's important to remember that actually, you know, the volumes and demand for first half has actually been quite stable for the dry cargo, for the minor bulk segments. And also that China has come back after COVID has actually also been quite supportive for us. But what's going to drive it going forward is, of course, you know, especially China, of course, that we see some of the subsidies that they're talking about, that they actually come into play. and that actually creates more activity around infrastructure and also about the property market in China. So that is of course also what has been talked about and of course also what we hope will happen. And then I also think it would be helpful if the US and Europe of course can come over the inflation pressure and hopefully we can see interest rate coming down again so we see further investments. in some of the projects that we have seen. In respect to minor bulk, we are also quite optimistic in the sense of the green transition and the need for green fuels. We also think that will actually drive minor bulk demand for cement and steel and different minerals used in windmills and solar power. And hopefully also in second half, but probably Maybe a little bit more in the longer term for those things.

speaker
Moderator
Q&A Moderator

The next question coming from the online. What is management's rationale for the 50% dividend payout down from 70% last year?

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

I think last year was a very exceptional year. And of course, I think our dividend at that time was also an exceptional year. I think we're now more back to a normal earning. And I think the board have also decided that looking at a strong balance sheet and good liquidity and so on, then that paying actually 51% here in first half was prudent. So that's why, so we actually just back to our distribution policy.

speaker
Moderator
Q&A Moderator

And the next question, when do you expect to see increased scrapping given current rates in the market today?

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

I think we already see increased scrapping. It's still at a very low level. But it's clear if the current market continues, I think people who has older ships that is due for dry dock, they will probably reconsider a little bit. But we're still in a market where the outlook, the players or everybody's outlook for the market is actually quite positive. Maybe not for the short term, but for the longer term. So I think a lot of people still like to invest in the ships to keep them going. Have to remember that the order is historically low. The new ordering is down every half year. So we are in that sense very positive about the supply demand fundamentals going forward. And I think that actually impacts people when they sit and look at the decision if to take the ship to dry dock or send it to recycling. But we have seen a little bit more activity in the scrapping, but I think there's potential for more. And also please remember that you can probably postpone, you can go through one dry dock and postpone your scrapping for one dry docking cycle, which is about two and a half years. When you have to do it again, it's going to be very difficult. So we are actually building up a fairly large pool of scrapping candidates, which at a certain stage, of course, has to go. So I think that's also actually a positive fundamental for the market.

speaker
Moderator
Q&A Moderator

Another question coming. Can you give us an update on your zero emission vessel projects and when you expect to order and when will the market? Further to this, how long will these take to be built? And when do you expect the market and what costs to build these?

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, first of all, our project with Mitsui and NSY is progressing as planned, and we have now worked for more than a year with our partners. And we continue, of course, to develop the design and, of course, try to make sure that the entire ship is zero emission vessel. So that's a project that is still ongoing. We are not ready at the moment to to place an order, but the project is moving forward as per plans and all partners are active in the project. I think we have said here in the presentation and we also said it that realistically, we should be able to order next year. And of course, it's all subject to market and price and and so on. But I think if you order now, if you just order a normal ship today, you will probably get delivery if you're lucky in 2026. And I think if we next year order any ship, but also a Sierra mission ship, it will probably be 2027 and maybe even 2028. So there's no way at the moment that you can get early delivery. And that has nothing to do with the order book for dry cargo ships, but that is all the ships being ordered at the moment. And I think at the moment, there's a lot of attackers being ordered at the yacht. So the yachts are actually quite free. So, but the project is moving forward. Price and these things is still a little bit difficult to talk about in it, but I think it's fair to say that building a ship today at the yachts is at historically high prices. So if you just disregard the zero emission part of it, but just a normal ship, whatever ship it is, the prices at the yachts are high. That's also why I think people are a little bit more worried about ordering new ships in the dry cargo segment.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

