For 2021. We are streaming live from various lockdown locations. My name is, Nils. Good afternoon, good morning. Thank you for joining us for our Stolt Nielsen's first quarter twenty twenty one earnings release.
My name is Nils Stolt Nielsen. I'm the CEO of Stolt Nielsen Limited. And together with me, as always, is Jens Glyn Hager, our CFO. I'd like to remind you that you can post questions at any time during the presentation, and you will find the question, I think, up in the right hand side of the screen, and we will answer those questions at the end of the presentation. This presentation will also be recorded.
So if we then can move to next slide and the next one. So the agenda, I'll take you through the highlights of Stolt Nielsen. I'll take you through our ESG reporting. I'll take you through each of the businesses. Jens will take you through the financials, and then we will open up for questions.
Can you then go to the next slide, please? So the first quarter, the seasonal weakness, but our EBITDA actually was up $20,000,000 from the same quarter last year. We came in at a net profit of $2,500,000 The decrease of the EBITDA was mainly driven as compared to the fourth quarter, was mainly driven by lower volumes in sold tankers, slightly lower volume for utilization at our terminal division, high activities in Stolt Tank Containers, but the margin was impacted by the higher move related expenses. Stolt Sea Farm results continues to improve. The first quarter includes December, which is the Christmas sales, and we also see that the prices continue to recover every month.
We had a negative free cash flow as a result of the $74,000,000 acquisition of the three CTG ships. Available liquidity at the end of the quarter was 31,000,000 but that is then before we repaid the March 18 the March bond of NOK 154,000,000. We paid out a dividend of $0.02 5, an interim dividend of NOK $0.02 5 on December 20. And with the Board has also announced a final dividend, which will be hopefully be approved at the upcoming AGM on April 15. If you look at the operating revenue, slightly down compared to previous quarter.
EBITDA down 20,000,000, operating profit down EUR 13,200,000.0 and net profit at EUR 2,500,000.0, down from approximately EUR 11,000,000. And free cash flow, negative EUR 47,600,000.0, and that is down EUR 106,000,000 from previous quarter. Category net worth, slightly up, coming in at $1,600,000,000 Next slide, please. Operational highlights by each of the business. We took delivery of the five CTG ships during the quarter.
That increases our total fleet by 130,000 tonne deadweight. And all these ships all the five ships were financed between February and March, very favorable terms, which I think Jens will touch upon. We increased our tank container fleet by 2,000 tank containers. We also expanded and got online 16,000 cubic meter of additional storage capacity at our terminal in New Orleans. And in Stolt Sea Farm, we've harvested our first sole at our new recirculation farm in Salvo, Spain.
And the second farm of the recirculation sole farms in Portugal, we started populated with juveniles in the first quarter. The growth of biomass at both of these locations exceeds expectations and at lower cost than we originally expected. And as I announced earlier this year, we're also exploring the opportunities or possibilities of doing an IPO of Stolt Sea Farm. Next slide, please. So if we take the net profit variance from the 2020 to the first quarter of twenty twenty one, we came in at a net profit of 13,400,000.0 in the fourth quarter of last year.
We had an impairment in the fourth quarter in Stolthavens of $8,800,000 which we did. So normalized net profit would have been 22,200,000.0 but we had a lower operating profit of GBP 19,000,000 from tankers, slightly lower operating profit from terminals and lower operating profit from SDC or Stolt Tank Containers of close to $6,000,000 and slightly lower operating profit of Sea Farm of 0.3 Better performance in from Stolt Nielsen Gas, that's primarily Avenir due to the employment of the first ship and also then the second ship subsequently came on charter. Corporate and others of a positive $1,300,000 and the Stolt Sea Farm that lost from discontinued operation, which we had in the fourth quarter, which we don't have this quarter, bringing the net profit for the 2021 at $2,500,000 If we then move to the next slide, please. Sustainability lies at the heart of our operations. As we committed to, we will be reporting more in detail each quarter earnings release.
So we set our target for each of the businesses. For tankers, it's a reduction of at least 50% carbon intensity reduction relative to 2008 by 02/1930. In Stolthaven terminals, we have primary activities to be carbon neutral by 02/1940. And a Stolthaven tank containers of 50% energy and utilities consumed in our depots will come from renewable energy sources, 50% of that will come from renewable energy sources. We also signed up with the Clean Cargo, a leading buyersupplier forum for sustainability in the cargo shipping industry and, of course, focusing on carbon our carbon footprint reduction, both by ourselves, but also the supplier that we use to move our tank container.
In Sea Farm, we have a zero a target of a 0% waste to landfill. And also, we are targeting to reduce the fish meal and the fish oil that we use in our feed by 65% in Seoul and 50% in Turbot. Also during the quarter, I'm proud to announce that we received awards both at Moerdijk and at Alvaro depot. We achieved the highest SQAS, that's Safety and Quality Assessment for Sustainability in Europe, and that is that puts these terminals in the top 10% of the Europe's tank cleaning stations. Stolthaven Singapore, our terminal in Singapore, we won an award from our very important customer, Dow.
