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Earnings Call: Q3 2021

Nov 11, 2021

Operator

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the EuroDry conference call on the third quarter 2021 financial results. We have with us today Mr. Aristides Pittas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Tasos Aslidis, Chief Financial Officer of the company. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session, at which time, if you wish to ask a question, you will need to press star and one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today.

Please be reminded that the company announced its results with a press release that has been publicly distributed. Before passing the floor to Mr. Pittas, I would like to remind everyone that in today's presentation and conference call, EuroDry will be making Forward-Looking Statements.

These statements are within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Matters discussed may be forward-looking statements which are based on current management expectations that involve risks and uncertainties that may result in such expectations not being realized. I kindly draw your attention to slide two of the webcast presentation, which has the full forward-looking statement, and the same statement was also included in the press release. Please take a moment to go through the whole statement and read it. I would now like to pass the floor over to Mr. Pittas. Thank you, sir. Please go ahead.

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you all for joining us today for our scheduled conference call. Together with me is Tasos Aslidis, our Chief Financial Officer. The purpose of today's call is to discuss our financial results for the third quarter and the nine-month period ended September 30, 2021. Please turn to slide three. Our income statement highlights are shown here. For the third quarter of 2021, we reported total net revenues of $19.5 million, the net income of $11.8 million. Adjusted net income attributable to common shareholders was $10.1 million or $3.77 per share diluted. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter stood at $13 million.

For the nine-month period, our net revenues were $42.1 million and our adjusted net income $8.0 million or $0.72 per share diluted. These results are in stark contrast to our poor results of last year when the initial impact of the pandemic was first felt in our business. Our CFO, Tasos Aslidis, will go over our financial highlights in more detail later on in the presentation. Please turn to slide four for our operational highlights. As previously announced, on September 22, 2021, the company acquired motor vessel Good Heart, a 63,214 dwt Ultramax vessel, $34.5 million. The vessel was financed partly by own funds and partly by a bank loan of $32 million collateralized by this new acquisition and our motor vessel Starlight.

There were no dry dockings or major repairs during the third quarter of 2021. To assist us in acquiring the Good Heart, the company raised $9.2 million of net proceeds by issuing about 316,000 shares through our ATM up to September 30, 2021. On the chartering front, our motor vessel Ekaterini P was fixed for a trip of about 80-90 days at $25,250 per day for the first 65 days and $31,000 per day thereafter. Following the delivery of motor vessel Good Heart, she was fixed for the first period of approximately 40-50 days at $32,750 per day for the first 37 days and $42,000 per day thereafter.

After the conclusion of this employment, she was fixed for a small 16-18 days trip at $33,000 a day. The MV Panteleimon is fixed for a time charter of about 5-7 months at $30,250 per day. The MV Tasos is fixed for a trip of about 80-90 days at $28,500 per day. Lastly, motor vessel Starlight was extended at 98.5% of the BPI index for a minimum period until October 2022.

During the third quarter of 2021, the company settled the 90 days of previously sold forward freight agreements, the equivalent of one Panamax vessel, which was originally sold at the rate of $12,550 per day with a loss of $1.7 million. In October, we sold the 90 days in Q1 2022 of FFAs, the equivalent of one Panamax vessel at $31,500 per day. A few days later, we closed that position at $33,200 per day, realizing a gain of about $700,000. As of September 30, the remaining 90 days previously sold at $12,550 per day for Q4 2021 had a negative valuation of about $2.7 million. Last Q3 was a very profitable quarter.

Our Board will decide during the 3rd November meeting to redeem its Series B preferred shares at par, releasing approximately $13.6 million from its free cash. Thus, going forward, the company's balance sheet will be very simple, consisting only of straight equity and cheap bank debt, which currently runs at a spread of about 2.3% above LIBOR. On nearly half of which we have applied a LIBOR hedge at about 1%. Please turn to slide five for a summary of EuroDry's current fleet. With the acquisition of Good Heart, EuroDry's fleet has increased to nine units, further complementing our cluster of own-built newbuilding vessels.

