Good afternoon and good morning, everyone. This is Constantin Baack, I'm CEO of MPC Container Ships, and I would like to welcome you to our Q1 2022 earnings call. Thank you for joining us to discuss the first quarter earnings. This morning, we have issued a stock market announcement covering MPCC's first quarter results for the period ending March 31st, 2022. The release, as well as the accompanying presentation for this conference call, are available on the investor and media section of our website. Please be advised that the material provided and our discussion today contain forward-looking statements and indicative figures. Actual results may differ materially from those stated or implied by forward-looking statements due to the risks and uncertainties associated with our business.
Before I start with the presentation, I would like to state that we are very pleased to report another strong quarter for MPC Container Ships in which we have been able to sustainably grow our earnings and profits amidst macro uncertainty. Consequently, we have announced an increase in our recurring dividend for the first quarter 2022, which is 18% higher than in the previous quarter. The container market continues to be strong, with availability of vessels remaining tight, yet due to the uncertainties, freight rates and time charter rates took a little bit of a breather recently. We will definitely touch on that as part of the market section. On that note, I would like to start today's presentation commencing with the Q1 company highlights, followed by a market update and then concluding with a company outlook.
Turning to slide four, which provides a snapshot of our key pillars in terms of fleet, financial standing, strategic focus, and corporate setup. I would like to run through some of the key ingredients here. As one of the leading intra-regional tonnage providers, we own and operate a fleet of 67 vessels, which includes our two new buildings and five vessels held in a joint venture with a total capacity of around 150,000 TEU. Over the past one to two years, we have rolled out a very clear and solid strategy, which we believe created a lot of value for the company and our shareholders. Over the past quarters, we are focused on reshuffling the balance sheet, and we now have a very solid balance sheet with a low leverage and more than 30 vessels unencumbered.
This has been done in order to provide high flexibility and very high discretion for our capital allocation decisions, in particular, the ability to also return capital to investors. We are furthermore locked in long-term charters in order to build a sizable contract, and projected EBITDA backlog of $1.7 billion on the revenue side and around $1.4 billion on projected EBITDA basis. Furthermore, cyclical and capital-intense businesses like container shipping should, in my view, be based on clear and rational capital allocation principles and investment principles when it comes to decision-making and capital allocation.
We firmly believe that we have walked the talk in that respect by executing on a clear strategy which centers around mitigation of residual value risk in investment decisions and placing an emphasis on deployment of capital in certain phases and placing an emphasis on returning capital to shareholders in other phases. That does not mean we do not pursue growth measures at this stage, but it means we are now in a period of selective growth, focusing on a per share accretive transactions as part of our ambition. Finally, we obviously operate in what we believe is a well-established corporate setup with transparent governance and a strong ESG commitment. On that note, I would like to continue with slide five. Please turn to the next slide.
Again, we have illustrated here a few performance measures and financial positions, as well as some of the highlights for this quarter. Basically, all KPIs are significantly improved compared to Q1 last year, both in terms of performance indicators, but also in terms of balance sheet items. This is further illustrated by the multiples shown in the table on the slide in blue. With $143 million in revenues for Q1 2022, we were around 2.8x higher than the same period in 2021. Similarly, at $137 for Q1 2022, EBITDA is more than 6x above the respective Q1 2021 figure.
Furthermore, also the net result at $170 million in earnings per share at $0.26 per share reflects a significant increase in our performance. Utilization stayed fairly stable at around 99%, and the average time charter equivalent generated with our fleet is 2.4 x compared to Q1 2021 and around 8% higher than the same figure for Q4 last year. As per the end of Q1, the lower part of the table on the left, the company had a cash balance of around $80 million. Moreover, all key balance sheet figures have strengthened further with an equity ratio of around 70% and a financial leverage of around 20%.
Further details on our Q1 financials are made available in the appendix of this presentation, but also in the Q1 2022 financial report, which is available on our website. A few comments on the quarter. We have been able to benefit from a strong charter market during the first quarter by concluding 23 predominantly long-term charters. This includes quite a number of strategic forward fixtures with key liner partners reaching into 2026 and 2027 on our second-hand fleet and into 2031 for our two new buildings. We'll elaborate on that in a bit more detail later on in the presentation. With the handover of the three vessels to new owners in Q1 2022, we have also successfully concluded profitable strategic vessel sales, generating $64 million in gains.
