Good afternoon, good morning. Thank you very much for joining our third quarter's, earnings results. Together with me, as always, is Jens Gunnhagen, but we also have, Lucas Ros, the president of Salt Tankers joining us from Holland. I will be on my presentation. And as always, we will open up for questions, which you can submit through the chat box in the function, and we will go through as many as possible.
The agenda, I will go a summary of Salt Nixon, then we will go through each of the businesses. Jens will take you through the financials, and then we'll open up and read the questions. I think also they can call in. Moving to the highlights for the third quarter. As we announced or wrote in our earnings release, it's primarily driven by very good results from tank containers and Stow Sea Farm.
The operating revenue came in at almost $581,000,000, and that's up from AUD $526,000,000. Operating profit up from AUD 41,000,000 up to AUD $79 EBITDA, 147,800,000.0 and that's up from $160,000,000 and net profit came in at $33,500,000 up from $7,800,000 And the free cash flow that we generated in the quarter was $105,106,000,000 dollars And our net debt to EBITDA, even though it's not a covenant, ended the quarter at 4.7 times our EBITDA. The EBITDA was the higher EBITDA was mainly driven by the higher transportation rates that we saw in tank containers and also the increase in demurrage revenue while we were able to keep our cost, the cost that we pay for the movement of our containers were stable for the quarter. As for Sea Farm, we saw strong seasonal demand like we do them this summer, but that was also combined with less wild catch. And as a result, we got higher prices and higher sales volumes.
High utilization and throughput at most of our terminals in in installed cabin terminals. And installed tankers, we didn't see a recovery in the spot rates, but we saw a recovery in the COA nominations, which Lukas will go into in more details later. Improved free cash flow as businesses operating cash flow improved. And we ended the quarter with $450,000,000 available liquidity at the end of the quarter. Moving then to the Slide five, net profit, which is positive trends in all businesses.
So we reported a net profit of in the 2021 of $7,800,000 We had higher operating profit of 11,500,000.0 in tankers, slightly higher GBP 1,500,000.0 in terminal division, 12,200,000.0 in Stolt Tank Containers and GBP 13,400,000.0 operating profit higher operating profit in Stolt Sea Farm. Okay, that also includes the fair value adjustment. And slightly higher in SAS gas, higher corporate cost, that's primarily money we put aside for profit sharing and bonuses. Net lower financing expenses, Jens is managing that well as a primary result of lower debt. And then we had higher losses on FX, the dollar weakening against the other currency in which we operate in.
And higher income tax, that's normal, when we have higher profits. We also have higher taxes. Ending the quarter at $33,500,000 net profit. Moving to Page six, ESG, our sustainability is becoming part of our everyday life. And it is really for us to succeed, we need to do it sustainably and more sustainably than what we're doing today.
So we have set clear targets as we have announced earlier, and we will be measuring them once we get enough data, we will be reporting the progress that we make towards those targets. Stolt Tankers, which is really the the biggest emitter of carbon, and Lucas will show you, but we we put a reduction of at least 50% carbon intensity by 2050 by 02/1930, starting at 2008 levels. We will strive for being to be carbon neutral by 2050. Installed heavy terminals, primary activities to be a COT new CO two neutral by 2040. In tank containers, 50% of the energy and utilities consumed in our depots will come from renewable energy sources, and then we will reduce our carbon footprint or we'll try to reduce our carbon footprint with our logistic partners because we buy our services from the container lines and our trucking companies by 40% by being actively targeting and working with like minded suppliers.
And in Sea Farm, by 02/1930, 0% waste to landfill, taking recycling and energy recovery as the options for the long term. And also very importantly, reduce a reduction of fish oil and fish meal in the feed that we use. A 65% reduction for sole and a 50% reduction for turbot is the targets. Then I will hand it over to Lucas. And then Lucas, you will when you're finished, hand it over back to London.
Thank you.
Will do. Thank you very much, Niels, for that. I would like to take you through the quarter three performance of of Stolt's tankers. And, of course, I'll start with some of the figures, but I would like to take some special time to talk about, what we see on the bunker side. Then I'll take the market highlights a little bit forward looking.
And, as Niels just concluded, with sustainability, I will do that as well before handing back. So if I look at the quarter three for for Stolt Tankers, overall, we saw quite an improvement compared to quarter two in in '21. As you can see, our operating profit went from 12.6 to 24.1. However, if I compare it to a the same quarter in 2020, it's still a little bit lower, and that is a reflection of actually the sort of uncertain and volatile markets that we see primarily in relationship to what's happening in the energy markets. If I look, however, at the increasing operating profit from, quarter on quarter, It's very much driven by higher trading results, so 4.8% higher freight rates.
It's a reflection of the good contract negotiations that were done in the beginning of the year. And it also is a reflection of the fact that spot prices have gone up, but not enough to cover the additional bunker cost. So that's why we say it's still a depressed spot market. You also see that our operating days are going up quite significantly, and that is very much driven by the Tufton j 19 ships, of which six have been included in this in this quarter already. And even with that capacity coming in, you can see that our utilization has also gone up with 1.8%.
So overall, I think on our normal performance, we're doing well. If I look a little bit at the cost side, you know, we have this multiyear program of SpringBoard ongoing, and you can see here some of the, the cost advantages coming in when it comes to lower owning, expenses, for instance, but also some already on the on the lower AMG side. The big the big thing that we are the or sorry. I have to say one one more thing, one special item is that we sold the Stolt Sally for a book profit because steel prices are relatively high. And right now, you can generally see increased scrapping in in our industry, which is a good sign when we come to supply and demand in in 2022, and also we benefited from that with the sale of the Stolt Cell.