Along with our medium-age Japanese-built Panamax cluster, our current fleet has an average age of 12.4 years and the current carrying capacity is about 670,000 dwt . Slide six shows the current vessel employment schedule. As you can see, the effective coverage for the full quarter of 2021 stands at about 56% in terms of minimum fixed rate contract and about 10% only in 2022. This figure, of course, excludes ships on index charters that have secured employment but are open to market movements. One can easily conclude that our performance will depend a lot on the market developments during the ensuing months. We feel happy with our current positioning of forward coverage as we remain optimistic about the market fundamentals, as I will discuss a bit further down the presentation.

Now let's turn to slide seven, where we go over the market highlights for the quarter ended September 30, 2021. During the third quarter, dry bulk rates continued to climb throughout September, but reversed quite strongly in October. As seen here, the average spot market rate for Panamax ships was $31,700 a day in the third quarter, and by September 30, the price had increased to around $34,100 per day. Meanwhile, the average one-year time charter rate for Panamax ships was $37,230 per day in Q3, reaching $39,250 by the last day of the quarter. By last week, though, one-year time charter rates had dropped to around $31,500 per day. According to Clarksons, during Q3, secondhand bulk carrier pricing.

Operator

You are now reconnected.

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

Hello. Excuse us. We were cut off. We are continuing from where we were cut off. We were at slide seven. We were going over the market highlights for this quarter. We had reached the point to say that after a strong Q3, we have seen in the last month a significant drop in the charter market, where Panamax vessels had dropped to about $31,500 per day. On the second-hand market, according to Clarksons, during Q3, second-hand bulk carrier prices increased by 17%, while newbuilding prices increased to more than $37 million and $34 million for Kamsarmax and Panamax vessels respectively. Year- to- date, the fleet has grown by 3.4%. Please now turn to slide nine.

Global recovery continues, albeit a bit weakened compared to the IMF's previous forecast in July. According to the October IMF report, growth forecast has been revised slightly downward, quoting global growth projection for 2021 at 5.9% compared to 6% in July, while 2022 has been kept unchanged at 4.9%. Beyond 2022, the IMF continues to forecast a moderate global growth level of 3.3%. For 2021, this modest headline revision reflects more difficult near-term prospects for the advanced economy group due to supply disruptions fueled by higher commodity prices as inflation expectations continue. Prospects for emerging markets and developing economies have also been marked down for 2021, especially for emerging Asia.

Particularly, the U.S. is expected to grow 6% for 2021, which is below its July forecast of 7%. The downward revision reflects a slowdown in economic activity resulting from a rise in COVID-19 cases and delayed production caused by supply shortages and the resulting acceleration of inflation. China's economy is expected to grow 8% in 2021, slightly less than the July forecast due to scaling back of public spending and the difficulties we see with the energy issues. While India's growth forecast are still retained at 9.5% for the year of 2021. Looking at the dry bulk trade growth and based on Clarksons projections for 2021, we see demand growth expectations continuing to be on an upward trajectory of 4.6% for this year.

For 2022 and 2023, the dry bulk trade is expected by Clarksons to grow at a moderate pace of 2.3% and 2.5% respectively. Please turn to slide 10. The order book as a percentage of total fleet up until November 2021 stands at 6.8%, which is still around the lowest levels we've seen in the last 25+ years. In the current order book and continuing demand trends for the coming years, we expect a fundamentally supported and continued rebound in the dry bulk market for the next couple of years at least. Please turn to slide 11 for our dry bulk fleet overview. According to Clarksons, net fleet growth is projected to 2.6% in 2021.

Based on the current level of the order book, fleet growth will be at historical low levels in 2021 and 2022. Demolition in 2021 and 2022 is expected to be more or less on par with this year's very low level, as the effects from higher freight and fairly low bunker prices limit the incentive for scrapping older, inefficient tonnages. Importantly, the 2023 order book is increasingly set, and deliveries are likely to again be half of normal levels. Please turn to slide 12, where we summarize our outlook on the dry bulk market.