We were awarded in the terminal category, and Dow makes this award each year to its leading vendors based on safety, sustainability, service and social criteria. So I'm very pleased to announce that they won that award from Dow Chemicals. So tankers retain its silver sustainability rating from EcoVadis. Our sustainability performance continues to improve year on year, and I challenge Lucas and his team to get a gold medal next time. If we can move to next slide, please.
Looking on the Stolt Tankers side, really obviously the highest emitter of greenhouse gas in our business. You can see if we compare 2019 and 2020, our carbon emission came down by 6.2%. Our emission intensity came down by 6%. Sulfur oxide, of course, because of switching to a low sulfur fuel, came down 77.1. Nitrogen oxide emissions down 6.4% and waste to landfill from our shipping business down 3.3%.
We will continue to provide these measures, these KPIs on a quarterly basis, and they will also be posted on our website. Moving on to the next slide, please. Stolt Tankers going more into detail. Next slide, please. So the operating profit came in at sorry, revenue came in at 20,600,000.0 That's down from $272,000,000 last quarter.
EBITDA also down to $56,000,000 down from 72,600,000.0 Operating profit came in at 12,900,000.0 down from 31,900,000.0 And operating days were actually up from 5,975 up to 6,026. If we could do the operating profit variance analysis, the operating profit for the 2020 was 31.9, lower trading results mainly driven by lower COA volume and decrease in freight rates of 0.4%, a total of combined both contract and spot during the quarter. We had slightly lower bunker costs, higher owning expenses. Those expenses were the only expenses were us because of the reimbursement of an insurance premium reimbursement that we had in the fourth quarter, which we don't have this quarter, but also a slightly higher mining cost of EUR 1,000,000 for the quarter. Lower depreciation of EUR 1,500,000.0, lower equity income from our joint ventures of 2,000,000, slightly higher A and G and lower losses on the sale of assets and others of NOK 1,200,000,000.0, bringing it into NOK 12,900,000,000.0 for the quarter.
Next slide, please. The bunker our total bunker cost was actually down even though the bunker prices was up. That's because of our bunker clauses. We didn't have to give back the surcharge based on the reference price in our bunker clause. The index, as you see on the right hand side, on a pretty picture, it, of course, was impacted by both the volume but also the issues that we had in The U.
S. Gulf during the quarter. Next slide, please. So during the quarter, the COA coverage was 71%, and that is down from 72% in the previous quarter. The contract rates were up 0.7%.
So even though the contracts that we renewed during the quarter was up 0.3%, the contract rates that we carried, the average contract rate under the COAs was up 0.7%, while the spot rates were down 3.3% during the quarter. The cold snap that we saw, the extreme cold weather that we saw in Texas, going from plus 15 degrees down to minus 15 degrees over a couple of days caused a big disruption in the industry. We estimate that the loss that we've had in the first quarter was around $1,000,000 and we do expect a further impact of around $4,000,000 in the second quarter due to the delay caused by this closedown of the various customers' facilities. And the Suez Canal closure expected to have minimal impact in the second quarter. We estimate less than $1,000,000 The SNES, as we call it, the Stolt Nielsen into European service, the market was actually strong in the first quarter as we saw both the freight rates and volume increasing.
We have, as we announced earlier, a joint now a joint venture as the operating company, a joint venture between SALT and S Balgir, which started operation in the January 1. SNITS, the Stolt Nielsen Inland Tankers Service, our COA coverage remains stable at around 85%. The CPP I believe it should both be CPP market and chemical spot market continuously weak, but signs of improvement. The SNCs, stop mixing into Caribbean service, the ships that trades within the Caribs, Seaway Wallins at 94%, and that's higher than usual, but they were also impacted by the adverse weather that we saw in The U. S.
Gulf. STEAS, the Stolt Nielsen intra Asia Pacific service, probably it's an Asia Pacific service, SNAPS as we call. Lower results in the first quarter due to the Chinese New Year and adverse weather that we see this time of year. And also there was a closure of the Yangtze River in China for a week. Our volumes improving in Asia, and we expect that to continue in the second quarter.
If you look at the various reports, this is the Clarksonsplatto report, you can see that we've seen increase in activity from The Middle East to Europe, the Transatlantic market, not a lot of movement. The challenge has really been in The U. S. Gulf to the Far East, what we call Transpacific. That's where we see a weakening of the market, which we saw in the first quarter.
Next slide, please. Challenging first half, improving second half. So the storyline remains the same. Just again, we are positioning ourselves well. We took delivery of the of the five ships that we bought, the secondhand ships that we bought.
And I also like to kind of remind our investors that we have gone through an extensive newbuilding program. We took delivery of six newbuildings from Hudong in 2017 and 2018. We also got eight newbuildings from the acquisition of J. O. And in addition, we have and they were also delivered in twenty seventeen, eighteen.