The big thing that is sort of, hampering our performance right now, as you can see, is the higher bunker cost. So if I can take the next slide for that one. Here, you can see that from quarter three twenty twenty to quarter three twenty twenty one, the the bunker costs continue to to increase. That is, of course, a reflection of what's happening in in the global market, and you can see underneath that the consumed prices that we have on board will continue to to increase. A lot of it is covered by our bunker clauses, about two thirds of, of our exposure, so that is great.
But due to the timing, it kicks in a bit later. And that is when you see rebate, it means that it's actually something that we've been giving back to our customers because of the timing, differential. But when the prices will go down and, hopefully, they will go down again in in the future, then actually that advantage goes, goes back back to us. I would like to draw your attention though to the fact that you see the number of operating days as well in this slide, which is the yellow line. And you can actually see that the cost development is very much in line with the rise in our operating days.
What that also means is that the cost increase the price increases that actually that we are absorbing, with the biggest part of our cost reduction program, which is called, SpringBoard. We have taken many measures on our fuel consumption, primarily by centralizing our our operations and by taking tight tight control in the center of which routes ships are supposed to take, how the trim of the ship, should be, what the average speeds should be, etcetera, etcetera. Overall, that gives us sort of a consumption reduction of six to 10%. That is great. That is structural.
It now disappears a bit because of the increasing bunker prices, but when that comes down again, you will see that coming back into our, results. So overall, I'm very happy with what, what we, what we're doing on the on the bunker consumption. On the right hand, you can see our, our CER per operating day. So that is our, our our revenue minus the operating expenses. And there you can see it's also going up, slightly, which is good.
And you see that the deadweight of our fleet is is coming down, and, again, that is the reflection of the tough two ships coming in. The fact that the CER is going up is also, taking in mind that we had in quarter one, but also still in quarter two, the Houston freeze that has overall cost us around $5,000,000, and that impact you see, going away. If I then turn to, the markets, which is on the next slide, I think overall, see that The US US exports are not as strong as they used to be or as I would like them to be. It's very much driven by the fact that The US economy is doing actually quite well. So a lot of the chemicals produced instead of being exported to other places is now being used for internal consumption.
So we see that having an impact on our trade out to Europe and out to Asia, and you see that coming back into, the spot rates as well. We do have excess capacity, out there in in Houston Gulf, and that's basically because the trade on the other side is actually going quite well. So from Asia inbound into The US or Europe into into The US is stronger than anticipated as well as the Arabian Gulf to to Europe. In Asia, we are living quite some difficult circumstances with on on our on our network. It's not that stable because of COVID, and there's a lot of ports shutting down primarily on some of the the Chinese rivers because of COVID cases.
And, of course, we've also just had the the typhoon season. However, we see that the fundamentals are are strong and are in place, and particularly on the adjacent markets, it's it's where we now we need to see the, improvements come. But if I look at the fundamentals of our own trade, it seems to be good. The chemicals are, are moving, and that's sort of underpinning the, the the GDP, which is coming back to normal. Take a little bit time to talk about our intra regionals.
The SNSE, so our intra European trade, as you know, we've combined our fleet with Asperger at the beginning of the year, and we see that we're very happy with that cooperation. It is really paying off. The results are above expectations, and, it's primarily driven by the synergies. We found out that we actually had quite a few ships that were passing each other empty, and so we could take those moves out. And that, of course, is hitting our bottom line immediately.
So we're very happy with that cooperation. Also very happy with our our Rhine barge service giving solid profits, and the outlook for quarter four is sort of similar. And the same is valid for for Asia Pacific. There, we are able to push up the rates a bit because of the congestion that I earlier mentioned, particularly on the the Chinese side. So also on the regionals, I'm very confident that that quarter three is good, but also that quarter four will be, yeah, will be okay.
Then I already started looking a little bit forward. I think that the fundamentals are in place for a good 2022. In quarter four on deep sea, we will still be hit by some of that the issues that I mentioned before. But in 2022, we think we are well positioned. The supply and demand is still in our favor.
Actually, we see increased scrapping going on because the steel prices are are are very high, so that takes a little bit more capacity out. We are confident. Let's say the consensus of the analysts and the banks around the recovery of the global GDP is in our favor. As I said, the chemical flow chemical production is good and is and is flowing. And we hopefully see now some movement on the OPEC side, meaning that there will be more production and that particularly the MR segment will move away from the chemicals again and go into what they're supposed to do, basically, also driven by the fact that the oil, storage right now is at a historical low.
So I feel confident on, 2022, particularly when I look at the spot market. I also had a question already, and if you allow me to take that one now, as Niels, wish is that the question is, how much of the tanker fleet is covered by COA, and do you have the intention to do a similar thing in 2022? Where we are right now is sort of around, the 70%, seven zero, which is high, which is also a reflection of our high, fixed cost. So in a way, that makes sense. But I want to be optimally prepared for the, uptick in the market in 2022, so we are considering to have a lower, COA, going going forward, and as I said, to really benefit from that.
So, clearly, that will give us some strong negotiations with some of the the customers, but either we need to see some good increases on those co op contracts or we will go longer on on the on the spot market. So I'm very confident about the the 2022 markets, the way I look at it right now. If I can do that, last but not least, outline you a bit our ambition on the decarbonization. We have set, the 50% carbon intensity reduction compared to the 2008 levels. We're using the ADR ratio for that because that's becoming more and more, the standard in in shipping.