As a reminder, to ask a question from the Zoom link, please press the raise hand button and you will enter a queue. After I've called on you to unmute yourself, please state your name and company and ask a question. We currently have no other questions from the Zoom link.

speaker
Moderator
Q&A Moderator

A question coming from online, can you advise on capex forecast for 2023 and given high secondhand prices, what is management's focus on returning cash to shareholders?

speaker
Michael Jorgensen
Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, I think I can reply a little bit on our capex. Our capex for 2023 We expect CapEx to be $60 million for the ones that are not confirmed yet, ship sales and so on. If there's more, you can say purchase of ships, that will of course increase our CapEx program. But we have not committed any CapEx right now for second half. So that's our best view right now. And I think also for the year overall, 2023, we will stick to the dividend policy that we have communicated earlier.

speaker
Moderator
Q&A Moderator

A second question coming. Besides China, are there any other drivers that you foresee to improve the rates in the second half, given where we are in the market today? And does Pacific Basin use biofuels on any of the vessels currently? And where would you progress in terms of sourcing these biofuels?

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

If we take the last one, the biofuels, yes, we have tested and completed a test. So we have run biofuel on one of our ships and we know we are capable of doing so. It's not something that we have, we do have no major commitment into that, but of course it's something we evaluate also in respect to the EU ETS that is starting next year. So, of course, it's something that we constantly evaluate to see if that's the right way forward. And the second question was?

speaker
Moderator
Q&A Moderator

In terms of where the drivers are in the market besides China.

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

First of all, I think we think China, of course, is probably where we see the biggest opportunity and upside. Remember, China is still 40% of the drive-on market. And therefore, we see them coming back after COVID. I think we all have expected it will go faster. I think the learning is it just takes a little bit more time. Also with the subsidies, it's not something you just do overnight. But all the signals that we hear from China, also from the government, is of course that they will progress with those things. So in that sense, we are quite positive about that part. On the other hand, I would also say that Southeast Asia, India, these countries actually still continue to have good growth and good activity level and that has actually benefited us on the minor bond side and i would also say that the us even though of course there's an attempt to try to sort of put the brakes on the economy and get the inflation down they are still quite active and things like cement and clinkers and construction material actually still continues to flow quite actively into to the us but it's true i think that the biggest the biggest upside drivers should be China. And let's also see how things are landed in the US and Europe. But I also think there is an upside on that. But if that impact us here in second half, let's see. But hopefully we are getting to an end of the the interest rate increases and maybe see some improvement. We have seen that the stock market is improving around the world. So I guess that's an indicator of that things are maybe about to turn.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

We have another question from Paris Jane. Paris, please unmute yourself and go ahead with your question.

speaker
Parish Jain
Analyst/Participant

Sure. So Martin, I have two questions if I may. First of all, can you remind us what's the current scrubber premium your scrubber fitted vessels are enjoying and with the with the current trade rate are you seeing that the scrubber fitted supra will invariably put pressure on an unscrubber fitted handy size vessels given the price differential and my second question is that have your team done some on the back of the envelope calculation of potential impact of eu ets next year and fuel eu the year after thank you um

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

I'm not sure I got the full question on the scrubbers, but I'll just try to. So I think as we also said, first half, the scrubbers have, the 33 ships that we have scrubbers on, they have contributed with $1,050 on average for all our super Ultramaxes. And I think that's 50 ships up. And if you look at how much do they contribute at the moment, they will contribute around $640. a day, not just for the ships with scrubbers, but for the entire, our entire Supermax, Ultramax fleet divided over them. So you can say that if you're going to look at a ship with a scrubber, it's probably around the thousand dollars or a little bit less at the moment. You can say the spread is, I wouldn't say low, but it's lower than it was a year ago. And the second question was, yeah, EU ETS. Yes. So Yes, of course, we are already doing business for next year into Europe. And of course, in that respect, we are absolutely ready to do that. And we are already doing the calculations and setting ourselves up to buy these ETS. So that's already been done. So the deals we have done already for next year into Europe. includes the ETS in it. And at the moment, we're about to set ourselves up. I wouldn't say, well, maybe it's wrong to say it's complicated, but it takes a little bit of time to get the setup right practically in Europe. But we're doing that and we are absolutely ready for next year. to do that. I would say now EU starts and, you know, US is also start talking about it and about having similar things. I wouldn't say it's actually complicating things somewhat, but on the other hand, I think we think it's good that we get started getting these rules in, but it does actually complicate things somewhat. It does require a little bit of resources to get those things right.

