Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to today's Q1 2020 earnings call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the presentation, we will have a question-and-answer session. At this time, if you wish to ask a question, you will need to press star and one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. Alternatively, you can submit questions at any time via the webcast. To submit a question, click the Q&A icon on the lower left-hand corner of your screen, type your question in the open area, and click send to submit. I must advise you that this webcast is being recorded today. I would now like to hand the webcast over to your presenter today, Constantin Baack. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Operator, and good afternoon and good morning, everyone. This is Constantin Baack, CEO of MPC Container Ships, and I'm joined by our CFO, Mr. Harald Wilke. Thank you for joining us to discuss MPC Container Ships' first-quarter earnings call. This morning, we issued a press release announcing MPCC's first-quarter results for the period ending March 31st, 2020. The release, as well as the accompanying presentation for this call, are available on the investor and media section of our website. Let me please remind you that the material provided and our discussion today contains forward-looking statements as well as indicative figures. Actual results may differ materially from those stated or implied by forward-looking statements due to the various risks and uncertainties associated with our business. Before I guide you through the presentation, let me start with a few words on the recent developments and present market environment in 2020.
The outbreak of COVID-19 that has been declared a pandemic in March 2020 clearly marks a historic and certainly unprecedented break into the private and business life of everyone. During the Q4 earnings call in February 2020, I did mention that the coronavirus constitutes a new layer of uncertainty, but the magnitude of the implications were certainly unclear at that point in time. The implications on the world economy and the international trading system are severe, and I will elaborate in more detail on the implications this has on both the container market and MPC Container Ships specifically. In these difficult times, our top priority continues to be the safety and well-being of our employees and crews serving on board of our vessels. Equally important is to protect the company's downside risk.
Over the past month, we have therefore carried out a number of proactive measures to further strengthen MPCC's balance sheet and liquidity. Given the magnitude of COVID-19 implications, we do expect further adverse impacts on the container market. This will also affect our liquidity and our ability to be in compliance with covenants under some of our debt agreements. We will therefore approach our creditors and other stakeholders to implement measures to stabilize the company. With that, I would like to start into the presentation with a snapshot on MPCC, and please turn to slide number three. MPC Container Ships, we are client-focused. As the largest owner of feeder container ships globally, we are an integral part as an asset provider globally, and we have a very close tie with key liner operators and companies. We are transparent. We have a competitive cost structure.
This means low cash break-even levels and a lean corporate setup, and we operate on solid operational KPIs and chartering performance compared to benchmark. We have furthermore, as you can see at the lower part of slide three, implemented a number of proactive measures with regards to cost, charter activity and liquidity preservation during the first month of 2020. On the cost side, we have sustainably improved our cash break-even through the implementation of a cost optimization program. The CapEx side was still affected by some of the scrubber costs that we incurred in connection with our scrubber program. On the chartering side, we have been one of the most active tonnage providers with 67 fixtures year to date, with more than 35 different counterparties. This is obviously a reflection of the pretty volatile market environment.
We have a roughly 15% market share in the feeder segment looking at charter fixtures. From a liquidity preservation perspective, we have executed a few proactive measures in Q1. We've carried out an equity placement of $13.5 million in February. We have sold two vessels in February, and we have agreed on a package deal just ahead of the COVID crisis for three of our ships with one top-tier liner operator to take out certain charter risks. We will continue to proactively navigate through the challenging times, and I'll elaborate in a bit more detail about the market and our position and our measures going forward. Now, let me guide you through the key figures of Q1 2020, and please turn to slide four of the presentation. Revenues in Q1 came in at $46 million, slightly above the previous quarter.
With $7.5 million, the Q1 EBITDA improved compared to the previous quarter, which was obviously significantly affected by off-hires due to the scrubber program. The Q1 utilization was 87% and was slightly below the one in Q4 of the last year, but it was still affected by some remaining extraordinary off-hire effects due to the company's scrubber program. At $8,970 roughly per day, the TCE was above Q4 levels. The Q1 operating cash flow was at just below $30 million and slightly above Q4, and that's also affected by the lower utilization. As per the end of Q1, the company had a cash balance of roughly $41 million, while maintaining an equity ratio of 57%, and in line with our strategy, a balance sheet leverage of around 40%.