We have, gone as far back as we could, with collecting the data because it's finding the data in the past that makes this one maybe, more difficult. So what we did over and above was we validated the data and the process with which we gathered it with D and B, and they confirm our figures that so far, compared to 02/2008, we have already took taken 27%, out, which is great, and it means that we're still 23% shy of our target. Now underneath, you will see there's a lot of initiatives that we take and we can take still, to reduce that target is the optimization of our, and the way that we do operate our ships. It's technical changes that we can make to our systems, but it's also gathering more data that we understand better on how we can do things. And we will also clearly have some some not so well performing ships be phasing out of our fleet in coming years.
On top of that, that is not enough. So on top of that, we have joined the Maersk Wikini, another center for zero carbon shipping, quite a mouthful. And it's right now the leading partnership in shipping that has one thing in mind, and this is how we can get to carbon shipping as quickly as we can. So all the leading shipping companies, engine manufacturers, but also oil and gas producers are part of that that partnership where we look into r and d. We look at the future fuels.
We look at the supply chain, but we'll also look how we can get the financing community, the regulatory communities, and primarily also our customers along in this journey. And we already have some good discussions with customers who voiced interest in in, let's say, not let us pick up the bill by ourselves, but do that in a in a jointly basis. So, Niels, that's what I would like to, give the audience when it comes to Stolt Tankers.
Thank you. Thank you, Lucas. Then we will move on to Stolthaven Terminals. On Page 14, you can see that the operating revenue went up from 60,600,000.0 to $60,900,000 EBITDA with a slight increase up to 35,400,000.0 operating profit at 19,800,000.0 and utilization rose from 90,000,000 to $92,300,000 If you look at the operating profit variance between the second quarter and the third quarter, we had higher revenue of 2.3, slightly lower operating expenses, slightly higher depreciation, lower equity income from our joint ventures and slightly higher A and G, bringing in to 19.8%, very steady. The improved utilization and throughput volume resulted in an increased operating profit compared to prior quarters.
The impact from Hurricane Ida was limited to 600,000.0 due to good preparation by local team and the floodwall, which we had in New Orleans, which was really the first time we properly tried out, worked very well and kept the water outside of the terminal. So limited damage. It was more wind damage than anything else. The joint venture equity income decreased due to a reversal of in the second quarter of GBP 900,000.0 tax charge at the terminal in South Korea, and that was partly offset by a third quarter tax incentive at our Belgian joint venture in recognition of energy saving investments that we did. Moving on to the 15, you see steady performance from the terminal division.
What I can say is that we're seeing that the pickup in utilization in most terminals. And what usually follows when the when there's high utilization, subsequently, you always when the contracts comes up for renewal, we are then able and also to push up the rates that we charge for our services, our terminal. So nice recovery. Most of our terminals resulting in higher utilization, and I expect rates will also follow. Moving to Stolt Tank Containers.
This has really been a phenomenal quarter for Stolt Tank Containers. They were lower shipments, but at higher rates. So if we just do the variance first, the operating profit for the second quarter was 12.5%. We had higher transportation revenue of 7.6. That's the revenue that we charge to our customers.
High demurrage of 9.1. Slightly higher move related expenses. That's what we pay to the container lines and our trucking companies. So we were able to charge and pass on previous calls and get the call the the the rates up to our customers, and we're able then the move related expenses were held at similar levels as we had in the second quarter. We had lower repositioning costs, approximately the same of 100,000 and lower repositioning expenses from previous quarter.
And we had higher other operating expenses in A and G. The operating environment is still very challenging because it is very difficult to get space on the container lines. And then very often when we once you know, when you do get the space on the container lines, you get bumped off or move to the next next sailing and all the paperwork has it. So there's a lot of work that needs to be done to do one shipment. And as I said, shipments are was actually down in the third quarter.
That doesn't really reflect the market. The market is very strong, and there's a huge demand for for containers. But since there's so much congestion in the ports amongst the container lines, each shipment takes a long time. So that's why the the number of shipments were down. Transportation revenue was up 7,600,000.0, driven by a 12.6% increase in transportation rates.
That was, as I said, offset by a decrease in number of shipment of 5.6. Again, it doesn't reflect underlying market. It just reflects that it is each shipment takes a long time. Demerge revenue increased substantially as a result of customer holding on to tanks coupled with increased volume. And ocean freight costs continue to rise during the quarter caused by carrier constraints, which are passed on to our customers.
Move related expenses increased by 8.2%. Unfortunately, that was lower than the transportation increase that we achieved. Lower repositioning costs, as I said, and also increase in ancillary charges due to carrier delays, port congestion, capacity constraints and the lack of truck drivers drove the increase of other operating expenses. Demand remains strong across all markets and sectors. And to meet that demand, we on a continuous basis, we order we purchase we order new tank containers, but we also lease additional tank containers.
And in the last quarter, we ordered an additional 1,000 tank containers. We are seeing that customers are considering alternative option to move cargoes as port congestion and containership capacity Constraints continue, but no significant change occurred due to the cost of the change. So what we're saying, what we have said in the previous previous years is that the tank container market is actually cannibalizing from tankers. But we are now seeing more and more inquiries, actually, customers considering because one thing is the cost, but it's also the unreliability of the timing because of the the the the the delays in the container lines. We are seeing inquiries both for our terminals where customers want to see if they can release tanks so that they can ship in back in in containers in our chemical carriers.
But we have so we have seen inquiries. We have seen some cases, but not not yet. Not that much again, not not that much driven by what they pay for, but it's all more the reliability. And and it's very important for the customers to receive the container or the product on time. If you look at the bottom side, this is the percentage movement per quarter, what we see in the revenue per shipment and the transportation cost per shipment.