The global recovery continues, as we said before, at a solid pace, despite the ease of transferability of the Delta variant of COVID-19, and despite the backdrop of significant commodity and energy price increases, which have started to reduce the pace of economic growth and threaten the creation of an inflationary environment. The dry bulk market has been on a strong trajectory on the back of highly supportive conditions in the commodity markets, having reached 11-year highs in Q3 2021. In the last month, we have seen a slowdown in growth, and especially extreme demand in China, which has affected the whole market.

This has to do mainly with the logistical issues in our view, due to the pandemic, but we feel the Chinese government has the power and the means to stabilize, and therefore we expect earnings to remain volatile at high levels in the short- and medium-term outlook. The short- and medium-term outlook is generally positive and supported by one of the lowest order books ever. Furthermore, ordering of new ships in the future for 2023 deliveries is expected to be minimal due to lack of available slots in shipyards. In addition, the lack of clarity for the fuel of the future, as not knowing the optimal ship for even five years out, makes placing a new order an uncertain proposition.

Overall, a steady recovery in dry bulk volumes alongside limited supply growth and positive global economic sentiment should translate to firm improvements into 2022 and likely beyond. However, market conditions could remain volatile as a number of risks remain around iron ore and coal trade and the eventual course of the COVID pandemic. Progression in this timing and the implementation of the new IMO environmental regulations from January 2023 onwards will be key elements in the direction of the market. Interesting times as always loom ahead. Let's turn to slide 13. The left side of the slide shows the evolution of one-year time charter rates of Panamax dry bulk vessels since 2002. As of November 5, the one-year time charter rate for Panamax vessels with capacity of 75,000 dwt stood at around $21,500.

Still a very firm and profitable level despite the current 30% correction. As you can see on the right-hand side of the slide, the current price of a 10-year-old Panamax vessel is around $25 million. Over the past year, dry bulk prices have gradually been increasing, exceeding the historical median and average levels, but still significantly lower than prices seen in 2010. In this environment, we are of course capitalizing on the strong market by posting significant earnings and generally strengthening our balances. As free liquidity increases significantly from next quarter onwards, we are evaluating how best to use it for the benefit of our shareholders. This can be in the form of further debt reduction, share buybacks, an institution of dividends or even acquisitions secured by strong charters, which would bring residual risks down to a minimum after completing.

Most probably it will be a combination of some of the above. We remain positive and excited about the prospects of EuroDry within its framework and continue to evaluate opportunities for investment or any other form of cooperation exploiting our public listing and operating platform. Let me now pass the floor over to our CFO, Tasos Aslidis, to go over our Q1 financial highlights in more detail. Thank you. Tasos.

Tasos Aslidis
CFO and Treasurer, EuroDry

Thank you, Aris. Thank you very much. Good morning from me as well, ladies and gentlemen. I will now take you through our financial highlights for the third quarter and nine-month period ended on September 30, 2021, and compared to the same period of last year. For that, let's turn to slide 15. For the third quarter of 2021, the company reported total net revenues of $19.5 million, representing a 186% increase over total net revenues of $6.8 million during the third quarter of 2020. That increase was primarily the result of the higher time charter rates our vessels earned in the third quarter of this year as compared to the third quarter of last year, but also on the increased number of vessels we operated during this quarter.

The company reported a net income of $12.1 million for the period and a net income attributable to common shareholders of $11.8 million, as compared to a net income of $0.5 million and net income attributable to common shareholders of $0.1 million for the same period for third quarter of 2020. Interest and other financing costs for the third quarter of 2021 remained roughly unchanged compared to last year at $0.6 million since the increase in the average outstanding debt that we carried during the period was offset by the decreased LIBOR rate for our loans. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2021 was $13 million, compared to $2.8 million during the third quarter of 2020, representing a 362% increase.

