Pacific Basin Shipping Limited

Yeah, welcome.

Welcome to today's Pacific Basin 2026 First Quarter Trading Update Conference Call. I am pleased to present Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Martin Furagard, and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Jimmy Ng. For the first part of this call, all participants will be in a listen-only mode, and afterwards there will be a question and answer session. Mr. Furagard, please begin.

Yeah, thank you. Welcome and thank you for attending Pacific Basin 2026. first quarter trading update call. We will highlight a few key points in the published presentation before we proceed to Q&A. Please turn to slide 2. Despite ongoing geopolitical disruptions and operational inefficiencies, including the outbreak of war in the Arabian Gulf in early March, our dry bulk freight markets have strengthened year on year. As a result, we delivered improved TCE earnings and strong market outperformance in the first quarter. Our heavy-size and supermax fleets recorded average net daily TCE earnings of 12,130 and 13,970, respectively, making year-on-year increases of 11 and 14%. These results reflect significant outperformance with Q1 earnings exceeding development indices by $1,030 per day for handy size and $2,050 per day for supermax. Looking ahead to the second quarter of 2026, we have covered 70% of our committed vessel days for handy size and 90% for supermax at $14,000 and $17,080 per day, respectively. For the second half of the year, coverage stands at 22% for Hatchesize and 35% for Supermax at 10,430 and 13,840 per day respectively. In addition to our strong performance, we have taken steps to further enhance and modernize our fleet. Today, we converted our existing order for four dual-fuel Ultramax new buildings announced in 2024. to four conventionally-fueled Ultramax new buildings, with an option to acquire two dual-fuel Ultramax new buildings, all to be constructed in Japan. Separately, we increased our new building order with JNS in China from four to six handy-sized vessels. Now I will hand over to Jimmy for a quick overview of the first quarter performance and market review.

Thank you, Martin. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I will share with you some observations on the market and a snapshot of our operational performance for the period. Please turn to slide 4. Trade rates increased in the early part of the first quarter of 2026, supported by strong dry bulk commodity flows. Market conditions remained volatile during the quarter, driven by the war in the Arabian Gulf, as well as route disruptions and bunker fuel price fluctuations. During the period, market support rates for handy size at an average of approximately US$11,100 per day was 39% higher year-on-year, and the rate for Supermax at an average rate of around US$11,920 per day was 51% higher year-on-year. Overall, despite ongoing volatility and elevated geopolitical risk, freight market conditions across both segments remained healthy during the first quarter of 2026. FFA rates for the remainder of 2026 also points to a positive outlook. Please turn to slide 5. Now this page provides an overview of dry bulk freight developments for the period from January to March 2026. Beginning with minor bulk, total loadings declined significantly by about 3% year-on-year. Foliums were let lower by aggregates, cement and steel-related cargoes, driven in part by direct disruptions in the Arabian Gulf and new licensing rules for Chinese exporters. This was partially offset by continued growth in bauxite and minor metals, as China's fast industrial sector continued to attract ever greater imports. Fertilizer volumes softened in the period, with prices increased, signaling a more cautious outlook for grain-related trade later in the year. Now turning to grain, loadings increased by about 15% year-on-year. Export performance was strong across most major growing regions, supported by large harvests, particularly in East Coast South America. Export volumes from Ukraine and Russia, however, declined, continuing the trend observed in recent months. On the import side, China led demand growth, supported by a stronger renminbi, despite the escalation of geopolitical conflicts since late February. In coal, volumes declined by 5% year-on-year. In addition to the long-term structural downtrend, Indonesia shipments declined due to tighter export quotas, while Chinese and India cold imports also softened. However, cold prices increased following a spike in LNG prices across Asia, which provided temporary support for power-related demand. Prospects for cold trade for the remainder of 2026 have improved, notwithstanding long-term trends to phase-out cold usage. Now finally, on the rightmost column, you would see iron ore loadings increased by about 7% year-on-year. Chinese steel mills continue to demonstrate strong appetite for iron ore imports and stock building, aided by a strong rum and beet. Economic indicators also suggest that property-related steel demand in Asia, in China in particular, may be stabilizing. Australia and Brazilian export volumes performed strongly, recovering from adverse weather in the same period last year. Pelletizing plants in Oman and Bahrain, however, led losses in the period. Now, in summary, although trade volumes were resilient in the first quarter of 2026, the evolving geopolitical landscape, particularly the Iran war, is expected to continue to reshape global trade flows and drive dislocations across global markets. These would add additional support to freight rates. Please turn to slide 6. In the first quarter of 2026, as Martin mentioned earlier, our daily average TCE earnings of $12,130 for HandySize and $13,970 for SupraMax represented an increase of 11% and 14% as compared to the same period in 2025 respectively. Our TCEs continued to outperform average spot market rates by $1,030 per day for HandySize and $2,050 per day for SupraMax. For the second quarter of 2026, we have currently covered 70% and 90% of our committed festival days for our HandySize and SupraMax core fleet at $14,000 and $17,080 per day respectively. Now, complementing our core business, our operating activity generated a daily average margin of $340 per day, over 6,240 operating days in the first quarter. I will now hand you back to Martin to run you through market dynamics and outlook.

