Morning everyone, and welcome to the second quarter result presentation of KCC. I'm Engebret Dahm, the CEO of the company, and together with me, I have our CFO, Liv Dyrnes. Please send questions through the webcast solution, and we'll go through the questions after the presentation. We are owners of combination carriers. They are ships that are both product tankers and dry bulk vessels. In dry bulk mode, they compete against standard Panamax and Capesize vessels. In tanker mode, they compete against LR1 and MR product tankers. We have two types. We have our CABUs that in the wet mode transport mostly caustic soda, and we have our CLEANBUs, the last delivered in June last year, transporting a large variety of tanker cargos. Both types can transport all type of dry bulk commodities.
Our business is to transport tanker cargos into regions that are big exporters of tank- of dry bulk commodities. This is mainly Australia and South America. The East Coast to Australia trade is a good example, where our ships bring down caustic soda and clean petroleum products to Australia and return with various type of dry bulk commodities northbound to Asia. On these round voyages, we have very limited ballast, empty ships accounting for around 10% of the capacity. The competing ships with Panamax dry bulk and product tankers are sailing long distances without any cargo on board due to the underlying trade flow. Our ships transport far more cargo than the standard ships, and that has three implications.
Firstly, we have lower fuel consumption per ton transported, meaning we have a much lower carbon footprint than our competitors. Secondly, we have more paying days, meaning we have higher earnings. Thirdly, we have a positive link to fuel prices. While standard ships get compensated for higher fuel prices through the freight mechanism, we get overcompensated through our efficiency. Looking at the second quarter, this is the first quarter since 2008 where we had all the three markets deciding the earnings of our company is strong. The product market strengthened in the end of the first quarter and continued with its strength through the second quarter. The product tanker market boomed through the spring and capped high during the summer. The fuel market reached the highest ever fuel price for shipping.
The backdrop was very strong. Looking at the results of the company, we have record high results in the second quarter, with TCE earnings average of the fleet of $30,235 per day, which is slightly above the guiding range we gave back in May. The performance of our fleet outperformed standard tankers and dry bulk vessels with a factor of 1.1. Based on the strong performance of both the CABUs and the CLEANBUs, the EBITDA increased by around 50% to $25.6 million, which is very strong, the highest ever. Also based on the strong results and confidence in the prospects for the next quarters, the board has decided to increase dividends from $0.18 to $0.23 per share.
This equates to roughly 13% running yield, based on this week's share price for the company. Our biggest competitive advantage in KCC is our carbon efficiency, meaning that we can transport the same cargoes as some competitors with a 30%-40% lower carbon footprint. This competitive advantage we believe will become more and more important in the years to come when the shipping industry needs to decarbonize. That's why we have set very ambitious targets to improve this competitive advantage by cutting emissions, increasing efficiency throughout our business. We have started to roll out an energy efficiency program on all vessels that go through dry docking, and we have seen that we have very positive results for the initiatives that we have made.
I wanted to give you an example of the docking of the cargo vessel Dafne made in December last year, where we installed a Mewis Duct, as you see on the picture, as well as applied silicone antifouling and a new system for reducing the friction of the leading edges of the ships. As the curve shows, which is the relative performance to the newbuilding baseline, we see a large improvement in the fuel consumption of the ships after docking compared to before the docking. This is quite normal for ships going through a dry dock. In the normal case, you bring the performance best case back to how it was when the ship was delivered as new.
What is interesting to see on the Dafne docking is that we've been able, through our initiatives, to improve the performance of Dafne down to 10% better than how the ship was when it was delivered as new. We have to see that this initiatives is also reflected in lower KPI when it comes to the average carbon CO₂ emissions per vessel. We have been able to reduce the CO₂ per ship from 18,900 in 2021 to average 17,500 in the first half of this year. This is well in line with the target for 2022 we set back in 2020.
Implying a 15% reduction in CO₂ emission from 2018 until end of 2022. When it comes to the progress on our carbon intensity, which measures the efficiency of our transportation work, we have not shown the same progress. We have over the recent half year decreased the EEOI from 7.5 to 7.1, which is good. We see that we are far away from the target we set back in 2020 of an EEOI of 5.8. We have a number of initiatives going, and we expect to improve this over the coming quarters. It will take longer time to reach the targets we set back in 2020.