And we also then took delivery of these ships, which are relatively new delivered in 2016 and 2017. So we have had an extensive addition of new ships coming into our fleet. Stolt Tankers has also commissioned has been commissioned by one of our big customers, BASF, to help design and build an innovative new barge that can operate on extremely low water levels on the Rhine. And we are we have a fifteen year contract, I think, with option for additional years to make certain that they can continue to ship their products from their manufacturing plant even at low waters, which we are now seeing more regularly on the Rhine. And the Esperger Stolt joint venture, it began in January and will provide enhanced reliability, logistical flexibility and significant cost saving after combining both fleets.
So after a challenging start to the year, Our view or my view hasn't really changed. I believe that with the rollout of the vaccine, I wish everybody could be as good as UK. But with the rollout of the vaccine, hopefully, pandemic will soon be behind us, and we will get back to normality. And we expect then that the economic activity will continue to pick up. And with the supply as it stands now at 3.9%, I think it's just a matter of time before we will see a strong improvement in our segment.
I'm quite bullish. If you look at the stimulus, you look at the savings that has occurred during the lockdown, if you look at the pent up demand, I think it's just a matter of time. And we're well positioned with the expanded fleet that we have. I think that we are very well positioned to benefit from that market. Next slide, please.
Stolthaven Terminals. So the fourth quarter twenty twenty operating profit came in at 8%. But as I said earlier, we had a one off impairment on our terminal in Australia and also a positive impairment actually in China, brought the normalized operating profit to 16.8%. We had higher revenue in the quarter of 600,000.0, lower operating expense of GBP 100,000.0, slightly higher depreciation, slightly lower equity income and higher A and G and others that was primarily driven by one offs positive one offs that we had in the fourth quarter, which we didn't have this quarter. Brings the operating profit up to 15.7%.
Utilization is slightly down from previous quarter. If you could go to the next slide, please. You can see that the utilization is here. Just a general comment about the terminal market. As you know, it's a pretty steady business, long term contracts.
We are I think I mentioned this in the previous quarter, but we are starting to see a pickup in throughput at our various terminals, always a good sign. We're also seeing a pickup in inquiries. I also said last time that there are because of the uncertainty of the pandemic, there are it takes a longer time to for our customers to really commit to a long term storage deal. But we're seeing more and more inquiries, and we're seeing utilization actually picking up in Singapore, where we were down in the 50s. I think that by the end of next quarter, we will be in the high 60s, maybe in the into the 70s in Singapore.
So steady as she goes with the economic activity picking up, I think that we will see utilization even where we have low utilization come back to in the 90s, mid-90s for most of our terminals. Next slide, please. Stolt tank containers. So this has been an extremely interesting quarter for our stolt tank containers. Just going through the numbers first.
The operating revenues were $138,900,000 that's up from $130,600,000 EBITDA actually down even though the operating was up. EBITDA down to EUR 18,500,000.0, down from EUR 23,700,000.0. Operating profit, 8,000,000, down from EUR 13,900,000.0. Utilization, 67,700,000.0, up to EUR 69,700,000.0 in this quarter. So if you look at the operating profit analysis, the fourth quarter was at 13,900,000.0 the higher transportation revenue of 8.1 higher demerge and others of 0.2.
But however, it was offset by the higher move related expenses of 9.5, higher repositioning expenses of 1.3, higher other and operating expenses of NOK 2,700,000.0. That NOK 2,700,000.0 is also driven by the catch up in maintenance and repair at our depots, lower joint venture equity income of NOK 800,000.0, bringing the operating profit to million dollars for the quarter. Next slide, please. So just let me talk a little about tank containers because first quarter in tank container usually is a slow season driven by Christmas and Chinese New Year's. But this year, we saw, as you saw from the numbers, the shipments are up significantly and actually, they've gone gangbusters.
It's a huge activity in STC. The challenge has been, of course, as you read in newspapers, the container lines are full. So it's been a battle in winning space, securing space on these container vessels. Now what is causing this enormous pickup in demand for space on the container vessels? I think, you know, based on reading reports, I'm doing some reasoning, I believe.
In the first half of twenty twenty, people were kind of sitting back and and and seeing saving and being careful. And then on the second half of the of 2020, when the governments had secured liquidity and had subsidized people to stay at home so that they felt secure even though they were at home. The savings went up, and they people started feeling safer, so they start spending. But the spending was not driven towards the service sector. It was driven towards the good sector.
People were buying yoga mats and bicycle machines and rowing machines and computers and whatever you buy. And that has, of course has, of course, created a huge pickup in in all most of these products are being produced in the Far East, so that has caused a tremendous pickup in demand for the movement of containers. At the same time, these container lines have experienced enormous congestions in all the major ports. And I can explain that that is probably driven by if one shore worker is tested positive, the whole shift needs to isolate, which has then caused delays in the port. So all of this pickup in demand on the container side and pickup in has caused this pickup in demand for the shipments of containers.
