All right, hello everyone, and thank you all for joining us during the Lytham Partners Spring Q&A discussion with Dr. Teck Lim Chia, Chairman and CEO at CBL International. CBL trades under the ticker on the NASDAQ, BANL. Let's get started. Welcome.
Thank you very much, Robert. Thank you for your time.
Fantastic. Can you provide a high-level overview of CBL International's core business model?
Oh, sure. CBL International Limited is actually a marine fuel logistics company that facilitates vessel refueling and primarily through local physical suppliers in over 60 major blocks globally. Okay, the company actually focuses on providing one-stop solutions for vessel refueling, leveraging our extensive supply network to serve customers across Asia- Pacific. We also serve altogether four continents in the world, including Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Our business model actually resides around coordinating with our suppliers, optimizing procurement, and ensuring operational reliability while adhering to our environmental standards.
All right, very good. Thank you for that overview. CBL facilitates vessel refueling with both fossil fuels and biofuels. What is the current balance between these fuel types in your portfolio, and how do you plan to shift this mix in maybe the next 5-10 years?
We can't be very specific percentage. We can't disclose that. I hope you can understand. CBL actually has very significantly expanded our biofuel operations, with our B24 biofuel sales surging about 628% in the last fiscal year, compared to those we have done in 2023. The company plans to increase our focus on sustainable fuels such as biofuels, like B24 or B30. As we go on, then probably we'll be looking at methanol and LNG, aligning with the tightening of IMO GHG strategies and also the few EU maritime regulations. Over the next 5-10 years, CBL aims to capitalize on the projected 50.4% growth in the global green marine fuel market, gradually shifting from our portfolio towards the higher margin sustainable fuel offering.
You know that your recent surge in the B24 biofuels, I think you mentioned 628% here last year. It's notable. What specific innovations or partnerships have driven this growth, and how scalable is your biofuel offering?
The surge in the B24 biofuel sales was actually driven by our strategic expansion into key markets such as Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, and Singapore, where CBL actually completed our first B24 supplies in early 2025 at the Port of Singapore. Innovations include securing ISCC EU and also ISCC PLUS certifications, ensuring compliance with the EU sustainability standards. Also, scalability is supported by growing regulatory mandates as well as the customer's demand for greener fuels. These will all enable CBL to expand our biofuel operations across the 60 ports network that we are currently serving.
That's helpful. Beyond your fuel logistics, as you talked about, are there plans to expand into adjacent services such as alternative energy solutions or maybe carbon offset programs to complement your sustainability focus?
Oh, yes, we do. Actually, I think the market is pretty much not decided yet on the exact directions for the sustainable fuel. In the future, there are still talks between whether it's going to be methanol or LNG, but we see that during the transition period, biofuel is definitely the most obvious choices. So CBL focuses on expanding our biofuel supply network, and also at the same time, we'll be exploring the methanol and the LNG. That would actually suggest a broader commitment to sustainability. Our future initiatives may align with the global trends towards decarbonization and also the regulatory compliances.
Now, let's expand a little bit in some of your addressable markets. CBL operates in over 60 ports globally, strong presence in Asia- Pacific, 36% market share in Singapore's bunkering market. Talk about what new geographic markets are you targeting for expansion and maybe why?
Key new ports for us will be done in the year 2024, including Mauritius, as in Africa, and we have Panama as well as India. That actually enhances our global reach. This expansion was supported by servicing nine out of the world's top 12 container liners companies. Representing these nine liner companies actually represents nearly 60% of the global container fleet capacities. The company's European expansion, we have an office in Ireland. That actually helps us to focus on strengthening cross-regional services by offering Euro-Asia trade routes. Growth was supported by a stronger presence in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, or well known as the ARA region. As well as with the support of our Irish office, we provide enhancing local sourcing capabilities.
How do you assess the growth potential of intra-Asia and Euro-Asia trade routes? What specific customer segments, whether it be container ships, bulkers, oil tankers, what sort of driving customer segments are driving that demand?
The company's focus on intra-Asia routes and as well as the Euro-Asia trades. These actually make up quite a big chunk of our business. Okay, we align it with our robust regional trade dynamics that we see today, particularly as shipping companies seek cost-effectiveness as also reliable bunkering solutions. Bulk carriers and oil tankers contributed approximately 45% to our revenue in the year 2024, and that is up from 32% from the year 2023. That reflects a diversification between the container liners. We used to focus only on the container liners, but today we are diversified. This shift underscores the growing demand for bunkering services among non-container segments, which we are expected to drive the future growth for the company.
Okay, that's helpful. The marine fuel industry faces increasing regulatory pressures, IMO 2020, carbon reduction mandates. How is CBL adapting its operations to comply with these regulations while at the same time trying to maintain profitability?