While we are a bit disappointed over the progress on the EEOI, please remember that our performance is still around 30% better than the benchmark vessels, standard vessels doing the same transportation work as ours in our trade. Our business and earnings is derived from three markets, the dry bulk, the product tanker market, and the fuel markets. Markets that have a low correlation, and hence we have a positive diversification effect of being in more markets and hence a risk-reducing effect.
This can be seen from the development in the market since early 2020, starting off with a dry bulk market where we saw that the dry bulk market recovered substantially after the weak period during the early phase of the pandemic, reaching close to $40,000 per day in the autumn of 2021. The market held back during the winter, but went up again to around $30,000 during this spring. Over the summer, the dry bulk market has weakened substantially, and we're now doing yesterday at $12,800 per day for a Capesize. You see the just opposite development for the product tankers.
Here we have the LR1 tanker spot rates falling back from peaking levels during the early phase of the pandemic, maintaining very low levels around $10,000 per day earnings up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since then, the recovery brought the earnings up to close around $6,000 in May and has been keeping up with very high levels ever since, around $40,000 per day. Fuel prices have increased steadily since the early phase of the pandemic, peaking in early June at $1,100 per ton in Singapore, which is the highest ever fuel price for shipping. As the oil prices has decreased over recent months, also fuel prices have decreased, but it's still at historically high level, at close to $800 per ton.
To summarize, today, after the fall in the dry market, two of our three markets remain strong, which is more than enough to drive the earnings of our company. Looking at the dry bulk market, you see this graph which measures the deadweight, the days, the demand as deadweight-days. We see a positive development with a 5.4% increase in demand in the first seven months of the year. This is a lagging indicator. The recent macroeconomic headwinds and the weakening of the Chinese economy will likely be shown in these figures over the next months. Which already is reflected in the market as we see in the weakening dry bulk market.
The main reason for the weakening dry market is the fall in port congestion, where the percentage of the fleet in ports has decreased from around 44% during the spring down to the recent months between 39% and 40%, effectively increasing supply in the dry market by 4%-5% overnight. Looking ahead, there are different opinions on how the dry market will develop. Some believe that we have to wait for a recovery in the dry market until the effects of Chinese stimulus have fed through the economy, which may take a quarter or two.
While others are more optimistic, believing that the increasing distances caused by the situation in Ukraine will lead to increased ton-mile demand and due to the tight situation in the market, could easily recover the market over the coming quarters. We tend to be optimistic, and that's also based on the fact that we have a record low order book, implying a very low fleet growth over the coming quarters. The fundamentals in the tanker market is more solid.
Looking at the graph, we see that both the oil demand in blue and the oil production has increased steadily over the recent quarters and is now more or less back to the level before the pandemic. We also see that the oil stocks are still at record low levels, although increased a little bit in recent months, partly due to release of the strategic reserves. Another factor making the tanker market resilient is the fact that the order book is record low. There has been some contracting lately, but 5.4% of the fleet on order is record low.
Based on these fundamentals, and based on expectations of a strong increase in sailing distances and ton-mile development, we are very confident of a positive development in the product tanker market. The graph here shows the latest projections of Clarksons, showing an estimated 10% increase in ton-mile demand this year, and another 6% increase in ton-mile demand in 2023. This is driven by three factors, partly the COVID-19 reopening, and as we know it, the easing of travel restrictions and opening of the societies in the Pacific, in Japan, China, Korea is still to come. We see a continued dislocation of refineries with increasing capacity coming in both Middle East and Asia, and winding down of refinery capacity in the western world.
The third factor, which likely will have the most effect over the next quarters, is the ban on Russian seaborne oil imports in EU, starting off with oil products in December and crude in February. The short-haul imports from Russia from the Baltic will be replaced with longer haul imports from U.S., Middle East and Asia. Looking at how we are positioned at the moment, most of our capacity for the third quarter is already booked, measured as fixed rate coverage. We have 77% of the third quarter capacity in the tanker market booked, while around 100% of the dry bulk capacity is booked, including the FFAs, we have sought.