Basic earnings per share attributable to common shareholders for the third quarter of 2021 were $4.47, calculated on 2.6 million basic shares outstanding. Diluted earnings were $4.39, calculated on approximately 2.7 million diluted weighted average number of shares outstanding, compared to basic and diluted earnings per share of $0.06 for the third quarter of 2020, calculated on approximately 2.3 million shares basic and diluted.

Excluding the effect on the income attributable to common shareholders for the quarter from the unrealized gain on derivatives, the adjusted earnings attributable to common shareholders for the quarter ended September 30, 2021, would have been $3.84 per share basic and $3.77 diluted respectively, compared to adjusted earnings per share of $0.05 basic and diluted for the third quarter of 2020. Usually, security analysts do not include the above item in their published estimates of earnings per share. Let's now move on to the second half of the slide to discuss the nine-month results for the year.

For the first nine months of 2021, the company reported total net revenues of $42.1 million, representing a 165% increase over total net revenues of $15.9 million during the first nine months of 2020, which again was the result of the increased number of vessels we operated and the higher average charter rates our vessels earned during the nine-month period compared to the same period of last year. We reported a net income for the period of $15.1 million and a net income attributable to common shareholders of $14.2 million, as compared to a net loss of $5.6 million and a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $6.7 million during the first nine months of 2020.

Interest and other financing costs for the nine-month period of 2021 amounted to $1.7 million, compared to $1.9 million for the same period of 2020. This decrease is mainly due to the decreased LIBOR rates our loans earned in the current year compared to the last. Also, in 2021, we recorded a non-cash expense of about $1.7 million as a loss on debt extinguishment upon the conversion of certain of our debt into equity. Adjusted EBITDA for the nine months of 2021 was $26.3 million, compared to $1.8 million achieved during the first nine months of 2020, representing a 1,326% increase.

Basic earnings per share attributable to common shareholders for the first nine months of the year were $5.84, calculated on 2.4 million, approximately 2.4 million shares outstanding. Diluted earnings per share were $5.73, calculated on approximately 2.5 million weighted average number of shares outstanding, compared to basic and diluted loss per share of $2.97 for the first nine months of 2020.

Again, excluding the effect on the income attributable to common shareholders for the nine months of the unrealized loss on derivatives and the loss on debt extinguishment for last year's results, the adjusted earnings per share attributable to common shareholders for the first nine months of this year would have been $7.42 basic, and $7.29 diluted, respectively, compared to a loss of $2.7 per share basic and diluted for the same period of 2020. Again, as previously mentioned, usually security analysts do not include the unrealized extraordinary items in their published estimates for earnings per share. Let's now turn to slide 16 to review our fleet performance.

We will start our review by looking first at our utilization rates for the third quarter of 2021 and compare it to the same period of 2020. As usual, our utilization rate is broken down into commercial and operational. During the third quarter of this year, our commercial utilization rate was 100%, while our operational utilization rate was 99.4%, compared to 100% commercial and 98.9% operational for last year.

An average of 8.1 vessels were owned and operated during the third quarter of 2021, earning an average time charter equivalent rate of $28,103 per vessel per day, compared to seven vessels that we owned and operated in the same period of 2020, earning an average $11,872 per day. Our total daily vessel operating expenses, including management fees, general and administrative expenses, but excluding drydocking costs, averaged about $6,495 per vessel per day during the third quarter of 2021, compared to $6,397 per vessel per day for the third quarter of last year.

If we look further down in this table, we can see the cash flow breakeven rate that we take during the third quarter of this year, which takes into account also drydocking expenses, cash interest expenses, loan repayments, and our preferred dividend payments if paid in cash. Thus, for the third quarter of 2021, our daily cash flow breakeven rate was about $9,991 per vessel per day, compared to $9,974 per vessel per day for the comparable period for third quarter of 2020. Let's now look on the right part of this slide to review our nine-month figures.

During the nine-month period of 2021, the first nine months, our commercial utilization rate was 100%, and our operational utilization rate was 99.6%, similar to our levels for the same period of last year. An average of 7.49 vessels were owned and operated during the first nine months of 2021, earning an average time charter rate equivalent of $22,232 per vessel per day, compared to seven vessels that we owned and operated in the same period of 2020, earning an average time charter equivalent rate of $8,927 per day.