Since two of the vessels were JV vessels, the net effect gain on our Q1 2022 figure is $39.9 million. The net proceeds of these transactions have already been or will be distributed to shareholders. Part of that has already been distributed as part of the event-driven distribution in Q1, and we have today announced another event-driven distribution, which I'll elaborate on in a few minutes. Furthermore, we have executed what we believe is a unique opportunity in the newbuilding segment where we have ordered two 5,500 wide-beam eco-designs, which are ready to be converted to operate on green methanol once such fuel is widely available.
The charters concluded were very attractive in our view, completely de-risking the investment over the initial charter period, which is extremely unusual in historic terms if you look at new buildings. This is also why we have been able to carry out these new buildings, sticking to our mitigation of residual value risk strategy whilst obviously looking at attractive transactions in line with, let's say, also the upcoming decarbonization regulations. Overall, that is at the bottom, on the right bottom side of this presentation.
Year to date, we have declared $271 million or around roughly NOK 4 per share in distributions, of which $200 million have already been paid during the first quarter, and an additional $71 million have been announced today for payout in the course of the next couple of weeks, as per the respective stock exchange announcements. Now, let me continue with some additional macroeconomic developments and operational updates from a macro standpoint. The global economic growth has been revised downwards recently to 3.6% for both 2022 and 2023. Overall, robust international trade is expected with respect to growth rates of 5% and 4.4% respectively for this year and next year.
There are obviously a few uncertainties, one being obviously the prevailing congestion, and we'll elaborate on the market dynamics in a bit more detail later on in the presentation. There are obviously quite a number of geopolitical uncertainties prevailing as well in light of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, that have an effect on the overall economic landscape and outlook, certainly in terms of inflation and also interest rates. We'll get to that in a bit more detail later on. Certainly events that are worth highlighting for Q1 this year. On the portfolio and operations side, we have handed over three vessels that we had already concluded the sale, end of last year, AS Petulia, AS Palatia, and AS Patricia.
Again, two of these vessels are held in our 50/50 joint venture, hence only part of the proceeds have been or will be distributed to shareholders. All of these vessels have been successfully handed over in the course of the first quarter. There are no further sale transactions outstanding at this point in time. Two new buildings contracted. We discussed that in detail on the last slide. That is a milestone transaction for us, and we believe this transaction has a very attractive risk-return dynamics for MPCC and our shareholders for that matter. From an operational standpoint, obviously the operations, as already addressed during the past quarters, is still affected by COVID-related challenges and certain and now recently also geopolitical tensions.
We still were able to actually operate with a very solid fleet utilization of around 99%. The continued emphasis and focus will be placed on OpEx, CapEx, and very importantly, seafarers' welfare, which our crew has and other crews on this planet have obviously already suffered under the COVID implications over the last years. Now with the geopolitical tensions, this adds up. Therefore, all the efforts that have been done on our side, on the OpEx side, has only been made possible with the commendable efforts and flexibility of the crew serving on board of our vessels, for which we are clearly grateful. Looking at the next slide, corporate developments, certain changes in terms of governance and ESG or update on governance and ESG.
We have held a few EGMs in the first quarter to get our dividend plan approved. The EGM has approved the dividend authorization for the board on which basis we are now acting and basically deciding and making the distributions. Furthermore, we have had some developments in the board with Peter Frederiksen being elected as a new board member, replacing Darren Maupin. We have also continued with our ESG efforts. We have published our next ESG report in March, and various measures are in execution supporting our ESG strategy as set out in our report. On the distributions, we have already touched on that, so I will not run through the details again.
We will also look into that going forward, as part of the company outlook. Now, let's continue on the chartering activity, portfolio highlights and fixture activity on slide eight. We have had a very intense quarter in terms of charter activity as we have not only fixed positions that became open in Q1, but also a large number of forward positions, excluding some interim employments and positioning voyages, but including the long-term charters on our new builds, we have concluded more than 20 fixtures in Q1 2022 alone. You can see the number of fixtures, average charter rates, average TEU fixed, and average periods for the last 5 quarters in the table below the graph.