For the fourth quarter, we have in the tanker market around 40% of the capacity booked on fixed rate contracts, which are the contracts we have for our covers in the caustic soda trade to Australia. For the dry bulk capacity, we mainly have derivatives, which are FFAs and options that currently are well in the money, which are covering the exposure. Looking ahead for 2023, we have no fixed rate coverage. We have index-linked contracts, and we are in the process of negotiating an extension of our contracts to Australia with caustic soda for our covers, which we are optimistic we can renew with stable or increasing cargo volumes for 2023.
Having combination carriers being both tankers and dry bulk vessels, we've been able to get the best out of the tanker and dry bulk markets over time, and delivering earnings well over the spot earnings of competing dry bulk and product tankers. This graph we normally like to show shows the KCC average earnings in blue columns, the dry bulk spot earnings in gray, and the product tanker earnings in black. Over time, we have managed to outperform these markets with a factor of 1.5. The CABUs had a fantastic quarter in the second quarter, but of course, due to the strong market, but also due to improving operational efficiency of the fleet. This happens despite continued problems with COVID restrictions in China, leading to slower port turnaround times and congestion.
We have relocated two carriers from Atlantic to Pacific in the first quarter and part of the second quarter. We now have all eight carriers in trade, in efficient combination trade, in to and from Australia. You can see that on the graph to the left, where we see the mix between dry bulk and tanker trading for the carriers are now back to around 50/50. We also see the improvements in the percentage of the days in combination trading, now more than 80%. We also see a significant reduction in the ballast percentage of our fleet. The earnings is spectacular. The highest since 2012, and it's very positively impacted by the strong dry bulk market in the quarter.
Furthermore, the record high fuel prices, making the value of our efficiency higher has also impacted mainly through the dry bulk spot fixtures we have made in the quarter. We also have posted the effect of the product tanker market, but mainly through one of our contracts being index-linked, accounting for around 30% of the tanker capacity of the CLEANBUs. The remaining part is fixed-rate contracts concluded last year. We're very happy with the results of $30,876 per day, which is an increase of $6,600 per day since the first quarter. The performance of the CLEANBUs outperformed both the tankers and dry bulk vessels with effect of 1.2.
Year to date, earnings for the CABUs are now at $27,620. Again, an outperformance of the tankers by $1.6 and the bulk by $1.2. Pleased to report when it comes to the CLEANBU, we have strong progress in the business development of these new ships. It has definitely helped that with the stronger tanker market, but also the more extensive track record we have built over time has been to help. This graph just shows that we've been able to nearly double the number of customers we have charters with in all our CLEANBUs over this year compared to last year. Here the graph just compares to the average other spot earnings.
We also had a close breakthrough in trades, long haul trades, combination trades into the Americas, where we have started a new trade from India, Middle East to East Coast, U.S., and also increased substantially our share of the products moving from the Middle East, India into South America. With help especially with a number of new industrial customers in South America. In the second quarter and to date in the third quarter, we employed five to six of our CLEANBUs in this well-paying and very efficient trade. Efficiency of our CLEANBUs is also measured through our main KPIs. We see we have a 50/50 split between dry bulk and tanker trading in the quarter. We have a very high share of the capacity in combination trading.
Despite the ballast percentage increasing, which is due to fixture of two tanker spot voyages, the average ballast percentage during the first half of the year was 12% is very strong. Earnings of the CLEANBUs of $29,558 is very strong, an increase of more than $10,000 per day compared to the first quarter. It, of course, is helped mainly by the strong dry bulk market and the positive effect of higher fuel prices. The positive effects from the booming product tanker market will mainly be seen in the third quarter.
This is partly due to the fact that the first part of the quarter, the vessels traded more in dry trades, and partly due to one vessel stuck in congestion with a freight rate lower than the spot market at the time. As we come back to the outlook for the CLEANBUs for the third quarter is very strong. Here today, the earnings are $24,053 per day, which is 1.1x the product tanker, other one product tanker earnings and matching the Capesize earnings during the period. Liv, will you take over?