More details on the Q1 financials can be found in the appendix of this presentation on slide 15 or on the company's website. Please turn to slide five, where we will now provide an update on the key developments year to date. Let me start with market development. While the market saw a rather encouraging start to the year and charter rates at solid levels, well above the levels at the same time and previous year, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, with regional lockdowns and tumbling demand, are expected to cause a global recession in 2020. Since February, idle fleet increased significantly, and charter rates decreased due to lower box volumes, which also puts pressure on the liner companies. Operationally, we've been very active, and we've seen some positive developments. The scrubber program was completed in Q1, and we commenced our long-term scrubber-related employment.
While the start of the year saw a spread between low sulfur and high sulfur fuel oil of $250 and above, which exceeded our expectations, it came down significantly in line with the drop in oil price. Despite this, the long-term scrubber charters, well above market rates from today's perspective, certainly serve as an important contributor to earnings visibility in the current market environment. Based on current spot rates for the scrubber fleet, we expect extra earnings above market for this year, even without the scrubber savings on the spread of around eight million per annum based on current spot rates. Furthermore, in this challenging market environment, we have benefited from our strong relationships and market position in the charter market.
In Q1 alone, we concluded 40 fixtures with 23 different operators, and at the same time, as I mentioned before, we have implemented various cost optimization measures and have been able to further bring down the cash break-even per vessels. Financially, the key focus remains liquidity. On the revenue side, the charter market developments were negatively affected, and the earnings in the first half of this year we will also expect to be affected by the remaining CapEx program from our scrubber installation projects. In order to bolster liquidity, we have carried out a NOK 125 million equity measure in February, and we sold two ships at accretive prices. The buyer of the two ships has unfortunately defaulted under the contract in light of the market environment, and we are in the process of enforcing our legal rights at the very moment.
In the meantime, and despite an almost non-existent S&P market, we have been able to firm up a sale of one of the ships, AS Leona, with a new buyer, with handover expected within the next six weeks. I'll elaborate on that in a bit more detail later on in the presentation. I will now provide an update on the market, so please turn to slide number six of the presentation. Driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 will see a global recession comparable with the financial crisis and the Great Depression in the 1930s. Global GDP is expected to decrease by 3%, and also other parameters like the US economy are expected to decline by almost 6%, and the Euro area by 7.5%.
World trade is expected to decrease by at least 13%, and world seaborne trade, as you can see from this illustration, by 5.5%. Depending on how fast the Western economies will reemerge from lockdown, a recovery is expected, but time and extent of the recovery are highly uncertain. Beyond 2021, as you can see from the chart, analysts expect an increase in global GDP of 5.8% and international trade of more than 20%. Hence, a rebalancing is expected, yet highly uncertain. Please turn to slide number seven, which shows further details on the demand supply development by trades and vessel sizes. On the top left, you see the trade development, and you can obviously see that a significant drop is expected to levels that are somewhere between 2016 and 2017 volumes from 2019 to 2020.
This is across the board, but particularly relevant on the mainlane trades, which are expected to grow the most, to decrease the most, apologies. Intraregional trades provided a share of 40% in 2016, and they are expected to continue to increase throughout 2020 and 2021 in relative importance, which is obviously an important factor for our activities. If you then look at the fleet growth, only moderate fleet growth is expected in the feeder market in 2021, and at the same time, intraregional trades are expected to recover. Now, please turn to slide number eight, which illustrates the charter market, which is significantly under pressure in light of COVID-19. Please note that the chart at the top left shows the charter rate development, and the chart on the top right, the development of the idle fleet.