What this shows is that rates improved, periods got longer from quarter to quarter, and Q1 2022 is basically continuation of what has already been visible in Q4 2021. That is a shift in fixing pattern, more towards also forward fixtures. Recently, due to the market macroeconomic uncertainty, the freight and charter market has taken a little bit of a breather, as I mentioned earlier, but rates are still at significantly elevated levels, but more on this in the upcoming market section. On that note, I would like to move on to the market section on slide 10. Starting off with some observations from the container freight market. The graph on this slide shows the key indicators for ocean freight, namely the freight rate index and the annual TEU throughput.
Box rates increased to record highs. Here is shown the CCFI, so the China Containerized Freight Index, reflecting China's nationwide exports of the entire shipping routes, including also contractual freight rates. So also the contract business, very important. Seasonal patterns and COVID lockdowns basically led to less TEU trade volumes and thus a current softening of the index, but still, as I said, on very elevated levels. Robust international trade growth is expected going forward. If we now look at the boxes below the graph, freight rates are very elevated, and the latest reading is still well above 3,000 index points end of April. In terms of trade growth, we expect 4% for 2022.
A few liner indicators, which are obviously also important is, for example, Maersk expects more than 70% of long-term contracts in 2022 out of all contracts. They have recently announced that they believe that could go up until almost 80%. This is obviously just an indication and guidance. Furthermore, we have seen record liner earnings, again, with the example of Maersk earning $9 billion in the first quarter alone. The same picture as with other liner companies. From also customer perspective, we see a lot of our customers basically operating with a net debt of zero, having a very healthy balance sheet. That is, I think, very important when looking at the years ahead.
Please turn to page 11 of the presentation where we now look at the charter market dynamics in a bit more detail, both in terms of rates and periods. On the left-hand side, spot time charter rates increased to record levels. Currently softening due to what I would say is a bit of a wait and see position by the charterers, driven by macro and geopolitical uncertainties. That has also been leveling out in the previous week. A lot of that will have to be reassessed once China reopens in terms of the current lockdown and the zero COVID policy, which is currently expected for early June.
That will certainly have an impact on the market as a lot of volumes will then have to be shipped out of China, which are currently creating a backlog. On the right-hand side, you can see that the, you know, periods increased significantly and the lighter blue line redelivery spreads are basically negligible at this point in time. Moving forward to the next slide 12, where we now look at some structural changes in the charter market that can be observed or that we can observe, especially recently, and I think that is very important. On the left, the bars show the percentage of forward fixtures of total number of fixtures.
In Q1 2022, there have been almost 60% forward fixtures of in total 190 fixtures in Q1. That is a very significant number, and certainly shows a trend towards, you know, scarcity of assets going forward. Which is actually reflected on the right-hand side. There we have used different sources to analyze the availability of charter vessels in the past, and a bit of an outlook. Again, this is indications from our own analysis. We basically have observed in the years 2019, 2020, and 2021, roughly 1,500 charter vessels being available to the market throughout the respective year.
Early this year, there was more around 450-500 vessels, of which, due to the significant forward fixing activity, we believe there is only around 200-250 vessels left for the remainder of the year. That is talking end of Q1, so with three more quarters ahead, which is a very limited number of vessels going forward. If we kind of continue that assessment because most of the vessels are generally on long-term charters. If we prolong this view for 2023, we currently expect somewhere between 350 and 400 vessels coming open in 2023 and available to the charter market, which would mean even more constrained than it was going into this year already.
This is a bit of a, let's say, new picture in terms of the charter market dynamics. Certainly, you know, the forward fixing has wiped out availability, not just for the quarters ahead, but also well into 2023. Very important development in our view when looking at the sustainability of the charter market. Now, looking at some disruption and congestion figures, which probably everyone is looking at for quite some time now. You can see, you know, on the left-hand side, we have illustrated the Clarksons Port Congestion Index, which is again at record level driven by lockdowns in China and obviously the Russia-Ukraine conflict, obviously to a lesser extent relevant, more relevant is China.