And that has impacted us because they had you know, we're fighting to get to retain space, and at the same time, they're also jacking up the price, which is understandable. So it's it's the reason that you're seeing a low even though the shipments are up, you're seeing a lower EBITDA, and that is because there's a lag of for us to be able to pass that additional cost onto our customers. But we are doing that now and we're pushing it over as quickly as we can. And I think that we, one of the operators, are good at securing space. So the increased amount of shipments that we are seeing is not necessarily increased demand for the shipment in containers, but it's a shipment increased demand of shipping, which is not because we are being able to secure space at the to a larger extent than some of the smaller operators of tank containers.
But the challenge has been to be able to pass on these additional costs fast quickly. And that's what we're doing now. Know, basically, customers are calling. They're not, to that extent, anymore asking, you know, about cost. They're saying, can you get my my product from a to b?
And we're saying, yes, we can, and we pass on the cost. Therefore, I'm not seeing any slowdown at all. We're not seeing any slowdown. And we are able to pass on the additional costs from our truckers and from our the ocean freight increases that we are seeing. So I think that the second and third hour, actually the remainder of the year, will be quite healthy for STC going forward.
I'm actually very bullish with the performance of STC going forward. If you move to the next slide, please. Still Sea Farm. So just quickly going through the numbers. The operating revenue up '22 came in at $22.5 That's up from $19,700,000 I remind you, the first quarter includes the Christmas sale.
So EBITDA, 3,000,000 versus CHF 3,100,000.0, operating profit CHF 1,000,000 versus CHF 1,200,000.0. The volume that we saw is at thousand 102,188, and that's up from 1903. And the higher turbid volume is due to the higher volume sold during Christmas season. Sole sales on were also up, but prices were slightly down due to the competition from the wild catch, which is seasonal. Operating expenses increased in line with higher sales volumes of turbot compared to the prior quarter.
And the fair value adjustment of biomass was a gain of 1.3% compared to a gain of 1.5% in the prior quarter. This is a reflection of the recovery in prices and the growth in the biomass. And we had higher A and G expenses, and that is because we are putting a lot of resources into developing and expanding new markets for our products. Next slide, please. Just talk about our recirculation.
We have two recirculation new recirculation plant, purpose built recirculation plant, one in Savo and one is in Torso. The first one is up and running, and we are harvesting. That's the one in Servo. We have now a sole capacity of fifteen seventy tonnes. And these are designed by ourselves, which will, I believe, shortly take the sole business, which has been which we have spent twenty years on developing, will become shortly will become profitable.
The harvest of the several plants started in January, one month ahead of schedule, with excellent average weights. After more than twelve months in operation, all KPIs are better than expected and beyond those of our best performing sites. The Torchos site is basically identical. The first sole juveniles received in December 2020, and we expect to be harvesting in October. And again, same as in Sarvo, performance is ahead of what our expectations are.
And if you then look at the Anglet, which is partly recirculation but also flow through, you can see that the average weight is 8% higher than expected. The percentage of growth per week is 32%. And the fee conversion rate is extremely favorable, 21% better. So we are very excited by these modules that we are commissioning, and we are planning on expanding beyond the two existing ones, but then looking at growing that business, those modules closer to the consumer going forward. Very, very exciting.
Now just let me give you a couple of comments in regard to the IPO. We announced in the early early in the year that that we are considering or doing a potential IPO of Sea Farm, and we explained that the reason for that is to make the value of Stolt Sea Farm more transparent within the Stolt Nielsen structure. It is not really to raise funds because this company is generating its own EBITDA and then very much can finance itself, but but and whatever additional, you know, if there are further investments needed, they will be supported by Stolt Nielsen. So the the the real purpose of this exercise is to is to I felt when we compared it to other land based or other agriculture companies, we felt that it was important to make it stand out and the underlying value more effective, to identify. So we started the process of talking to potential Cornerstone investors, and we have had positive feedback.
But it's important for us that we find the right investors. We don't want to have people that kind of are short term. This is a long term project. And it's important for us to make certain that they understand and have the time to understand the the value that we have created both on our turbot and also be able to see the soul and the potential in soul. So we are using our time to find the right Cornerstone investors to join us.
I think it's it's only fair that we are I mean, it's important also for us to that we are we we get a fair price for what we have created, and we will continue to work doing that. I think time really works. So so time works in our favor. We the longer time that goes, the better, you know, more production data and and and you know, data these new modules will provide. Of course, you know, we try to do a a or, you know, we we've been going through the pandemic, which is, of course, impacting the results.
So even though we say you have to look beyond or or or before the pandemic or post pandemic, you know, that the further away we get from the pandemic and also the more we see coming out of Sadwa and Torsha and Soul Sea Farm, I think time will work in our favor. So we continue. We're not really in a rush, but we will continue. And I think it's more important to find quality long term investors that are willing to see the value that what we're trying to that what we have created. Next slide, please.