And you can see in the last two quarters, the second quarter and third quarter, we were able to we saw a bigger increase in revenue per shipment that we again, what we charge our customers compared to the change that we see in the transportation cost per shipment. We've always said there's a lag and it was there will be a lag on the way up and it will be a lag on the way down. Market outlook. I think the container market the tank container market will remain strong for this foreseeable future. We are seeing an increase again, the growth in demand for shipment and tank containers continue.
There are more products being produced and more location being shipped to more destinations. With the the with the port congestions congested in for the container ships, it it takes longer to ship each shipment, which then causes a squeeze on the available both dry boxes for for the container lines, but also for us. So I expect that this market that we're experiencing today to continue in a similar fashion as we're seeing for the container lines. And if you look at the order book for the container lines, they're saying that the the big part of the new deliveries will be in 2023. So I do expect both the remainder of '21 and '22 to be very strong or as a strong market for stock tank containers.
Opportunities. It is obvious that tank container costs have been rising and demurrage has remained low. So higher demurrage rates will be expected, which which we're passing on or we're we're pushing through. And then we are going to reduce the number of free days as this will expect to increase incentive for a faster turnaround by our customers using our containers so we can free up the container more quickly. Demand cost is moving away from unsustainable flexibank flexibanks to tanker dealers due to the global dry box shortage and focus on sustainable supply chain.
I mean, the FlexiBags is basically one huge plastic bag you put into a dry dry container. And once that container has that that move has ended, that's that plastic bag, that enormous plastic bag is thrown away. And we are arguing that it is not a very sustainable way of doing it and pushing it to those customers to move into tank containers. Sustainability of the supply chain, STC has established its own sustainability goals, which I showed you earlier. Leadership in digitalization, we will continue.
So we we are now riding a fantastic wave in this in this market, which we expect to last for the next couple of two years. But it the we haven't lost focus on the long term trend that this business is becoming more and more competitive. So the the innovation and the drive towards utilization and direct integration with our customers and vendors will continue, even in this strong market. Moving to Stolt Sea Farm. Again, that's a picture of our turbot farm and sole farm in San Jose, Spain.
The upper part of the picture is the turbot farm. The lower part of the picture on the middle part of the picture where you see the solar panels, that's the new recirculation farm that we've been talking about. That farm was the first one. It's been operation almost one years point now. It is producing we're looking the growth on that farm is higher than we expected.
We expected 200 no, hundred, three fifty, and it looks like we are up at 400 tonnes. And that's, again, a recirculation farm. So production is higher than expected, which means the production cost is lower than expected. So it's moving along very nicely. If you look at Page 21, we had a negative operating profit in the third quarter.
But if you look sorry, that must be second quarter. In the second quarter, we had higher turbot sales of 10.4, higher sole sales of 1.7, higher operating expenses of 7.4. That is not our own operating basis. That's the cost of the fish that we sell on behalf of our partner. So we have a sales agreement with another farm, and that's basically the cost of that fish.
We think it could part of the sales commission on that sale. Lower A and G, fair value adjustment of 8.5 as a result of the higher prices fish prices, bringing the operating profit to 12.8. The turbot sales increased by 10.4 due to higher price by 21.9%, and sales volume by 36.4%. Operating expenses per kilo increased 4.5%, well below price increases. Sole sales increased 1,700,000 with a higher production volume coming from the new farm, the Saro Farm.
Prices improved by 22.3%, while operating expenses per kilo decreased by GBP 5.6%. The fair value adjustment of the biomass was a gain of GBP 9,300,000.0 compared to with a gain of 800,000.0 in the prior quarter. This is a reflection, again, through recovering the prices and the growth in the biomass. And we had lower A and G expenses because in the second quarter, we paid for this IPO attempt that we did earlier in the year. Delivery on the growth plan.
So in the early in the year, we went out and explored the appetite to see if we were considered to explore the opportunity to do an IPO. And we presented to the market the growth plan that we have have in place. So in 2021, it's just on the sole side, and we're using sole as an example. Based on the technology that we have now developed. In 2021, we will produce approximately a thousand tons of sole.
We will reach 1,500 tons of sole next at the end of next year. And that, again, is based on the current capacity, current building, the current infrastructure current infrastructure that we have. And then we have plans and applications in place to build additional modules at existing farms, basically, where we already have permission in place, but we need to do the preparation, the drawing, and the permits. We have the design in place just to add additional module at existing farms. That's basically organic growth, which will bring an additional 1,200 tonnes by 2025, which brings the total up to 2,700.
Then when we have done that, we have definitely proven the the the RAS land based sole technology, and then we will then more aggressively when we feel confident go out and build more of these farms in the market. And the target for 2035 is up to 11,400 tonnes of sole. And just to give you an example where we are today with Cerro deloit cost us $12,000,000 that's excluding the subsidies because the subsidies actually brings the cost out to $9,000,000 And what we're now seeing today based on what we're achieving today, we're getting an out of that $12,000,000 investment, we're getting a $2,400,000 EBITDA. But if you if you really look at the the the learnings that we have in in in husbandry and farming practices and breeding, if you apply what we learn in Turbot over the years and apply that to to the soul, which is expected, And we are actually, you know, achieving better growth than we we expected. I think that that $12,000,000 will more likely bring that EBITDA up to three, three and a half per per farm.