When China opens slowly in June, we expect two months at least of, let's call it normalization. It needs time. We will see significant increase in TEU volumes out of China, that is at least what we expect. They will then arrive in the U.S. West Coast, and most likely lead to an increase in congestion over there. Leaving aside the labor union negotiations where the outcome is yet to be seen. We do believe that that will lead to further congestions and disruption of the supply chains going forward. On the right-hand side, this is the Global Supply Chain Pressure Index from the U.S. Fed.
Also at very elevated level, little easing in the past month since December, but still at a historically high level. That index combines global transportation costs and with supply chain related components like delivery times or backlogs, et cetera. This in combination keeps the index quite elevated. In terms of blocked capacity, always a very important indicator. That's at the bottom, the third box at the bottom. I think that is very important to also see 11.3% is blocked capacity. That translates, however, in even more inefficiencies because that's just the capacity that is blocked, and it is missed elsewhere. The disruption becomes evident when looking at these figures.
In our view, this disruption will not ease down over the next quarter. It will take time for that to be settled. Finally, on the markets, a bit of a perspective on supply and demand. Obviously, we have seen a very significant ordering activity. On the left-hand side, we see the total markets due to the order book deliveries in 2023 and 2024. Fleet growth will exceed demand growth in the aggregate. On the right-hand side, we have taken a more intra-regional perspective because the order book is pretty much geared towards the large ships certainly above 12,000 TEU.
Fleet growth is much lower, as you can see on the right-hand side, as the order book is, as I said, biased towards the larger sizes. The order book on the smaller sizes is at around 15%, catering for demand expectations, which are relatively good for intra-regional trades. We see a supply shortage, which would probably be to some extent addressed by some cascading and optimization of trades and trading pattern. Very importantly, I think that cannot be underestimated is the expectation of new regulation. We expect in particular the CII regulation to have a significant effect on the effective trading capacity.
We have run a few internal analysis that show that, for example, for the Caribbean, smaller feeders will need to adjust their speed effectively by somewhere between 8%-15%. That will certainly have a significant impact on the effective trading capacity in certain trades, meaning capacity will be taken out of the market. Now let me move on to the company outlook. I would like to continue, please turn to page 16, which provides an overview of the fixed and open days, in a form that we have presented in the past, as well as the contracted revenues and projected EBITDA backlog, from Q2 2022 onwards. Let me start from left to right. On the left you can see the three quarterly columns.
Obviously Q1 2022 is already done. You see the respective revenue and TCE figures in green and gray box above that column. You can see on the right-hand side by year the contracted days versus the open days and the respective contracted forward revenue and contracted forward TCE. What is worth noting is that the contracted TCE is actually increasing as the vessels that we have been able to fix for longer periods are the ones that have also already higher charter rates. Meaning that for example the 17% of fixed days in 2025 already represent more than $180 million in revenues.
That leaves 83% of the days open, meaning we already have a very stable, let's say, profitability outlook for the years ahead, not just 2022, but also 2023, 2024, well into 2025. That is, I think, very worth noting, and that is increasing by each fixture that we conclude. Now on slide 17, if we then look forward, what are the open positions? I alluded to it earlier that, you know, we have been able to fix quite a number of positions forward, and that you can see on the left-hand side, in the blue circles, where we have shown the vessels that we fixed for the respective quarters.
You see full year 2022, we have already fixed 18 vessels and have six open positions left. Those six positions are in Q3 and Q4. We believe that in particular with a possible easing of the lockdown in China, that there will be significant demand for extra loaders and for more capacity. We will see how that will play out in the charter market. We believe that with our fleet in the second half of this year, we are very well positioned for that matter. We have also been able, and that's the last column here of the 13 positions for next year.
We have already forward fixed two vessels that are on 2023 expiries, so well ahead of their expiry as we speak. We have then also looked at the current you know period market. We have looked at figures from Clarksons in terms of charter rates and periods have applied that to the six open positions that are still open in the course of 2022. At the bottom right, you can see what that potential, looking at the current market dynamics in terms of period and rates translates into roughly $264 million in revenue potential and roughly $212 million in EBITDA potential for the six positions.
If you were to apply the same figures for the remaining open position in 2023, that would roughly be revenue potential of $150 million and EBITDA potential of around $340 million for our vessels. Again, I'm not suggesting that the market will continue forever like this. However, looking at the scarcity of assets that we foresee for the remainder of this year and for next year, we believe that there is at least certain stability when looking at the charter market in general. Now from the open positions, I would like to tie that in with kind of a bit of a sensitivity and outlook. We have shown here on slide 18 in form that we have done that in previous quarters as well.