Avenir. Very excited. We really have turned the corner. So the first ship was delivered in October. The second ship was delivered in March.
So we have now two ships on charter. So the the the company's generating an EBITDA at favorable terms. We have four additional ships under instructions at SOE in the Nantong Yard, and they will be delivered in the second half of twenty twenty one. The Sardinia Terminal will be starting commercial operation in May. And it's interesting, we will actually be using one of the second ship to come with the first cargo to our Sardinia Terminal.
It actually will the first ship will bunker from the the second ship will bunker from the first ship, and the second ship will provide the first LNG cargo to Sardinia. So we're really up and running there. And we will, yes, start getting some nice revenue coming out of that business. We have loan facility of 53,000,000 in place for the first two ships, and we have financing term sheet for the remaining ships in place. So that's in order.
Avenir is already providing LNG via truck to Sardinia customers, but that will then switch over from trucks to ships coming in, discharging into our terminal and the truck bringing it to the end user. The commercial pipeline has actually started moving. We're seeing much more activity now. We have six integrated LNG supplier projects. Two are on fast track.
So we don't wanna be a shipping company. We wanna be a supplier of LNG. So we have two two that are on fast track right now where we actually will source, we will ship, we will store, and we will sell LNG, which is very exciting. And also, are looking at because of the timing of these ships that we have in order, we're looking at 10 chartering opportunities. We we against three of the ships that we have opened.
So there there are a lot of opportunities that are coming our way. The timing of these ships are very favorable. And the chartering, even though that's not our strategy, the chartering will finance the development of the supply projects that we're working on. Avenir is expected to be cash flow positive for the first time in 2021 based on the contracts that we have already secured. I believe that completes my part.
Jens, I'll give you the word over to you.
Thank you very much, Niels. Good afternoon, and good morning to those of you in The United States. I would like to remind you that we have today posted the earnings release, the interim financials as well as this presentation on the company's Web site, which is www.stoltnilsen.com. Also, as a reminder that the first quarter runs from 12/01/2020 through February 28 this year. And finally, for those in The US, our reporting is based on IFRS.
Next slide, please. Now as Niels mentioned, the first quarter is typically our weakest, seasonally weakest quarter, particularly for tankers and tank containers. And that's driven by the winter weather that we have in the Northern Hemisphere as well as the Christmas and Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year holidays. And consistent with that, we did see a drop in results this quarter compared with the same quarter one year ago, with operating profit before one offs for the '1 of €35,900,000 and that compares with €58,100,000 in the fourth quarter. Nils has gone through talked about those in details.
I won't go into that. But if you compare it to the first quarter last year, where both quarters were equally impacted by the seasonality, it's worth noting that there is an improvement in operating profits before one offs of €18,800,000 That's predominantly driven by the improvements in tankers where the prior year was marred by scheduling issues and the high bunker cost and whereas the Sea Farm was impacted by the write down of biomass because the COVID-nineteen pandemic had just hit the market. Moving to the interest expense. This was marginally up from the fourth quarter. That's driven by the increase in debt related to the acquisition of the three ships, the three CTG ships that we took on our balance sheet.
The FX gain of EUR 1,200,000.0 is partly related to FX paper hedges and partly due to translation adjustments. And also, as you will see, the income tax expense increased from EUR 900,000.0 in the fourth quarter to EUR 2,200,000.0 in the first quarter, and that's mainly reflecting the improved results in Stolt Sea Farm as well as in terminals due to the EUR 12,400,000.0 impairment that we took in the fourth quarter. So consequently, the net profit from our continuing operations came in at DKK2.5 million for the first quarter. That's down from the DKK15.6 million in the prior quarter, but it's up from a loss of EUR 20,300,000.0 in the first quarter of last year. So a good improvement year on year.
EBITDA was EUR 108,000,000. That was down from EUR 128,000,000 in the fourth quarter, but up from EUR 100,000,000 in the first quarter last year. And note that the EBITDA that we show here is before the fair value biological assets, insurance reimbursements and other onetime noncash items. Next slide, please. This is a view of our balance sheet from a covenant perspective.
And I just want to remind that despite the recent acquisition of the five CTG ships, which we did because of a very advantageous price, we continue to focus on reducing debt and on maintaining a strong liquidity position. Now we have three main financial covenants in our loan agreements. The one is debt to tangible net worth, where we need to maintain at no more than 2.25, so we should be below 2.25. EBITDA to interest expense should be at the minimum of 2.1 or above preferably. And then there's minimum tangible net worth of $600,000,000 where we're currently at $1,600,000,000 so we're well above that.
The EBITDA covenants are based on the EBITDA for the most recent four quarters, which you see in the bottom right quadrant exceeded. If you look at the yellow line, it exceeded 5,000,000,000 for the first time. That's quite exciting, although it was helped somewhat by IFRS 16. If you look on the top left quadrant, you will see that we ended the quarter with gross debt at $2,580,000,000 That is up from $2,500,000,000 about $81,000,000 increase, and that's related to capital expenditures of $115,000,000 during the quarter. Tangible net worth increased marginally by $2,000,000 so not much there other than it really reflects the net profit.