speaker
Parish Jain
Analyst/Participant

But can you share what percentage of your, I don't know, revenue day or capacity of the fleet spend time in Eurowater on a year basis?

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

I don't remember the exact number. It was in the book material, but I think it's less than 10%, I think, that we have. Yeah. We'll get you that, but it's not a major thing, but you know, our trading pattern is quite diverse around the world. So I think it's less than 10% that we get the right number.

speaker
Parish Jain
Analyst/Participant

Yeah. No, that's good. Thank you, Martin. Have a lovely day. Thank you very much.

speaker
Moderator
Q&A Moderator

The next question coming from the online. Looking further into your cover in the second half, how are you utilizing cover in this low rate environment?

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

how we use the cover in it but you know i think of course cover in a in a in a low market you can say for the first half part of the success is of course that we had good cover coming into the market and and we of course continue to have very good cover for for for for second half however we of course still have some open days also because we can see that there is some expectations that the market will improve by at least by fourth quarter um And I think with our fleet and size and so on, we have been able to optimize and improve the results. So you can say when you look at our contract cover, that's the starting point. And hopefully, as we have done again and again, we are able to optimize and and get a little bit more out of the business than is in the numbers. So that's how we use it. And of course, we have taken some cover. As we could see, probably the market wouldn't recover as quickly as we originally had expected. I hope that answered that question.

speaker
Moderator
Q&A Moderator

Another question coming from the online systems. What is the impact that IMO's new zero emissions by 2050 mean to vessel speeds, scrapping and supply going forward?

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

That is, as we said, we already had our own target was zero by 2050. But I think it's a very positive thing that IMO comes out and say, now it's zero by 2050. And of course, that is a strengthening of the rule so that the demand is becoming bigger. We still have to see how IMO will enforce these rules, which I think we will know in 2025 in it. So there's no doubt that depending on how they're going to enforce it, There's no doubt that this will have an impact on the speed of the ships. We can already see that if you look from now to 2030, we will have to reduce the speed of the ships already doing it because we have an environment with quite high oil prices and low markets. So we're already slow steaming, but I think that has to continue because as the rules look at the moment and what it absolutely will do within the next three, four years is that we, four or five years is that we are not able to increase the speed because of the rules. And I think after 2030, as the rules are now, we'll definitely see a reduction of the speed of the ships and that will take supply away and it will make it very difficult for some of the ships who are older and less efficient. It will be very difficult for them to keep trading. So I think that we are actually quite positive about IMO and how they have changed the rules and we think it's absolutely correct that we need to be zero by 2050. Now, I think the pressure is on them on how they're going to enforce the rules so that we all understand exactly how to deal with that. So we look forward to that by 2025.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

We have another question from Parish. Jane, Parish, please go ahead, unmute yourself and ask your question. Apologies, it looks like Parrish has dropped off the call. For anyone else, if you have question, please use the raise hand button at the bottom of your Zoom window and enter the queue, and we will call upon you to ask your question. It looks like we have no other questions for this time. I will now begin closing remarks. Please go ahead, Mr. Martin, for regard.

speaker
Martin Furigard
Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. And I'd like to thank you again for joining us today and for your continued support of Pacific Basin. If you have any further questions, please contact Peter Bott from our investor relations department. Thank you and goodbye.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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