In this case, two scenarios. We have looked at current market rates as per the prior slide, blended TCE for our fleet and have applied that for the open days, as per, you know, slide 16, and have shown a sensitivity of what can be expected in terms of operating revenues, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net profit. The same, we have used the 10-year historical average for our vessel basket at the bottom scenario.
That in combination with the distributions that we have already declared and/or paid, which you can see on the right-hand side, and applying our distribution policy, we expect there is very significant distribution capacity, not only in a current market rate scenario, but also in a scenario where rates move sideways or soften a bit. That is something that we believe there is significant distribution upside going forward and potential for a very sustainable distribution for MPC Container Ships and our shareholders. Before opening the floor for questions, I would like to wrap up the presentation.
Please turn to slide 19, which is a summary slide summarizing our view of the current market state, market status and outlook, how we position MPCC in this market, and why we believe we are well-positioned for the future. First of all, from a short-term market standpoint, we continue to witness, as I said, historically strong container markets, despite the discussed geopolitical tensions and macro uncertainties. This is further amplified by what we discussed earlier in terms of global supply chain disruptions, a situation that we believe is unlikely to ease anytime soon. We have, at the same time, locked in significant charter revenues, and hence we are well-positioned to benefit from the open positions that we still have from continuously tight vessel supply.
In the midterm, obviously, despite significant order book in larger sizes, we see an encouraging supply-demand outlook for intra-regional tonnage. We believe that the upcoming regulation will have a significant impact on effective trading capacity, especially in intra-regional trades. In this market, we have positioned ourselves as leading tonnage provider for intra-regional trades, and we believe with our low leverage and significant operating leverage and strong secured cash flow generation going forward, we are well-positioned moving forward to take selective growth decisions. As previously mentioned, our strategy is focusing on value-accretive decisions and operations. That means we target investments that achieve double-digit full-cycle equity returns on the basis of fairly low leverage.
I guess that is where we are already today to conduct transparent and active rational capital allocation and still to opportunistically pursue transactions that are per share accretive, within our field, and obviously ensure professional asset and portfolio management. Therefore, we believe we are well-positioned going forward, and we will continue to place a strong emphasis on creating shareholder value by focusing on these kind of transactions. With such a compelling risk/reward profile, we will look forward to MPCC's value strategy continuing for the years to come, and now I'm very happy to answer questions. Back to you, operator.
At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Again, that is star one on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from the line of Frode Mørkedal. Your line is open.
Yeah. Thank you. Hello. Just the first question I had is in the report you talk about the recurring dividend. I think you just mean you know a quarterly dividend but it could be seen as a fixed dividend. Can you just clarify that? It's not a fixed $0.30 dividend right? It's still 75% of EPS.
Yes. Absolutely, Frode. Thanks for the question. We have shown that in the appendix. I think it's slide 20, 21 in the appendix, where we have shown a bridge how we arrive at the adjusted net profit, which then is the basis for the recurring dividend. Recurring refers to the fact that it's quarterly recurring, and that the principle is that we want to pay out 75% of adjusted net profits. So it is recurring. It's not recurring in terms of the actual number, but in terms of the actual concept behind calculating the number on a quarterly basis.
Yeah. Yeah. Great. Next question is counterparty risk. I mean, if you look at this EBITDA backlog, you have $1.4 billion more than the current market cap and very limited net debt you still have, right? I'm sure you get that question a lot of the time, but you know, how do you see counterparty risk and whenever rates start to normalize in the future?
I mean, first of all, obviously we have shifted in also over the last few years from more, you know, market and employment risk to a counterparty risk. Therefore it is one of the key risks that we assess basically on each charter, but also ongoing. If you look at the counterparty, let's say, structure at the moment, we have a well-diversified set of counterparties. We have done in Q1 in particular a few, I would say, strategic forward fixtures in particular with some of the very strong household names in the market. It's not just all about rates, it's also about rates and already thinking about the charter book and charter portfolio. That is something that we do constantly.