And as a consequence, the debt to tangible net worth covenant increased from 1.53 in the prior quarter to 1.58, driven by this the capital expenditures that we did. I'll talk more about the capital expenditures in detail on the next slide. But also note that in the first quarter, we paid an interim dividend of 13,400,000.0 or just EUR $0.02 5 per share. If you look at the top right quadrant, you will see the EBITDA to interest expense ratio for the quarter that improved from 3.55 in the prior quarter to 3.69. And as this is an EBITDA driven covenant more than anything else, it's driven by the improvement in our EBITDA very much because of weak first quarter twenty twenty dropped off, and we added a stronger first quarter twenty twenty one to that fourth quarter due.
Our average interest rate was 4.6% in the first quarter. This is down from about 5.05% the same quarter a year ago. Now interest rates have come down quite a bit in that same period, but we are currently fixed at about 80% of our debt and expect with the repayment of the bond that was done on March 18 to continue to see a reduction in that average interest rate. If you look at the bottom left quadrant, although it's not a net or not a covenant, the net debt to EBITDA ratio is an important measure of our debt service capability. This increased slightly from four point six eight four point six eight to 4.78 due to the added debt mentioned above, but our target remains to reduce this to below 4%.
Next slide, please. Talking about capital expenditures. Fourth quarter, as a reminder, in the fourth quarter, we spent $20,000,000 and that increased to $115,000,000 this quarter, and that's driven predominantly by two things. Of course, the CTG ships that we talked about a lot as well as contributions to Avenir, as you will see under Stolt, Nelson Gas, of 16,000,000. So between those two, that's been driving the most of the increase.
There's also some additional expenditures for Stolt here in terminals, some installed sea farm related to the new farms, and also in tank containers relating to depots. Note, however, that the capital expenditures that are shown here for tankers, that excludes dry docking expenses. And if you want to have an estimate of that, drydocking expenses are typically around just shy of $20,000,000 and so also estimated to be just below $20,000,000 for 2021. For the full year 2021, we expect to spend a further 136,000,000. The increase really reflects a significant increase in terminals.
This reflects expenditures that were postponed from 2020. As you will recall, we will we're cutting back significantly on capital expenditures, and we're catching up on some of that now in 2020. And we're also adding some new projects, including a jetty construction at Diagonem in The U. K. Next slide, please.
Now if you look at the cash generated from operating activities, was EUR 94,400,000.0. That was down from EUR 120,000,000, reflecting the underlying performance of the businesses. You also see that the line below says interest paid was down significantly from the prior quarter, and that's because some of our loan agreements, we pay interest every six months, others we pay quarterly. So you have every other quarter, you will have a jump up in interest payments. If you go down and you see net cash generated by operating activities was therefore EUR72 million this year.
It was slightly down from the prior quarter, EUR79 million. Nils mentioned in the opening on opening slides that our free cash flow was down about EUR 100,000,000 from the prior quarter. And if you look at the capital expenditures line of €103,800,000 that was up from €24,000,000 that explains the biggest part of it. And in addition, we had net investments in JVs and repayments of advances from JVs of about 13,900,000.0, as well as some purchase of Golar shares of 3,000,000, and finally also that we had some dividend payments. And that were items that were impacting or causing the drop in the free cash flow.
During the quarter, we raised €65,000,000 of debt. That's long term financing that's secured by our Dijkneem and Moerdijk terminal. We also drew down on a short term bank loan of €20,000,000 during the quarter, and this has subsequently been repaid. And we repaid some $30,000,000 on long term debt and made lease payments of $10,000,000 So that means net cash provided by our financing activities was 31,800,000.0 And that results at the net cash flow for the quarter ending up at negative EUR 14,700,000.0, resulting in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter of EUR 173,000,000. And this comes on top of availability under our revolving credit line as of February 28 of EUR258 million.
So in total, about EUR431 million of available liquidity at quarter end. And that was, of course, because we had subsequent to quarter end, the repayment of the bond. And if you can move to the next slide, please. You will see here that bond highlighted, the 154,000,000. So if you look at the overall maturity profile, we differentiate between what we consider regular principal payments.
That's the black box. You have the bond repayments, which are the light blue ones, and then we have balloon payments, which are the gray ones. And the bonds that was repaid on March 18, the $154,000,000, is now settled. It leaves us with three outstanding bonds, the next one being due in September. So we have about eighteen months to go until that.
And then we have the two bonds that we raised during 2020 and maturing in 2023 and 2024. But that also leaves us with only $153,000,000 in regular principal payments for the remainder of the year. So it puts us in a good position. Now subsequent to the quarter end, we also completed all the conditions precedent on a new $100,000,000 revolving credit line that I mentioned in the previous earnings release. So this is now available to us, and that comes on top of the EUR $431,000,000 that I mentioned.