Thank you, Jimmy. Please turn to slide 8. Global Dry Pulse NIPP. Fleet growth is forecasted to increase from 3% in 2025 to about 3.6% in 2026, driven by higher scheduled new building deliveries across the country. It is expected to moderate to about 3.8% in 2026 as new building activity remains more concentrated in larger vessel classes. Around 15% of panty size and supermax capacity is now more than 20 years old, and about 30% of total dry-boil capacity falls into this age category. The fleet age profile highlights both the ongoing fleet renewal needs and a growing number of older vessels that eventually will be scrapping candidates. Please turn to slide 9. As I mentioned at the start, we have finalized the agreement to replace our existing order at Imabai in Japan for four dual-fuel ultra-new buildings with four conventionally-fueled ultra-max new buildings, featuring the latest fuel-efficient design. This adjustment significantly reduces unnecessary near-term capital expenditure and reflects a financially prudent approach in light of renewed uncertainty surrounding the timing and final form of the global maritime green fuel transition regulations, especially after the failure to adopt IMO's net-zero framework in October 2025 due to political divisions among member states. To maintain flexibility, these new agreements include an option to acquire two dual-fuel methanol Ultramax new buildings, allowing us to re-enter the low-emission vessel market if regulatory clarity improves within 2026. Beyond this, we have also reached an agreement with JNS to order another two Hattie-sized new buildings, which will be built to the same latest generation fuel-efficient open hatch and lock fitted design as the four vessels we ordered in December last year. With these transactions, our current order book consists of six Hattie-sized and four Ultramax new buildings, plus an option for two additional dual-fuel Ultramax new buildings. We also hold purchase options that we can exercise between 2026 and 2031 for 15 long-term chartered in-vessels, 12 of which are already operating in the Pacific Basin fleet today, with the remaining three scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2026 and into 2027. These strategic moves help to position us well to adapt to regulatory developments, manage capital prudently, and maintain fleet flexibility for the future. Please turn to slide 10. The war has significantly disrupted trade flows, leading to a tighter supply of available vessels. In the short term, we are seeing around 2% of the sub-cape size fleet currently trapped in the Arabian Gulf, which further restricts vessel supply. Meanwhile, global dry-foil cargo volumes have shifted noticeably Before the conflict, volumes were growing at about 1.4% year-on-year, but since the outbreak, we've seen a sharp decline of roughly 6.6% year-on-year. This drop reflects a fear of fixing in the market as stakeholders remain cautious amid ongoing fluctuations in commodity prices, freight rates, and fuel prices. However, as the market begins to adapt to the new price levels and end-users look to restock inventories, we anticipate that pent-up demand will be released. Additionally, power utilities across Asia and Europe are expected to switch increasingly from LNG to coal, which should add further demand to the dry bulk sector. Looking to the future, if the war in the Arabian Gulf continues and energy prices remain high, we may see higher inflation and ultimately slower global economic growth. So far, the impact on Pacific Basin has been limited. We currently have one charter vessel in the Arabian Gulf, and we are maintaining ongoing dialogue with both the owner and our charters, so our exposure remains limited. We also receive solid support from our fuel suppliers and have covered most of our fuel price exposure through hedging and pass-through mechanisms. On the operational side, we are able to capitalize on our investments in energy-saving devices, silicon applications, and voice performance optimizations through digitalization, all focused on improving vessel speed and consumption profiles. Moreover, our relatively high number of open days in the second half of 2026 allow us the flexibility to maximize earnings as freight rates continue to rise. Please turn to slide 11. As we look ahead to the rest of 2026, it's clear that we will be navigating another year marked by substantial market disruptions. From a broader macroeconomic perspective, economic growth is likely to slow down, largely as a result of the aftermath of the Iran war. The IMF have already revised their growth forecast downwards, but the ultimate trajectory will depend on ongoing discussions between Iran and the U.S., as well as the timing of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. In the dry bulk sector, we anticipate that supply growth both for minor bulk and total dry bulk will outpace demand growth in the near term. This is primarily due to increased new building deliveries and limited scrapping activities. Despite these challenges, market disruptions and inefficiencies are likely to provide ongoing support to dry bulk market conditions. Notably, freight forward agreements are holding elevated levels for the rest of the year, with FFA averages for 2026 suggesting rates of around 14,080 per day for heavy-sized vessels and 16,230 per day for supermax vessels. Of course, volatility is expected to persist, given slower economic growth, multiple ongoing disruptors, and heightened geopolitical uncertainty. I am pleased to highlight our continued TCE outperformance which demonstrate the strength and resilience of our operating model. This is underpinned by a fleet that is both growing and modernizing, our proactive fleet management, and our sector-leading cost efficiency. Coupled with our robust balance sheet and disciplined approach to growth, these strengths position Pacific Basin exceptionally well to manage near-term uncertainty and to seize opportunities as they arise. Here, we'd like to conclude our 2026 first quarter trading update presentation by thanking our Pacific Basin colleagues at Sea and Ashore for their contribution to our result. I will now hand over the call to the operators from Q&A. Thank you.