Thank you, Engebret. I will start with EBITDA as I usually do. As you can see here, EBITDA for Q2 was $26.6 million. That's an increase of close to 50% from last quarter. As you probably already have noticed, the main driver behind this change is the higher TCE earnings. In total, this amounts to $11.5 million, as you can see here in the green columns. Operating expenses increased by $2 million from Q1 to Q2. If we have a closer look at operating expenses per day, the CABUs to the left and the CLEANBUs to the right, you will see, and I think I also mentioned that in the last quarterly presentation, that OPEX per day is quite volatile from quarter to quarter.
The increase of $1,300-$1,400 per day from Q1 to Q2 for both segments is mainly due to timing of crew changes. We had substantially more crew changes in Q2 compared to Q1. We also see some effects of timing of purchasing and maintenance. However, if we have a look at the average for the first half of 2022, $7,700 for the CABU vessels and close to $8,500 for the CLEANBU vessels, you will see that that is quite in line with the average for 2021. However, we do expect this to be somewhat higher in the second half compared to first half, as that is the usual trend we see in OPEX through the year.
If we then have a look at the items below EBITDA for Q2, you will see that depreciation is quite stable. Net financial items slightly down. This is impacted by a modification gain related to some changes in one of the mortgage debt facilities. This is a positive one-off of $1.2 million for Q2, partly offset by somewhat higher interest costs as well as a negative effect in Q2. Profit for the quarter, $16.2 million, an increase of approximately 120% from Q1. Return on capital employed, 12.7% for Q2, up from 7% last quarter. Based on the strong financials and the outlook, as Engebret mentioned, dividends 23¢ Per share for Q2.
As you will see on the bottom here, we had off-hire days of 102 in Q2, an increase of 60 days, all related to dry docking. The remaining 40 days in Q2 were approximately 20 days COVID-related. Let's have a look at first half as well. EBITDA $44.4 million, up approximately 80% from the same period last year. One of the main drivers here as well is increased TCE earnings amounting to $11.7 million for the CABU fleet and $6.1 million for the CLEANBU fleet. We as well took delivery of three vessels during first half last year. In total, this amounts to $6.5 million in positive change between these two periods.
While we sold one CABU vessel in December last year, when comparing first half last year and this year, a negative effect of $2.1 million. We also saw somewhat higher expenses or costs comparing these two periods. Over to the table to the right, you will see that depreciation is quite stable but somewhat impacted by the fleet change. Net financial items down $0.4 million. That's also explained by the same items as for Q2 this year with a large one-off of $1.2 million positive. Profit for the first half, $23.5 million, up from $1.4 million last year.
Dividends per share 4¢ compared to 7.5 in first half of 2021, and return on capital employed close to 10% for first half. Over to cash flow. Cash increased by close to $10 million in the quarter. In addition to the strong EBITDA, we saw a positive change in working capital of $7 million, dry docking cost of $4.5 million, and debt service of around $9 million. We as well paid dividends in May of $9.4 million, and hence the cash position at the end of Q2 $67.2 million. Available liquidity approximately 160 million dollars, whereof approximately $20 million related to overdraft facility, a short-term mainly used for working capital changes.
Approximately $20 million as well allocated to energy efficiency investments. As you know, we raised equity last year for these investments. We as well have a healthy balance sheet equity ratio at end of Q2, 43.6%, and an increase of approximately 1.6 percentage points from the end of Q1. As mentioned, we did some modifications to one of the mortgage debt facilities. It was extended by one year until March 2027, and we renegotiated the margin on LIBOR terms. The decrease is approximately 75 basis points. This was as well transferred to term SOFR from LIBOR. The first major refinancing is coming up in December 2023. That's it regarding P&L and balance sheet. Engebret, over to you.
Thank you, Liv. Just to summarize again, despite increasing macroeconomic risks, we have high expectations for the results of KCC and the performance of KCC over the coming quarters. We have, as you see from the graph, both two of our markets, both fuel prices and the tanker market record high, while the product market has weakened somewhat. Don't count out the dry markets. There are good possibility that could jump back over the coming quarters. While the market backdrop is still strong, you should expect that we will have a continued volatility in these markets, which will impact our earnings, making the quarter results going a bit up and down.