Our total daily operating expenses, again including management fees, G&A expenses, but excluding drydocking costs for the nine-month period ending September 30 of this year, amounted to $6,510 per vessel per day, compared to $6,195 per vessel per day for the same period of 2020. Let us look again at the bottom of this table to see our cash flow breakeven level for the nine-month period, which amounted to $10,451 per vessel per day this year, compared to $11,209 for the same period, the first nine months of 2020. Let's move now to slide 17.

We have used this slide for the last two earnings calls to provide our shareholders and investors a tool to assess the earning potential of our fleet over the next two to three quarters. The table shown in this slide has two components. The top part refers to our fixed rate contracts. It is noteworthy that a small percentage of our available days in the fixed rate contracts, especially in the first or second quarter of 2022. We consider this fortuitous, as the market is performing very well despite the recent drop as I actually mentioned, producing and being expected to produce significant earnings for us. The rest of our vessels are employed in contracts linked to the relevant to their size Baltic Dry Index.

Our calculator indicatively shows the Supramax and Panamax Baltic forward rates as of November 10, 2021, at the bottom part of the table, and also shows how this index level get translated to rates for our ships. We actually display on this table the final blended rate for the open days of our fleet, which you can see right below the Supramax and Panamax forward rates in the table, in which, as you can see, turns out to be very similar to the index levels. Based on these assumptions, and by further assuming for simplicity, $6,500 per vessel per day operating expenses and G&A costs, and a 5% commission rate, one can estimate the contribution to our EBITDA.

The final result is that for the fourth quarter of 2021 is additionally adjusted for an FFA contract for 90 days for the quarter that we had. This overall exercise is meant to provide, as I mentioned in the previous calls, a tool to calculate our EBITDA for the upcoming quarters in this case here for the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first half of 2022. Obviously, one can remember or make his own assumptions about the rates to do that calculation. It is worth observing that based on yesterday's FFA rates, which are approximately equal to the present rates that our fleet is earning, which as I did mention, are 30% lower than what they were two weeks ago.

We expect normalized EBITDA contribution that is up for 2022, that is above that of 2021. Let's now move to slide 18 to review our debt repayment profile. On the first part of the slide, we see our loan and balloon payments of our bank debt. As of September 30, 2021, with an outstanding debt of about $73.9 million. By looking at the chart, we can see that over the next three years, we have an average annual repayment rate of about $12 million a year, which translates to about $1.2 million per vessel for roughly about $4,000 per vessel per day.

Our next balloon payment is at the end of 2023, and is for about $11.2 million, and that refers to one of our joint venture vessels, the Ekaterini, which by the time will be five years old, and we expect to be able to finance the balloon as a matter of course, as we have done in the previous occasions. A quick note here on the cost of funding. The average margin of our debt, as you can see from the note on the right part of the slide, is about 2.8%.

Assuming a LIBOR rate of about 0.3% on top of it, we can estimate the cost of our senior debt to be a little more than 3%, 3.1% or so. Regarding our preferred equity, as I did mention, our Board of Directors decided in November to use some of the earnings we accrued to redeem all of our outstanding Series B preferred shares at par, and thus reduce our funding costs. This redemption will increase the earnings per share of our common shareholders by $0.28 in 2022 and by about $0.7 per share from then on, as our Series B preferred shares were perpetual and from the beginning of 2023 were to repay the 14% dividend.

At the bottom of this slide, you can also see a projection of our cash flow breakeven level over the next 12 months and as well as a breakdown of it. That cash flow breakeven level is expected to be around $12,678 per vessel per day. Moving to slide 19, where we can see some highlights from our balance sheet. This slide gives you a snapshot of our assets and liabilities in a simplified way. On our asset side, first, we can see that we have cash and other assets as of September 30, 2021, at about $26.1 million.