We will now begin our question and answer session. If you have a question for today's speaker, please join the Zoom link via the blue Ask a Question button, press the raise hand button, and you will enter the 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. We'll pause a moment to allow the queue to form. As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press the raise hand button at the bottom of your Zoom screen. Our first question comes from Nathan Gee. Please unmute your line and ask your question.

Hey, Martin. Hey, Jimmy. Thanks for the call. Maybe two questions from me. Firstly, I just want to clarify the impact of the war on dry bulk shipping. And maybe I missed the first 10 minutes of the presentation, so apologies about that. But I just want to confirm, has the war, do you see it as having played as more of a positive or a negative for dry bulk markets so far? So that's the first question. Second question is just in terms of fuel availability. Your ships go into smaller ports. Are you seeing any evidence of fuel shortages anywhere and any risks over the next few months around that? Thank you.

Yeah, thank you Nathan and thank you for asking a question. I was getting a little bit nervous. First of all, about the war and the impact on the market and I think it's important to remember that We had the start of the year as we normally do where the market goes down before the Chinese New Year and then it starts going up, but that's also what happened this year. Then the war starts and we actually had, so at that time the market was actually on the way up and when the war started we actually had a month where rates actually came down a little bit for the healthy size and the Ultramaxes. I think the reason for that was actually that all this uncertainty, everybody was stepping back. I sort of tried to figure out what was going on and, of course, fuel prices were peaking immediately. So I think everybody was stepping back, waiting a little bit to see, you know, with all this volatility, waiting a little bit to see if things would settle down or if the war would end soon or if it was only a short duration. But then the war continued and after a while I think people are stepping in again and having to replenish and get the cargoes moving. So we are actually now seeing an increase in the market and we also see the FFA actually looking quite active. It's of course a super change of commodities moving around. Before the war there was yearly about 30 million tons of fertilizers going out of the Arabian Gulf that has to be replenished somewhere else. Probably can't replenish it all. But you see a lot of changes in the trading patterns. These are again these disruptors that drives our market going forward. So as we say, we still have quite a bit of ships delivering, but all this disruption actually changes the trading pattern and has been very helpful for us, and the market looks very positive at the moment. And on top of that, you can say if coal has to replenish gas and so on, there's actually some upside. That's a space to watch going forward what's happening on the coal front. And then about fuel availability, clearly in the beginning lots of concerns about fuel availability. It seems now that things have settled down a little bit. We haven't had any issues with delivery of fuel because we had challenges with the price of the fuel. It went up quite a lot during March. Things have settled down, and I think that maybe also brings the customers a little bit back in the market. Bunker prices are still high, but they're settling a little bit compared to where they were in March. And actually prices now are about, I think, $350 below the highest price we had in March. We don't see an issue with availability for our fleet. And I think we have had many of our loyal suppliers have actually been quite loyal to us during this period. I think that the challenge sometimes is probably more with the refined products, so it's probably more the gas oil, more the jet fuel for the planes and these things where the refineries are having some challenges. We also see that the gas oil, which is a refined product, the prices are very high still, and availability is tight. But so far, so good.