CBL is aligning our operations with the IMO GHG strategies as well as the EU maritime regulations by expanding our biofuel supply network as well as exploring alternative fuels such as methanol and LNG. While the regulatory pressures increase cost, CBL focuses on higher margin sustainable fuel so that, and also our economy of scale, will expect to be able to offset these challenges and support our long-term profitabilities.
Thank you for that. I want to come back just to something, right? Because we've talked about this in a lot of different sort of questions here, but this global push for greener shipping solutions, obviously a major trend. Maybe just expand a little bit further on sort of how you're positioning yourself to sort of capitalize on this growing demand for sustainable fuels and maybe what market share do you aim to capture in this biofuel bunkering segment?
Thank you. CBL is actually positioning ourselves as a front runner in the sustainable bunkering solutions by scaling our biofuel operations as well as securing the certifications for like ISCC EU or ISCC PLUS to meet regulatory demands. While no specific market share targets are disclosed, the company aims to leverage our 60 + port networks that we currently have as well as the strategic partnerships to capture significant portions of the rapidly growing green marine fuel market, which is projected to grow at, that's what I have said before, 50.4% on a cargo basis.
Okay. Let's transition the conversation maybe to competition for a moment. Talk about who are CBL's primary competitors in this sort of Asia- Pacific marine fuel logistics market and maybe talk about some of the differentiations from a value proposition. Maybe it's pricing, service quality, sustainability, etc.
It might be too good to disclose about our peers, but just talking about ourselves, CBL differentiates ourselves through our extensive global supply network, like 60 + ports that we have, one-stop refueling solutions, as well as the compliance with the environmental standards. Our ability to offer comparative pricing, operational reliabilities, as well as the flexibilities of our positionings, it favors against our rivals, or I'll say our peers in the highly competitive bunkering market.
Okay. This is an investor conference. So for potential investors, what are maybe the top three reasons to consider investing in CBL, considering your focus on everything we've discussed, biofuels, port expansion, maybe some of the operational efficiency improvements that are ongoing?
That's a very excellent question. I would say the first one is that we have what I call front running in the biofuel market. CBL is capitalizing on the growing demand for sustainable fuels. With biofuel sales for ourselves surge about 628% in the last year. The second is actually on our network expansions. The company's service network expanded from 36 ports during our IPO to over 60 ports now, covering 13 out of the world's top 15 ports, as well as four continents in the world. That will actually enhance our market reach. Thirdly, our operational efficiencies, I would say. Investments in automations and IT systems are streamlining our operations, reducing our costs, as well as improving our service delivery.
Okay. Maybe on the flip side, what is the biggest challenge right now that the company faces over the next maybe 1-3 years, and how do you plan to address it?
The biggest challenge for us is likely to be managing the rising operational costs amid the higher tightening competitions and regulatory pressures. To address this, actually, CBL plans to, first of all, invest in automations and IT systems to improve our efficiency. We also will leverage on the economical scales that on the ports that we have developed to reduce the unit costs. At the same time, we will be focusing on sustainable fuels, which we expect to capture higher market margins opportunities.
Okay. Maybe conversely, what's maybe the biggest, most significant opportunity you see for the company and how you plan to capitalize on it?
There is always a threat, and then there is an opportunity. I would think the most significant opportunity lies in the global shift towards sustainable shipping solutions, which is driven by the IMO GHG strategies and a few EU maritime regulations. There might be a threat to some, but to us, we see that it is a great opportunity. CBL will capitalize on this by, first of all, scaling our biofuel operations and also to explore other sustainable fuels such as methanol and LNG. We will also be expanding our service network to underserved markets. At the same time, we also will be strengthening our supplier relationships as well as our procurement leveraging.
That's very helpful. Maybe just to close things up and sort of as a final question, how do you envision CBL's role in this global marine fuel logistics industry over the next five years by 2030 or so? Everything you've talked about, sustainability, market leadership.
Very interesting. By 2030, we envision ourselves to be a leader, if we can be a leader in sustainable marine fuels logistics with a diversified portfolio that may include biofuel and other sustainable fuels. The company's extensive network, compliances with environmental regulations, and we can also focus on innovation positions and how to play a positive role in decarbonization of the shipping industries while maintaining our operational excellence as well as our market leaderships.
All right. Fantastic. Thank you so much for your time today. I want to thank everyone as well for watching. If you have any questions or would like to schedule a meeting with the company, I'm happy to try and coordinate, even if it happens to be after the conference here. You can send me an email. That's bloom@lythampartners.com. If you'd like to learn more about Lytham, you can visit our website at lithiumpartners.com. Follow us on LinkedIn to stay connected on future events. Again, thank you so much for your time today. Greatly appreciate it.
Thank you, Robert.
Fantastic. We hope you all enjoy the rest of the conference and have a great day. Thank you, everyone.
Same to you.