Around 450 sailings have been blanked year to date, most of them on the mainlane trades, and you can see from the chart at the top left that all rates have come down quite significantly, but even to a larger extent, the larger sizes. The idle statistics climbed significantly over the last couple of weeks and are at a historic high at the very moment. With the impact of blank sailings not yet fully reflected in the idle fleet, the idle statistic is expected to increase even further from today's point. The decrease in time charter rates since January has been, as I mentioned, more pronounced on the larger sizes. Now, let me please turn to slide number nine, which sets out newbuilding prices, secondhand prices, and S&P activity, as well as the development of scrap prices.
Since January 2020, newbuilding prices developed fairly stable, however, with very, very few new orders being actually placed. In April 2020, the price for a roughly 2,800 TEU gearless vessel is $31 million, which is pretty much in line with the previous month. Secondhand container vessel prices developed relatively stable as well, came down a bit since January, and the price for a 10-year-old 2,750 gearless vessel stayed at around $9 million, but especially after February, almost based on no S&P activity whatsoever. The price for a 1,000 TEU geared container ship, as you can see on the chart, of $4.25 million is a value we will get back to later in the presentation because that's a reference for the latest vessel sale that we have conducted yesterday. Scrap prices decreased significantly since January in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, roughly 25% in Turkey by around 20%.
However, scrap yards have basically been shut down as a result of COVID-19 and are now slowly reopening. Following the market section, I would now like to turn to slide 10, where we zoom in on the short-term market risk and how they affect MPCC. On this chart, you can see on the top left that we divided the quarterly charter fixtures of MPCC in three categories, always compared to the last done fixture. First of all, fixtures that came in better than the last done, secondly, fixtures that were the same level as the last done, and thirdly, fixtures that were lower than last done. This can be seen in the columns of the graph, while the red line reflects the Clarksons TC rate index over the period.
What this shows is that, firstly, the rate levels reflected by Clarksons decreased notably in the last two quarters, and that this is also visible when you look at our charter fixtures, where especially in Q2, all fixtures were either at the same level or worse than previous fixtures. On the top right, we have benchmarked the MPCC charter performance versus Alphaliner as a common reference for idle fleet, applying the Alphaliner idle definition to our fleet. While the negative trend obviously reflects the increasing idle fleet, as mentioned before, adjusted, MPCC has been able to outperform the market.
Looking at the charter activity and the immediate charter exposure of MPCC, which is illustrated at the bottom left, you can see that while we have prudently managed open charter exposure throughout 2020 year to date, including charter package deals earlier in the year, and hence we have been able to reduce the open charter exposure for the next 30 days, there's still a notable short-term charter market exposure, and we have quite a few ships in spot position. Generally, as I mentioned before, with a high number of fixtures, we have been extremely active in the market, 67 fixtures and a market share of 15% in the feeder segment year to date. While the short-term demand outlook is characterized by market uncertainty and certainly challenging, the supply side provides some more favorable dynamics.
In a market with reduced container volumes, shifting trading patterns, and in which logistical chains are critically reviewed, potentially resulting in lowering, there will, in our view, be a need for flexible vessel types going forward in feeders. At the same time, no clear invitation to order new vessels, the market uncertainty, and questions about the right propulsion in the future. The chart on slide number 11 shows the age structure of the feeder fleet divided into four main clusters. Cluster one, from top to bottom, vessels on order. The order book is at a historically low, and as I mentioned, the expectation is that there will be very few new orders entering into the books in the foreseeable future.
The second cluster are vessels built post-2010, mostly eco vessels, slightly more competitive compared to standard design built earlier, but given the current oil price, only very limited charter premiums can be earned. Numbers at the size of Christmas tree illustration of relative portion of these vessels compared to 100% of the existing feeder fleet. Cluster number three, this is the cluster where the whole MPCC fleet is positioned, vessels built between 2002 and 2010. If you look at our specific portfolio, all vessels of MPCC are in that cluster, and around 54% of the world feeder fleet is older than the average ship of our fleet. We believe that despite the negative short-term market outlook due to COVID-19, the age structure of the feeder fleet and the continuous need for flexible vessels in future provides a positive midterm outlook for the MPCC fleet.