So I think we we have now cracked the code, and we we we just want to run conservatively, really prove to ourselves that these modules can deliver, and and then we will roll it out as fast as possible. Moving over to Stolt Nielsen Gas, and let's talk a little bit about Avenir. Where we are today, we have mentioned on several occasions that we have ordered, six ships, and we have built one terminal. So today, where we stand is that three of those ships will be going to our overview on time charter or slash bareboat. And one additional when it gets delivered is we're negotiating to to to do one more time charter for bareboat.
That's not really our strategy. Our strategy is to be a supplier of small scale LNG to stranded demand. But these ships that we order on, you know, on you can say on spec because we didn't have offtake or we didn't have work for it. So the three first the three ships we will take on time charter while we build up supply business. And those three time charter, we've got to finance the company and give us the cash flow.
We're taking advantage of the relatively strong LNG shipping market. So three ships of the six will go on some sort of time charter slash payable. Two of them already are generating, cash flow from it. And then we are working on two deals where we are contributing our ship at basically today's market rate for those ships, but also we are also getting an equity stake in companies that are involved in supplying and selling LNG. The deals haven't been announced, I don't wanna go too much into detail, but those are supply deals.
And we're using those excellent positions that we have to participate also in the on the supply side of the business. And the final ship, the the the third the sixth ship, actually, that's a ship that is being delivered today or this week, will be used for our our own supply deal, which is towards high gas in Sardinia. Sardinia is up and running. It's received its first cargo. We are sell we're selling LNG to the local market, and that that that is going actually faster.
And taking into consideration, we've gone through the pandemic or are, you know, at the end of the pandemic plus the extremely high LNG prices that we're seeing, there is still a growing demand for the LNG and the LNG is being sold. So that the this the one of the ships so two of the ships we're going to use in joint ventures in developing developing supply deals, and one ship we're gonna use ourselves towards supplying LNG to the end user in Sardinia. If you look at based on what we have on the table today, the EBITDA based on that business conservatively will as as the business rolls out, will reach $40,000,000 EBITDA. But I will say that's quite conservative because we want to free up the the the ships on time charter. By the time those top three ships that are on time charter, will be released from, we will then look at further sales, supply deals for those ships.
So conservatively, that's kind of the EBITDA evolution we see based on the contracts that we're currently looking at, but with a huge upside upside potential depending on how much of these joint ventures will how fast these joint ventures will develop. The company is fully funded. Don't need any more equity. With the EBITDA that's coming out of the business, it's it's fine. But of course, as new opportunity comes along, there might be other investment opportunities coming our way, and we will find the funding for that.
That completes the business presentation. Now I give it a word to Jens for the financials.
Thank you very much, Jens. As normal, I will take you through a few further items on the income statement as well as talk you through some balance sheet items. I also want to remind you that our fiscal year is a little bit skewed, running from December 1 through November 30. So this quarter that we're talking about now runs from June 1 through August 31. If you look at the income statement, starting with the top line, the revenue line, you see for this quarter, there was a significant increase that Niels has talked to already.
But also year to date, we have seen a good growth in the revenue line, increasing about million. And a bulk of this has been driven by Stolt Tank Containers, the underlying freight rates that ocean liner freight rates that Niels talked about, but also then captured by our ability to recover those increasing costs through our charges onto our customers. That makes up about CHF 80,000,000 of it. In addition, as you recall, last year, Stolt Sea Farm had a difficult year with a significant impact from COVID, and they have therefore seen a recovery of some CHF 17,000,000 year to date over last year. And finally, Stolt Tankers with the additional operating days related to the CTG ships has also seen a good increase.
Moving down, you will see that the share of profit of joint ventures and associates this quarter was up about CHF 2,000,000. That is driven really by three ships that were in prior quarter tied up in drydock. And having them now come out means that we increased the operating days and got some additional joint venture profit in tanker joint ventures. Also, year to date, over last year, you see there's an increase of NOK7 million, and that's tied to improvements in our terminal joint ventures as well as some improvement in gas as they have now operating assets on the water. Moving to administrative and general expenses.
You see there's a significant increase this quarter and last quarter over the third quarter of twenty twenty. Because of the COVID impact last year, we quickly put in place cost controlling measures and put in place a hiring freeze, and that was a big driver of the increase this year once that was released as we came into catch up mode. But also FX has moved against us since last year, and that has also driven some of the increase in the administrative and general expenses. Going then down to the operating profit line, you see we have a good increase from the prior quarter from CHF41.4 million up to CHF76.5 million before one offs. And the one off that we have is the gain on sale of asset, as has already been discussed.
And moving then below the operating profit line, you see that net interest expense has come down steadily from the prior quarter. And compared to the same quarter last year, we're down about million dollars And year to date, it's about a $9,000,000 reduction. This is driven by lower debt levels and lower interest rates. So it is really a good trend that we're on in terms of driving through the cost reduction there. FX gain this FX loss, I should say, this quarter is due to loss on hedges predominantly.
And then moving to the income tax expense, that reflects two items predominantly. One is the improved operating results that we've seen, very much in Stolt Sea Farm, but also to some extent terminals and tank containers. And also, for those of you who follow The UK taxes, the government has improved approved an increase in the corporate income tax rate in The UK, and that has caused us to increase the deferred tax liabilities at our Dagganam terminal by $1,000,000 That brings us to a net profit from continuing operations of $33,500,000 and up, as Nelsus mentioned, from 7,800,000 Moving to the next page. This is a pictorial view of the balance sheet. If we start with the top two quadrants to the left and right, those are bank covenants that we have in our most of our loan agreements.