And also, as Niels pointed out, we have closed on the financing relating to the five ships that we took over, where two of the ships have gone into NYK Stolt Tankers and been 100 financed in that joint venture on a nonrecourse basis to Stolt Nielsen. And then the three ships that we took on our own balance sheet, we have financed with $77,000,000 sale leaseback, very favorable terms on that one as well, long term, a very long term profile, So it's a cash flow advantageous. So with that, I would like to pass it back to you, Nelson.
Thank you. I'm just trying to turn on my camera. Okay, here we go. Key messages, the Stock Basin Board has strengthened its commitment to sustainability, supporting enhanced ESG reporting with improved focus on tracking and reporting our KPIs. Businesses are well positioned all of our businesses are well positioned for the upturn that we expected are coming.
Still tankers have taken the delivery of of the the second hand ships, the five modern second hand ships that we just bought in the additional to our new building program. Stolt turbine terminals has completed expansion program. STC's fleet has grown by 2,000, and it's a very active market. And Sea Farm has doubled the sole farming capacity with two new recirculation facilities in Saragros, Spain and Torso, Portugal. And as Jens showed you, our balance sheet and liquidity position is strong and focus remains on debt reduction.
So that means that we will going over to questions, and I will be reading them and publishing them. The first question is from Anonymous. What is the purpose with Golar investment? And is it a financial investment only? The reason behind the Golar investment is we wish to explore opportunities to apply our knowledge within logistics in ships, terminals, and containers and see if we can apply it to other segments.
And being able to join Golar, and I'm sitting on the Golar board, really has put us in a position to participate in what we believe is an area where we can apply our expertise within logistics. One of the products that came also out of this is the Avenir. So that is the purpose of that investment. Next question is also anonymous. Could it be an option to sell Stolt Sea from division outright?
No. I mean, I know we've been asked many times what is this fish doing with the with the tankers terminals and tank containers. It's been part of the company since '73. We have announced that we would consider separating it out, but through an IPO, and that's something that we are exploring. But it's our intention to be a part of it in the long run.
If there's one business that we are involved in that has a huge growth potential, it is Stolt Sea Farm, and I think we are good owners with the right mindset of long term thinking and value development. Next question is from James East. In tank containers, EBITDA issues have been blamed on higher transportation costs for at least seven quarters in a row. When will Stolt actually recover these higher expenses with higher rates or transportation clauses. So the way it works is that you you're not able to recover the transportation the additional transportation cost on shipments that you've had.
But in your next shipment, you are able then to increase the cost. In some cases, we are also able to post the fixture, pass on additional cost, additional that depends on the contract that you have. So I would say that there will always be a lag and when the market is on its way up. So as long as the container lines keep on pushing the rates up, they have had, they have been doing since the alliances were formed and since we have seen the pickup in their market. There will always be a lag, but we are passing these costs on as fast as we can.
And there will be a lag, of course, when it comes down again. I think we are living under extreme circumstances in that market right now. So I think we will see some sort of normality. But you will already see it now in the next quarter that we are able to quickly or more rapidly be able to pass on these additional costs. The reduction in EBITDA is not only for the additional transportation costs, but it's also higher repositioning costs, which we have because of the quickly the rapid change in demand and trading patterns we have in the last two quarters actually had quite a high repositioning costs.
Next question comes from Anders at Danske Bank. What is the reason for the mentioned low utilization at the terminal in Singapore and why the suggested rapid improvement? Well, the Singapore, it partly demand, partly supply. So Singapore, there was quite a bit of expansion going on in the market. So there was high supply, but also during the outbreak of the pandemic, there's also the uncertainty has caused some customers to cancel their storage contracts.
Now what we are seeing now so we have had the high utilization. And the reason why I believe in the rapid improvement is that we are already now working on deals. We have closed deals, additional business for our Singapore terminal, which will start, I think, in May. So I'm quite certain that the we know that the utilization will go up because of the contracts that we have won, and we are also working on additional inquiries. So I'm quite certain that we will see the utilization go up in Singapore.
The second part of Anders' question, COA renewals. Are we at the end of the recent positive trend of increased rates compared to the last one? Or is the small increase in Q1 a one off? The as you know, we renew COAs every quarter. And when the spot rates are under pressure, of course, even though the long term trend of supplydemand is now in our favor, of course, if the spot rates are low, it has influence on the COA renewals.
And also so that's why I believe we are seeing we saw a relatively low renewal increase in the first quarter. We also took on additional COA business from a strategic customer, which we want to secure regardless. So we won large volume, which then was compromised slightly with on the rates. So I believe it's a one off. I think that as as we see economic activity picking up with the stimulus, with the rollout of the vaccine, with the pent up demand, I am quite bullish and believe that both the spot market and consequently consequently the COA market will pick up significantly.