As such, vessels above 19, 20 years of age that are approaching the fourth class renewal, we expect will be subject to demolition in the near term, and there has been quite a large number of vessels that are already waiting to be scrapped outside India. Please turn to page number 12. The chart on the right illustrates the significant asset appreciation potential by comparing the implied fleet value based on the current capital market valuation versus the newbuilding parity. But how does that compare to real life? The S&P market is extremely dried out at the very moment, and we have recently observed vessel sales close to scrap value, for example, on standard CV 1100 designs. In this market environment, only selective sales are possible.
It takes time, and it is crucial to understand the intricacies of the feeder market and to understand who is the best and potentially only taker for a certain vessel type in a market like this. Therefore, we have recently sold the AS Leona, and we have been able to sell a ship that is 12 years old at a significant premium of around 30% compared to the Clarksons index I referred to earlier, which reflects the value of a 10-year-old vessel. Based on this recent sale of AS Leona, there is a significant upside. However, you need to know whom to sell to, and this is certainly not available for all the fleet in our portfolio.
The cash break-evens of previous quarters, as you can see from the left-hand side, they were affected by one-off CapEx related to scrubber costs, and this chart shows the normalized operating and investing cash break-even of MPCC, excluding financing costs, that we were able to reduce quite notably as part of our cost optimization plan. Now, let me sum up my presentation, so please turn to slide number 13. Obviously, the big headline is the disrupted market environment. The global economy and container shipping markets have experienced an unprecedented disruption due to COVID-19. Undoubtedly, the year 2020 will go into the history books. Effects on world trade are expected to be only temporary, but the timing and shape of any recovery is highly uncertain at this stage.
The disruption in the market will have an adverse effect on the financial situation, cash flow visibility, and ability of covenant compliance of MPCC. In this challenging market, MPCC will continue to implement various internal and external measures. As an integral part of the container market, we will continue to benefit from our market position and the close links to our customers, the liner operators. We will maintain a lean cost structure and continue to place a very strong emphasis on stringent cost control while exploring accretive asset sales to the extent available. As explained before and given the severity of the present situation, we will also engage into dialogue with key stakeholders and creditors to address COVID-19 cost, covenant, and liquidity challenges.
All of these measures constitute the foundation to position MPCC in the best interest of all stakeholders for 2021 and beyond, and with this, I would like to hand back over to the moderator, and I'm looking forward to receiving your questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question over the telephone, please press star and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press the hash key. Or you can submit questions via the webcast. To submit a question, click the Q&A icon on the lower left-hand corner of your screen, type your question in the open area, and click send to submit. And once again, please press star and one to submit the question via the telephone. Thank you.
We currently don't seem to have any questions from the phone lines. Maybe once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. We have no questions. Please continue.
Thank you, operator. If there are no questions, I will give it 30 more seconds and otherwise close the presentation. Okay. There's one question coming in via the Q&A. It's a question of Olof Goretzky. The question is, how are you planning to repay the bond? Vessel sales or not? As I explained, vessel sales are certainly something we consider in the current market environment, but you really need to have the right assets to the right counterparty, and therefore finding the right counterparty is key. We have explored a few vessel sales.
We have actually executed a few vessel sales, and the latest one that we have announced just now and carried out yesterday is an example that you find the right buyer and you can generate an accretive price on the vessel sale. However, the market is extremely dry, as I've explained on one of the slides, and therefore the activity in the S&P market is very, very dry. But certainly, sale of vessels is one option. The bond still has a longer runway, so it matures in September 2022, and it's certainly too early to think about complete refinancing of the bond. Therefore, selective vessel sales might be an option. Are there any further questions either through the Q&A section or via telephone, operator?
There are no questions from the phone lines.
If there are no further questions, I would like to thank everyone for participating and listening in on our earnings call. Thank you, operator, for guiding us through this presentation, and I wish everyone a good and healthy rest of the day. Many thanks.
Thank you. That does conclude our webcast for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.