And you see the top left, the debt to tangible net worth is driven by, on one hand, our debt levels, which at the third quarter ended at just over $2,500,000,000 and on the other hand, the tangible net worth, which was at $1,670,000,000 That has resulted in a debt to tangible net worth of 1.5, that's down from 1.59 in the previous quarter, and we would like to see this trend continue as we go forward. Top right is the EBITDA to interest expense. EBITDA plays an important role here, but this quarter, we have seen both a reduction in interest expense and an improvement slight improvement in the EBITDA. And therefore, the ratio has gone up from 3.7 times to 3.9 times. Now if you look at the bottom right, I mentioned the EBITDA development.
We are we did have a very good quarter. Typically, the covenants are run on a four quarters rolling basis. So we had a significant quarter, the third quarter twenty twenty drop off from the covenant calculations, but an even stronger quarter this quarter. So that's why we're able to bring through the improvements. Our run rate for EBITDA has now been relatively steady, hovering around the $500,000,000 mark for the last four to five quarters.
So that's positive to see. And this is even though we haven't seen a significant improvement in any way from tankers yet, which is the biggest division. So then going to the bottom left. Net debt to EBITDA, you can see the net debt difference from the top left is really our cash position of $146,000,000 So net debt is down at 2,370,000,000 against the EBITDA puts the ratio at 4.7x. Moving on to capital expenditures.
The first three quarters are the actuals year to date, which total was about NOK172 million. The third quarter was not very significant in terms of capital expenditures. We have on paper that we're going to spend some GBP 63,000,000 in the fourth quarter. Typically, do see a little bit of that move over to the next fiscal year. If we are able to do it all, then we will end up having spent $235,000,000 this year.
And that's really predominantly between terminals that postponed a lot of capital expenditures from last year to this year as well as the three CTG ships that we bought in the first quarter. And then next year, we expect to see this drop down to GBP 144,000,000, and that includes a significant jetty rebuild at our Diagonem terminal in The UK. Moving on to our cash flow and our liquidity position. You see on the top line, there's this good improvement in our the cash generated by operating activities. We started the year very slow, but the third quarter saw this accelerate.
We're still trailing year to date last year versus year to date this year a little bit, but we are on a good momentum. Interest paid is down, as you see, by about $1,213,000,000 dollars But I need to remind you that typically, the big interest payment quarters are the second and fourth quarters as some of the loan facilities we are on have are on six month interest six monthly interest payments. Going down to the net cash generated by operating activities is an improvement of $75,000,000 mostly driven by operating activities, some of it related to reduction in working capital. Then you can see we had a low month on capital expenditures, 30,200,000.0 this quarter. The difference from what I showed you on the previous slide of $27,000,000 is related to drydocking of ships.
So in total, we spent $30,000,000 We also had the proceeds from the sale of the assets of $10,200,000 brings our net investing cash spent on investing activities to negative so to CHF 20,000,000. That's down from CHF 31,500,000.0, so not a significant drain on our operating cash flow. Then there was a very quiet month from a refinancing perspective, as we didn't take out any new financings this quarter, and ended up seeing a reduction in debt of some $76,000,000 from a
cash
perspective. And that's net of FX brings us to an ending cash balance of $145,800,000 at the end of the quarter, up from $122,300,000 last quarter. And if you look to the bottom right, we have some that says liquidity available, and you will see that now for as we ended the third quarter, we were about $450,000,000 or just shy thereof this quarter, up from the previous quarter. Moving to the next slide, you see our maturity profile, and this is what is keeping our Corporate Finance team led by Julian Villar very busy as they continuously keep on putting in better loan agreements in place. The next big maturity that we have is really not until the second quarter of twenty twenty two, which is a Japanese operating lease maturing secured by tank containers and a further similar transaction maturing in the fourth quarter.
And in between those two, in the third quarter twenty twenty two, we have our fixed rate dollar bond of $174,000,000 maturing. Our plan for refinancing this is going to be through operating cash flow, through refinancing those Japanese operating leases and if needed, we will also put in place further secured financings. We are following the bond market. We are interested in keeping a presence in the bond market. We would like to perhaps bring that presence down a little bit.
But we are, of course, keeping an eye on that, and we can see that also as an alternative. In the bottom right, you have our average cost of debt. And you see this has come down steadily as we have renewed our loans as we have also seen interest rates drop, but also because we have reduced our dependency on the bond market, which tends to be a little bit pricier. Mind you, this excludes the leases that as part of IFRS 16 have become part of the balance sheet. So this is really a more traditional financing, but it does include the Japanese operating leases.
It does include the sale leaseback deals that were done on ships. So it's been a very good trend. And if you look at what that means in terms of annual savings, it's about $11,000,000 in annual cash savings. And with that, if I could give you minute.
Thank you, Gideon. We made a slide highlighting the returns that we're trying to provide to the shareholders. If you look at the last twenty year or since February, this company has cumulative dividends returned to the shareholders since 2000 has been around $1,000,000,000 We have consistently paid dividends every year since 02/2005. And last five months the last twelve months, the dividend yield has been 5.6%. On the bottom right, you can see the last twenty years, the dividend yield, if you were sitting on the Salt Lakehurst and shares, was 4.5%.
Our dividend policy and we've already received the question in regards to what dividends we can expect going forward. Our dividend policy and the way the Board looks at it is that we look at the current earnings and the future prospect, looking at the market conditions and also the capital structure and the CapEx commitments, you know, being able to continue to grow the company and maintain our market share or market position. All of that takes into consideration how much dividend we can pay out to the shareholders. But we keep on reminding ourselves that the reason that we're here is actually to provide a return to the shareholder. And we are doing that quite steadily.