And the last, there's one further, will you add further container beyond what we saw in this quarter? In case, yes, about how many as many of our competitors are listening in, I'm not going to tell you how many containers we're going to order or lease, but we will continue to grow, especially with the high activity. We will continue to grow by acquiring or leasing tank containers. This one is from Lucas Dole at ABG regarding tankers. Your total volume carried were significantly down and SGJ index dropped off significantly too in the q one.
Can you provide some more color on the drivers behind these developments? I think I mentioned it is that the volumes carried were down in the first quarter because COA volume was down, and there was a slow spot market. One of the reasons that COA volumes were down is that we a big big part of our business is is acid, phosphoric acid, to India, which is used as a fertilizer. And every year, the Indians negotiate. The associations are in negotiations.
So volumes under those asset contracts were low, which has has impacted our results. So I think that we're already now starting to see a pickup in COA volumes and nominations. So I'm quite certain that this will, as I said earlier, continue as we see market improvement. Doug Holmstadt, Shipping Watch. What are your 2021 expectation for the tank pool collaboration with Esperger tankers, E and S tankers with John Esperger in terms of earnings and revenue.
It's difficult to say. Depends on how the market develops. But what we can say with certainty that there are significant operational savings, which we are very much focusing on delivering. So on the operational savings side, we see as we go and the more we work together and work on driving out those synergies, we will see improvements from our earnings from our SNES fleet. How the market will develop is difficult to say, but it started off quite nicely.
Next one is Jonas Srimid, Swedbank. You have now completed several initiatives to renew the tanker fleet. When do you believe you will need to engage in a newbuilding program? Well, A shipping company, that's the biggest investment decision that they do, and it's the toughest one. So we have grown our fleet by through acquisitions, through newbuildings and through second line acquisitions.
So we are very well positioned as we are. I'm I'm not worried about the age profile of our fleets. I think that actually could be at the pages at this stage. So we're well positioned for a market recovery. But of course, as an industrial shipping company, we need to continuously renew our fleet.
So yes, we will always look at we will always have a newbuilding program. The time that we are spending now is to consider the various propulsion systems that we will use when we order the next series of newbuilding. If it's now or in the future, that's really where we are focusing. And the realistic alternatives as we see it right now is it's the conventional engines that we are currently using, of course, with the fuel efficient hull design and new engines, etcetera. But the other alternative that is really only available right now is the dual fuel with LNG.
And then you can you know, we are involved in methanol projects and ammonia projects and hydrogen projects, but it's not there yet. So but we are part of various study groups and are closely involved. But as it stands right now, we do not have a newbuilding order as it stands. Peter Hagen at Kepler. In March and the April, the chemical tanker spot rates looks to have flattened out or even increased somewhat, while crude and product tanker rates are still very weak.
How do you expect chemical spot rates to develop in the short term? It's tough to say, but I again, the remember, we are focusing on COAs. We're focusing on parcel business, the smaller end of the parcel size. And on the supply demand side there, it's in our favor, and it's about time because we have had a horrible market the last, I may say, years. So I think our time is coming.
So short term, it's difficult to predict. You know, we have secured our COAs. We are fairly confident of you know, we have this 70% contract portfolio. What we have done is that we have unless it's strategic or unless it's already a high paying business, we are we kind of we are eliminating the duration of the COAs that we're willing to commit to because we know that the market is going to improve so that we are for us, because we are we have 70% contract. It is when the market turns, yes, have the 30% off spot capability.
We will be able to capture the market right away with that capacity, but it will take time to we renew contracts every month, every quarter. So once the market recovers, it will take time for that to be negotiated into our contract portfolio. So the balance is should we change the $70.30 relation you know, the ratio. But short term, spot rates, when it comes, it will come quickly. If it's in the second quarter or the third quarter, it's difficult to say, but I feel very confident that it will be coming soon.
And then that was Peter Hagen. And the last question that we have so far is from Eri Kowalsen. Terminal CapEx increase, can you elaborate a little on how much of that is maintenance CapEx put on hold last year and how much is for new jetty, etcetera, or expansion? Jens, maybe you can help me on that one. How much of the capital expenditure that we did in this first quarter was maintenance and how much was expansion?
Yes. Now that we have completed the New Orleans expansion, 16,000,000, that really completes the expansion program that we have ongoing. So going forward, what we have is, as I mentioned, the upgrading of the jetty at one of our Diaghnang facilities. It is regular maintenance and repairs and it is also modernizing the terminals that we have, which is a continuous process. If you want to look at the full CapEx for the year, about twothree of that amount relates to maintenance and modernization, if you like.
We're spending a lot of resources on modernizing and automating our terminals, as we have talked about earlier. Thank you very much. Unless there's anybody that will be sending in any additional questions, I can't see any. That completes our earnings presentation. Hopefully, next time, we'll meet in person.
If not, we will see you again on the video conference. Thank you for participating in our first quarter twenty twenty one earnings release. Thank you.