Looking ahead, we have progressed well during 2022 with increasing the market share of the caustic soda shipments to Australia. We are optimistic that we can increase further in 2023. Based on the strong tanker markets, we are also optimistic that we can achieve a solid increase for caustic soda to Australia in 2023, which will support the CABU earnings next year. As mentioned, we are very happy with the progress we've made on the CLEANBU, where we have expanded combination trading and the number of customers that create a solid base for the CLEANBU and more stability on the trading and both the effects through trading efficiency and earnings and pricing.
Another lesson for the CLEANBU we should remember is that the flexibility of the ships makes it possible for us to adjust the mix of dry bulk and tanker trading dependent on the relative strength of the market. Yeah, I'll give you one example. We had the Baleen fixed from India to New York this summer. After that, we fixed her with CPP southbound from East Gulf to Brazil, instead of what we normally do, fixing typical long haul cargoes out of East Gulf with grains to the Far East or Middle East. After we completed the voyage in South America, we have two options. Normally, we would take sugar or grains into Middle East or the Far East. As it looks now, we may rather take a cargo from South America into India.
This shows the flexibility we have, and which we will actively use over the coming quarters. Based upon a high percentage of the capacity fixed for third quarter, we are confident that the third quarter will be another record-breaking quarter for KCC. Looking at the coverage, we will guide on an earnings of $25,500-$26,500 per day. The earnings is impacted by the weaker dry bulk market, and the positive effects of the product market will not be enough to offset the dry bulk market effect. As you know, the contracts we have on the coverage will expire at the end of the year and positive effects from market will only be reflected in 2023.
We are very happy to see the strong performance we expect for the CLEANBUs in the third quarter, regarding earnings of between $44,000 and $46,000 per day, which is an increase of more than close to $20,000 per day. Which gives an average earnings of $35,300 to $36,900 as guidance for the total fleet for the third quarter. Before we end, we want to remind you that our model, our business model is, in our opinion, more future-proof and profitable than the standard tanker and dry bulk markets, and also more resilient to all risks that we may face with the macroeconomic uncertainty we have ahead of us.
We have a model providing the lowest carbon emission shipping service in the industry. This we believe will become more and more important going forward. Due to the diversification effect of different markets, we have lower earnings volatility. Due to efficiency, we have been able to earn substantially more than the standard markets over time. Please do not forget to tune in on our webcast. There will be new episodes coming up over the coming weeks, where we and you can find it on podcast and other places you find Spotify, where you would normally find such podcasts. Thank you. That ends the presentation, and we are ready for questions.
Yep. We have a couple of questions here. How should we think about the remaining open exposure for Q3, given the sharp decline in the dry bulk spot rate? To what extent are you capable to switch more capacity into the product tanker market in Q4?
I think the weakening dry market is already reflected in our estimations and our guidance for the quarter. For the CABUs, we have rather limited possibilities to increase tank exposure. As I mentioned in the example, we continue to try to adapt the tanker exposure and increase the tank exposure of the CLEANBUs without compromising the trading efficiency of the fleet.
How much do you expect the freight rate for caustic soda contracts to increase?
I think it's too early. You can just imagine that last year when we negotiated the contracts, the spot market was below $10,000 per day for a month, and the term TC rates for the next 12 months was around $12,000 per day. Today's spot market is closer to $40,000 and the term TC rates for a month are close to $25,000 per day. I think you can just imagine that assuming that the freight tanker market continues, I think we are going for a solid increase. I can't tell you how much.
With the increase in number of customers and trades so far in 2022, what do you expect in this area going forward?
I think we have got a very good momentum with respect to increasing customers and expanding trade. It took us some time to convince the market that our ships were as safe but much more efficient and with a lower carbon footprint than the standard vessels. I do believe that this will continue. We have advanced well, as mentioned on the Atlantic trades, and we do expect and hope that we can also advance further in our trades to Australia over the coming quarters.
Yep. That seems to be it.
Okay. Thank you for joining.