As a shipping company, that might have been had we only been a shipping company that might have been difficult, but because of the the conglomerate structure where we're involved in terminals, tank containers, fish and tankers, we have been very stable, and we're very consistent with our dividends. Historically, the last twenty years, we have been paying a dollar dividend per share per year, and that is our intention to go back to that as soon as possible. So we'll see how the year ends, but I wouldn't be surprised that we will go back to a normal dividend of $1 per share. The last two years, I don't know, 2020 and 2020 last two years, we have been giving AUD $0.05 0 per share. Then going to key messages.
To wrap it up, we're seeing improved profitability in the quarter was driven by Stolthaven, STC and Sea Farm. The chemical tanker market remains challenging, though good progress we've made in the underlying efficiency, as Lukas mentioned. The building blocks of the tanker market recovery and early signs within the crude and CPP market is with us. It looks favorable. However, short term market uncertainties remain.
The supply chain challenge and the easing of the college restrictions are still uncertain how quickly the market will go back to world, will go back to normal. Stolt Nielsen, as I said, is committed to delivering competitive cash returns to its shareholders. And we are operating strong underlying market fundamentals across all our businesses and our conglomerate structure and stable capital structure position position us well to capture the up cycle. That completes our presentation. And now we will be going to questions.
And I can start by reading some of the questions. I think you are also able to to call in. So I think Jens, can you talk a little about the announcement in regard to the cancellation of the treasury shares? Yes.
Treasury shares are shares that are owned by SNL. It owns its own shares. These are shares that do not have voting rights nor do they have economic rights. And we had up to recently 10,600,000.0 treasury shares in place. If you look at the overall capital structure, just to put it in perspective, Stolt Nielsen has 65,000,000 common shares as authorized share capital.
We had issued 64,100,000.0 shares and outstanding number of shares were about 43,500,000.0 shares. The difference between the 64,100,000.0 and the 53,500,000.0 are those 10,600,000.0 treasury shares common shares that were held in treasury. We have previously used these for various funding activities. We felt now that with the outlook on the markets and with our financial position that we could cancel a good portion of those. We're leaving 5,000,000 common shares as treasury shares in case there should be some interesting opportunities that come around.
But in effect, what this means is when we have our AGM, it will still be 53,500,000.0 common shares that are eligible to vote at the AGM. So there's no change to that. When we calculate our earnings per share, that will still be based on the 53,500,000.0 shares. So there's no change in that. But what it does change is the number of shares overhang, if you like, that are held in treasury that we can quickly turn around and issue back into the market.
So as such, it's good thing, I think, for the existing shareholders and that you reduce that overhang.
Thank you, Jens. There's another question here, which is towards tankers. Within salt tankers, is it correct that the higher trading results versus the second quarter of US8.6 is the result of higher rates under the COA contracts that has been renegotiated in previous quarters and not by higher spot rates. Shall I Yeah. Go ahead, Lucas.
Yeah. I'll take that. Yes. That is correct. So, I did say that the spot rates were higher than previous quarter, and that is a fact, but, they're not compensating for the higher bunker costs.
So the improvements that we see are driven by higher volumes that we have in general, but also by the higher contracts that have been negotiated in, in previous months. So, yes, it's correct.
And that there's also another question in regards to emissions because emissions from shipping to be included in the EU ETS from January year. Have you made any reflections of what impact this might have on Stolt Tankers' contracts and earnings?
Yeah. So this refers to the proposal from, the commission, which is called Fit four fifty five, which includes shipping and some other sectors as well into the, ETS regulation. The, it's not it's not January year, but it should come into effect January, twin 2023. And it will build a sort of a staggered buildup until 2026 when it will be in full, effect. As I said, it's still a proposal.
It's not yet approved by, the European Parliament or by the the national, governments, and and that still has to be done. But we also still then have to see what it means for the different shipping segments. If if it stands right now, the way it stands right now, it would penalize our the chemical, tanker business more than some of the other shipping companies because we use some of the fuel as well for the complicated complicated chips chips that that we we that we have. It's not only the propulsion, which is for many of the ships, but we use it clearly also to operate the complex machinery that we have. The impact for tankers, really will depend clearly on the the level of the, the carbon price.
Right now, it stands at sort of $60 per ton, and that would mean that as of 2023, it would ramp up cost wise for us something around $25,000,000 or so, which is a lot of money. Yeah. But if you compare it to our revenue, it is well, it doesn't matter. It's still a a a lot of money. So we are starting the discussions with our customers to see how we can, absorb this together into, into the supply chain.
What we will be doing, even though it doesn't come into effect in 2022, but only in 2023, we will already now put into our contracts clauses around, c o two taxation. Why? It's because the expectation is that it's not only going to be Europe, but that The US will follow and, China will follow. And so, yeah, this will lead to a good dialogue that we need to have within the industry and certainly with our customers.
One more question to thank you, Lucas. Can you say anything on expectation and recent developments in COA rates? Further, approximately, how much of the COA portfolio is due for renewal in the coming quarters?
Yeah. It's always a a heavy contract season when you get to the to the end of the year. So around 50 to 60% of the contracts are are coming up. As I said, we are quite bullish on 2022, so that's also how we will approach, the the contract market. And as I stated in the presentation, right now, we have a coverage ratio of, of 70%, but that's not a sacred number.
I wouldn't mind to be a little lower, meaning that we can better benefit from the the spot rate increases in, in 2022. But, as I said, a big chunk chunk of the the contract are up for negotiation in the coming, six to eight weeks.
Thank you. Then I have a question in in terms of tank containers. Demerge revenue was high in the third quarter. Can we expect this to remain at the current levels into Q4 and on? Or do you expect it to come down towards normal level?