If you then look at the, let's say, the top 10, 15 liner companies, I would say all of them are probably net debt zero. All of them have longer contracts, and I alluded to that earlier on Maersk, who expect to be up to 80% of this year's contract to be more long-term contracts. We believe that, you know, in general, the counterparty risk has never been lower than it is today because of the, let's say, a parallel good earnings of the liners and the owners. Having said that, on certain contracts, we have obviously addressed that.
As an example, our two new buildings where we have a heavily front-loaded charter structure, basically, you know, generating this 70% of the overall contract value over the first 2.5 years. We have catered for that as part of the structure of a number of charter parties. I think in general, counterparty risk is obviously important, yet I believe the counterparties are in a very strong condition at present. That is, for example, a completely different scenario than it was after the financial crisis in 2008, where you had highly levered counterparties, et cetera.
I'm positive on the counterparties, looking at the market as it stands today and also the outlook in particular, due to the way lower leverage on the balance sheets of our counterparties, as well as the more good earnings and more visible backlog also for our customers.
Yeah, I agree. I mean, given the strong balance sheet of the liner companies, there's no reason to start renegotiating any rates. The final question I have is on your strategy going forward. You know, how do you envision positioning your fleet in the next few years? I mean, in terms of renewing, selling ships, with this new carbon regulations coming up, I know you sold a lot of ships and that's been very helpful. You know, if you could talk around that a bit. Thanks.
No, I mean, obviously the way we look at it and that's why, you know, last year we have been a buyer and a seller of ships, because, you know, we took a view at the point in time when charters were up for renewal. When charters are up for renewal and you can actually get an attractive price in the S&P market, we would also consider selling ships for the time being. Especially in the first quarter, the charter market has been extremely strong. It's not just that we were able to to fix charters at attractive periods and rates, but also way forward. Basically generating a very significant, I would say, incremental value and added value for the company.
It really depends on the charter market environment, whether to consider a sale or a charter. I think the first quarter has shown that at least in our view, we have taken the right decision to also forward charter out a significant number of vessels strategically with good counterparties. That is what we have done. Going forward, we will obviously reassess that subject to market developments.
To kind of sell a vessel with cash flow just for the cash flow just to bring forward some cash flow and give away the, let's say, optional value at the end of the charter, and this is how the S&P market in general prices transactions, is something that I would think from today's perspective is not the right thing to do. Because we can continue to pay out significant dividends, harvest a lot, and still have a sizable fleet with more upside down the road.
As I alluded to with the new regulation, our firm view is that the new regulation will in particular lead to slower speeds on smaller vessels because of the intricacies of the trades, because of the way the formula works. Therefore we believe trading pattern will be adjusted going forward. That is actually an upside. I would not necessarily say that we need to sell the vessels now. To the contrary, I think at the moment it's a very attractive chartering pitch.
Having said that, if there are opportunities to selectively grow and to look at it, you know, transactions like the two new builds that de-risk themselves immediately do not have any implications on kind of reducing the dividend going forward because they have no impact on net profit going forward because it runs through the balance sheet and rather extends the, let's say, earnings potential into 2031 for those specific vessels. I think these are transactions that we would look at and I do believe that similar transactions can be developed. We want to be selective. We don't necessarily need to grow as quickly as we have done over the last 5 years. I have no doubts that we will find attractive opportunities.
If you look back over the last three to five years, we have always been able to do so, but we will not be in a rush to grow the fleet at any price. We will stick to our principles.
Sounds great. Thank you.
Thanks, Frode.
Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Again, that is star one on your telephone keypad.
Operator, if there are no questions through the line, there are a few questions through the web, which I'm happy to run through maybe as a next step. There is a question by Lars Erik Hessnes. He says, as far as I know, MPCC was formed as an asset play with a specific period before liquidation. Has that changed? Yes, that has changed. We have, I think it was in 2018 with the up-listing into the main board of the Oslo Stock Exchange. The, let's say limited lifetime of the company has been removed by the EGM. So that has changed. I'm happy to follow up through the IR box if there are further questions on that, Lars Erik. There's a question by Vegard Fjellheim.