Again on our asset side, the book value of our vessels is about $130.6 million, bringing the total book value of our assets to $156.7 million. On the liability side, our debt as of September 30, 2021 stood at $73.9 million, which approximately represents 47% of the book value of our assets. Our preferred equity as of September 30 stood at $13.6 million, which accounts for another 18.6% of our assets. While our remaining liabilities approximately were $7.5 million, or roughly 4.8% of our book assets. That leaves us with a net book value of $61.7 million, which translates to $22.3 per share.

However, the market value for our fleet is significantly higher than its book value, and we need to make such an adjustment to get a better estimate of the value of the company. We estimated that as of the end of September 2021, the market value of our nine vessels was 50% higher than their respective book value, suggesting an NAV per share of around $47. Although our share price has recently increased or traded at a range of between $25 and $32 per share, it seems significantly below that level and therefore investing into our company represents an opportunity with significant upside potential. With that, I would like to turn the floor back to Aristides to continue the call.

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

Hello. Let me open up the floor now for any questions or answers you may have.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad and wait for the automated message advising your line is open. Please state your first and last name before you ask your question. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. We will now take our first question. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Tate Sullivan
Managing Director and Senior Industrials Analyst, Maxim Group

Hello, hello all. Hello, this is Tate Sullivan from Maxim Group. Just a little macro to start. I mean, it seems like shares for a lot of the dry bulk companies are following what the indices have done and recently coming down from peaks. Your comments earlier about steel demand in China flagging recently. I've heard various comments from dry bulk companies on that. Can you give a little more about how that might be just a temporary factor and the seasonal considerations as well, please?

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

Sure. The levels of iron ore inventories of steel in China have been significantly depleted. Their prices have also dropped. China is very decisive itself when it, when they buy and sell iron ore. I think that when they realize that the prices are low enough and they want to move their economy, they have the capacity to start ordering iron ore again. We've seen that happen time and time again. And when they do that, we will see again a significant increase in the volumes of iron ore that will be sold. I think that. And you've seen it, you've seen it in the Capesize vessels freight rates, how they vary over the year from this kind of movements.

Tate Sullivan
Managing Director and Senior Industrials Analyst, Maxim Group

Great. Thank you. I apologize it broke up a little bit there, but I see how, when it has happened time and time again in previous cycles, is it usually a timeline that is about four or five months as you. The rates, the forward rates seem to be taking that in for the first six months of 2022.

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

Yes, you were breaking up a little bit. Yeah, it these elevated rates again within the first half of 2022. Definitely we think we will. I mean, it might-

Tate Sullivan
Managing Director and Senior Industrials Analyst, Maxim Group

Okay. Thank you, Aristides. And Tasos on the preferred equity redemption, a great move and lower cost of funding. As well, can you just refresh on the accounting for that in 4Q, redeeming those at par at $13.6 versus the last carrying value of $13.1. Will that be a loss in 4Q? And can you just was the conversion price on that preferred equity. Go ahead.

Tasos Aslidis
CFO and Treasurer, EuroDry

I was saying the first shares that we had initiated seven years ago gave the company the option after five years to redeem them at their. Given the fact that we pay 8% for that piece of funding, and which will become 14%.

In 14 months, we decided that it was a good use of our earnings to pay down to redeem the whole amount of the preferred equity and keep the dividends returning to our shareholders.

Tate Sullivan
Managing Director and Senior Industrials Analyst, Maxim Group

Great. Okay. Thank you both.

Operator

Thank you.

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

If there's anyone speaking now, we cannot hear.

Operator

Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Poe Fratt
Transportation and Logistics Equity Research Analyst, NOBLE Capital Markets

Hi. This is Poe Fratt from Noble Capital Markets. Can you hear me?

Tasos Aslidis
CFO and Treasurer, EuroDry

Yes, we can hear you, Poe.

Poe Fratt
Transportation and Logistics Equity Research Analyst, NOBLE Capital Markets

Okay. I hate to do this, Tasos, but you broke up a lot on your last answer. Can you highlight, you know, what you're gonna redeem, how much cash you're gonna use to redeem the preferred in this quarter?