As I mentioned in the slide, I actually think that it might even go up because we will be charging high demurrage rates because of to try to incentivize our customers to turn turn the tanks around as quickly as possible. Revenue per shipment per container was up quarter on quarter. Can we expect this level to remain high? Or will it fluctuate with the container market rates also going forward? High level activity and high container rates have driven the revenue per shipment in third quarter.
We expect higher container rates to persist in 2022, which then should be supported to the revenue per shipment. Let's see. Do we have any other questions? Is there anybody that is on the is it possible to dial into?
I believe so.
Anybody online that would like to ask any questions or any questions that we haven't covered? I have one here. Sorry. It says, any meaningful, progression on finding strategic partners for Stolt Tankers and or Stolt Sea Farm? Any information on finding strategic partners?
Well, let's just talk about Stolt Tankers. I've I've said it on several occasions that I think that a step towards a sustainable industry in the chemical tanker segment is further consolidation. And that's why we are looking at doing an IPO. We would like to separate our salt tankers at the right time. As you can see from our browser, we don't have to do anything.
We are in a very flexible situation, but it is our wish and our it is our intention at the right time to do an IPO of salt tankers so that we we can pursue further consolidation opportunities where then Stolt Tankers doesn't have to pay cash, but we can use Stolt Tankers' own balance sheet to pursue such deals and making that a more transparent standalone company. For Stolt Sea Farm, we're not really looking for we we did and I'd like to remind the market the reason that we went and and and explore the opportunity to do an IPO of Stolt Sea Farm, it's not because we wanna sell the company. We think that this company has the biggest growth potential, amongst our businesses, But we felt that if the market is willing to pay or price or value land based recirculation farms like they were late in 2020 and early in 2021, it is our obligation to see and, you know, kind of make the underlying value of Stolt Nielsen more transparent. We explored. We didn't feel that the valuation that we were given as an indication that we weren't able to achieve.
So we decided, to stop the the process. It doesn't mean that we won't try again, but I think it's it's only helpful for us that we continue to deliver on what we said that we will deliver and prove to the market the potential both for land based oil and turbine. So we for the time being, it's put on hold, but we will keep an open mind and maybe pursue it at a later stage. I just been told that you can Oh, this is a tough one. Lucas, how sensitive are the twenty twenty two tanker rates to a recovery to the MR rates?
Good luck.
Well, it's it's, it's not necessarily a tough one, but because there there is a strong correlation between, the MR rates and the, and what's happening in in our tanker in our tech tanker segment then. So then you would have to look at, how confident are we about the recovery in the MR market. Again, there, they have the same dynamics on demand and supply, which is very favorable, for that segment. Also, there is an increased scrapping ongoing because of the, the higher steel prices. So that bodes well.
But it will all come down to the fact, if on two things, basically, that OPEC starts to ramp up its production, and it's feeling a lot of pressure from the different world economies, right now. And the second thing is that, the COVID regulations will be scaled down even further, particularly the fact that, for instance, jet fuel needs to move again. So when we will fly again and the jet fuel fuel will go, that will help this this that segment to go out of our market. So, yes, there is a big correlation between our rates and the MR rates, but we also think that the underlying fundamentals are okay, in the MR markets with a big question mark around the, COVID regulations.
Got a new question, which I think applies partly to Stolt Tankers and partly to Stolt Tank Containers. Can you address the issue of marine transportation delays in terms of the impact of shipments, specifically of liquid chemical? What kind of delays is Stolt experiencing? How long can the situation with regard to transport in regard to port congestion continue? I don't think we are seeing any pickup in the port congestion for chemical tankers.
And the reason why we're seeing inquiries of our tank container customers coming back, first, they need to find the storage tank at our terminals and then see if they can ship their product in our chemical tanks. The reason for that is the port congestion caused by the container lines. And that is very much driven well, we've always had historic congested amongst the major ports, especially on the West Coast Of America. But it's very much driven by the the, the pandemic where there is you can imagine, there is there hasn't been a lot of investment in container port capacity, but at the same time, because of the pandemic, if one dock worker test positive, the whole shift has to go into isolation, and that reduces the capacity. The other part is also, of course, the the the the shortage of loyal drivers or truck drivers.
That is not only an issue in The UK, which we are currently experiencing here, but it's a it's actually an issue in all of Europe and all of North America where it's it's it's become it's been difficult to attract enough people to pursue a career as a loaded driver or a truck driver. So those combined issues where you have less capacity due to the constraint because of the pandemic in the ports plus the truck drivers, I foresee that this will continue for some time. So until all COVID restrictions are lifted, I think that we will continue to see to see port congestions. That's Lucas, a new question, how will the new IMO regulation impact Stolt Tankers and the chemical tanker fleet in general, both with regard to EEXI and CII, please?
Yeah. I think it's, it's it's a bit similar to the the the previous question. EEXI is, of course, is about the fleet currently, in the water, and improvements we would need to make that to make sure that they are allowed to remain in the water. As we have a slightly, fleet that is average age that is a little higher, it will have some impact, but we are putting already the measures in place to make sure that we can still continue with those, those shifts. In general, I think, IMO, I wouldn't mind if they take a little bit more leadership on the on this issue.
We feel that, somehow they are being passed by by the different national and, higher regulator bodies like the EU. And and I'm not alone in this by voicing to say that the IMO should really take own take back leadership when it comes to the sustainability development of of shipping in general. Yeah.
All right. Thank you very much. We have answered, I believe, all questions. Thank you very much for participating and listening in, and hopefully, you will join us again in on the on the fourth quarter earnings release. That completes our presentation.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.