Perfect. Maybe one quick follow-up, if I can, just in terms of the buyback. Is there any update in terms of whether you've started that so far, and just general thoughts on buying back at current levels? Thank you.

Yeah, but I think it's also important, we haven't said so much in the presentation, but asset values are also going up, and actually second-hand values are now probably the highest they've been if you take out 22. It's actually the highest they've been since 2016. So it's actually the highest prices for 10 years just taking out the – well, it's actually probably higher than it was in 22. So second-hand values are very high at the moment. And, of course, so when we look at our share price and we compare it to the fair market value of our assets, we are trading, again, below that part of it. And we are evaluating all along if and when the right timing is to do the share buyback. We have $40 million. As we also had the last couple of years, we also have $40 million or announced $40 million this year. But this year we have set up to $40 million. And, of course, we follow a little bit the market to see if and when the right time is to go in to buy.

Perfect. Thank you. Thanks so much.

As a reminder, if you have a question for today's speaker, please join the Zoom link via the blue Ask a Question button on the webinar. Press the Raise Hand button and you will enter the queue. We'll pause a moment to allow the queue to form.

There are a couple of questions coming from the platform, written questions. So this question is about, are you concerned that demand destruction due to weak industrial activity from inflation, fuel availability risk could outweigh ton miles and coal demand uplift?

Yes, I'm always nervous about these things, but yes, The world seems, at the moment at least, quite resilient. We also just saw numbers from growth in China this morning of 5%, which is quite impressive. But it's clear that if, for instance, the war in the Arabian Gulf continues for longer and the Strait of Hormuz is closed and the oil price stays high, that will definitely have a negative impact on the world economy in the longer run and will probably create some inflation in the market. That I don't think will be good for us. But on the other hand, in the short term, all this disruption, which is, enormous actually, it's actually quite positive for the earnings and for the activity level for the dry cargo space. But it's of course true that in the longer run we would prefer to have more growth, global growth would be good and the situation at the moment is probably not very supportive around the long-term growth if the situation continues for long.

Thank you, Martin. There's one more question from the platform. Do you expect any one-off loss related with the vessel in the Gulf?

Well, it all, of course, depends. We are quite balanced on the contractual liability on that ship. But, of course, if the situation continues for long, there will, of course, be losses in that connection, but for us considering our size and our contractual obligations in this contract, it is minimum on that side. The exposure we basically have in respect to the situation we have now and the high oil price of these things and the situation with the Gulf is probably that the loop oil prices will go up a little bit and, of course, cost of flight tickets is up and, of course, we have a lot of crew members flying around the world. But in the biggest scope of it, it's minimal compared to the upside we see in the market.

Thank you, Martin. There's one more question from the platform. Could you elaborate on the CapEx reduction from the shift to conventional fuel-powered new vessel orders?

Yeah, we can. We announced the order for the dual-fuel ships in 2024, and the price we announced was $46.5 million per ship. And the new ships that we have acquired, they are priced at $39.2 million. So the difference between that is $7.7 million for each of the four ships in it. It will not have an immediate, this 2026 impact on our cash flow because we have already paid the first installment on that, but as the ships are progressing on building and being delivered, that's the reduction in the capex on these four ships. So for Egypt, $7.7 million.

As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press the raise hand button at the bottom of your Zoom screen. We'll pause a moment to allow a queue to form. As there are no further questions, we will now begin closing remarks. Please go ahead, Mr. Martin Furugard.

Yes, thank you very much for listening in to our Q1 trading update. Should you later have any questions after having studied the material, then please feel free to call us and call our Investor Relations team. Thank you very much and have a good evening.

This concludes our conference call. Thank you all for attending.