Given the recent softening of indexes, have the time periods asked by the charterers come down as well? In general, I would say the market is softer. The market is softer in terms of activity, and the market is softer in terms of also rates or rather periods to some extent, but really more on the forward basis. If you have spot vessels, you could still obtain attractive charters. I think as I said earlier, the market has taken somewhat of a breather. Some charters have taken a wait and see attitude also in light of a combination of the Ukraine-Russia situation as well as the lockdown in China. Because of the lockdown, simply, you know, the cargo is not being shipped. Therefore it's just natural that the market is a bit calmer.
In general, it is fair to say that fewer vessels are available to the market, which in turn will, in my view, lead more to a stabilization of the charter market. I would not rule out that, you know, periods and charters might soften somewhat. I don't think that will be a significant shift south, especially in light of the current China situation and continuous disruptions and the fact that only a few vessels are actually available in the charter market. There's a question by Stefan Strand. Will you also start share buybacks? We have looked and basically also with this quarterly distribution announcement, we have looked at alternatives. We believe that a share buyback is always an option.
However, we also believe that, you know, a dividend is a very reliable tool to be a, let's say, reliable partner to the investor community so everyone knows what to expect. That doesn't mean we would not consider share buybacks, but we are obviously very kind of committed to our distribution policy, and the key pillar is paying a reliable dividend going forward. Having said that, we will obviously also continue share buybacks, and I wouldn't rule out that is also on the menu going forward. There's a question by Raymon Burnier. MPCC has two new builds on order. Can we expect the company to also buy the remaining new builds currently on order by MPC Capital? The answer is no. These new builds have different owners. MPC Capital has just arranged for the transaction.
There's a completely different set of owners behind it. I think the price by now is significantly higher than the price of the new builds that we have ordered, meaning we have significant hidden reserves in our two new builds. I would not expect any acquisition of those new builds by MPCC. I can actually rule that out. There's a question by Helge André Martinsen. Firstly, with the company now trading at a substantial discount to NAV, are you evaluating further share repurchases? I guess I have answered that question already when Stefan Strand asked that. Secondly, Tim mentioned in the earnings call extra MPCC new builds fixtures than the two already communicated.
Any comments on this or just a mix-up from Tim with MPC Capital? The latter is the case. Only two vessels are owned by MPC Container Ships. The other vessels are completely unrelated to MPC Container Ships and have different shareholders. I think that must be a mix-up on the Tim side. There is another question by Mikkel Emil Jensen here. How do you expect vessel values to develop during the next years? In general, that obviously boils down to the charter market development. I do believe that we will continue to see a more stable charter market than we have seen over the last 12 years, just due to the fact that fewer vessels are available.
I do believe that there's more stability and that is obviously applicable for rates and periods. Obviously, vessel values are closely linked to charter periods and rates, as they are basically a reflection of future cash flow. The moment we see, you know, periods getting shorter, I do expect that we will see also lower vessel values. At the same time, as we see periods getting longer and forward fixtures getting done, I can also expect that vessel values might be lifted again. I think it really boils down to the charter market developments ahead with a very low number of vessels being available to the charter market in the remaining 2022 and 2023.
I think it is a good basis for expecting also sustainable or stable, more stable vessel value environment. Next question is, do you think new climate regulations will affect vessel values in a negative way, especially when it comes to older ships? I do believe that vessel values are a reflection of the future cash flows, as I said. It really boils down to the charter. I mean, a vessel with a charter, and I think that is why I firmly believe that our valuation will and should actually remain stable because we have assets which basically are supported. Their value is supported by the locked-in cash flow. I think that is very important. A spot vessel might have there might be implications if you know, the cash flow is gone.
There is, in my view, also a significant upside, as I said earlier, due to the new regulation triggering slower speeds, and hence requiring more capacity, and hence the effective trading capacity will be reduced, which in my view, also provides for significant upside on asset values and charter rates. There are at this stage no further questions on the web. Operator, is there any further question coming through your line?
Yes, sir. No more phone questions.
I suggest we'll wait for another minute or so to see whether there are further questions through either the web or the line.
Excuse me. No more phone questions.
Yeah. Okay. There are no questions through the web. I would like to thank everyone for their interest and questions and the discussion. As I said, we are looking forward to more solid quarters for the year 2022 and beyond. I would like to thank you, operator, for moderating the discussion. Everyone, have a pleasant day and all the best. Take care.