Tasos Aslidis
CFO and Treasurer, EuroDry

I think we're gonna use $13.6 million, which is exactly the outstanding amount of preferred equity at par. We will pay that plus any accrued dividends. I believe by the time we're gonna do the redemption, it will be something like $400,000 accrued dividends, the majority of which is already in our results for Q3, so we would pay them that. I estimate that there will be about $14 million in cash needed to repay the shares at par plus the accrued dividends.

Poe Fratt
Transportation and Logistics Equity Research Analyst, NOBLE Capital Markets

Okay. It looks like you traded, you know, the first quarter 2022 FFA market. Can you just highlight whether, you know, your thoughts behind that and whether you expect to put any FFAs in place for the first half of the year or even, you know, the full year for 2022?

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

We don't use FFAs speculatively. We only use FFAs to hedge our position. Because we had all our ships in the spot market, rather than fixing a time charter, we decided to fix at the beginning of October FFA contracts for Q1, essentially covering one vessel for Q1 at the level which was $31,000 something, which we deemed very satisfactory at the time. It was done as a hedge against one of our open vessels. As the market moved down, we felt the move was very abrupt and we thought that it would correct sooner than what it is proving to have been corrected.

We closed that position at that point, took the profit of $700,000 and essentially had again our ship open, and exposed in Q1, this coming year. You will never see us doing the opposite. You will never see us buying FFAs when we have ships that are open in the market because that would increase our exposure in the market, which we don't want to do. We only want to use FFAs to cover our position. Of course, if at some point we think that we are over-covered, we might close some positions to reduce the cover or take some profit.

Poe Fratt
Transportation and Logistics Equity Research Analyst, NOBLE Capital Markets

Since the FFA market moved back up to where you would be potentially looking at selling again and creating some cover or some hedges for the first half of the year or-

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

It hasn't, Poe, moved up that much yet. It's around the level that we closed our position, maybe even a little bit lower than the level that we closed our position at this point. It's not at $30,000. It's again at around low $20,000s, very low $20,000s.

Poe Fratt
Transportation and Logistics Equity Research Analyst, NOBLE Capital Markets

Yeah. I see.

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

It's not the level that we think that we would like to take additional cover. We do believe in the market and that we should see higher rates happening and continuing. We're not ready to fix our vessels rate at the $20,000 level.

Poe Fratt
Transportation and Logistics Equity Research Analyst, NOBLE Capital Markets

Yeah, I see.

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

We'd rather keep them.

Poe Fratt
Transportation and Logistics Equity Research Analyst, NOBLE Capital Markets

You know, sorry.

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

Yeah. We'd rather keep them spot. If we do see them approaching $30,000 again, we will take some additional cover though, either by fixing them on time charter or through FFAs. We'll see.

Poe Fratt
Transportation and Logistics Equity Research Analyst, NOBLE Capital Markets

Yeah. Maybe today is a pretty abrupt day, but there's I see the FFAs for Panamax is down in the first quarter, down under, you know, under $20,000 or closer to $19,000. That's helpful. What, Tasos, can you talk about the dry docking activity? It looks like dry docking expenses are, you know, going up for the next 12 months and they potentially total close to $4 million. Could you just highlight how much downtime or idle days would be associated with those dry docks?

Tasos Aslidis
CFO and Treasurer, EuroDry

Yeah. I don't have in front of me the exact dry docking schedule of the vessels. The first nine months of this year, we had very little dry docking. Almost no dry docking, I think. While we show a significant drop in the dry docking expenses, I believe we might have one or two dry dockings next year. I'll be happy to provide you. Typically takes about 20 days. We budget 20-25 days for the off-hire for the dry dock. If it's a young one of our younger vintage, we budget between $500,000 and $700,000 per dry dock. It is closer to $1 million for our Panamax.

I can get a little more specific, offline if you want, but that's what I recall on top of my head.

Poe Fratt
Transportation and Logistics Equity Research Analyst, NOBLE Capital Markets

Yeah, that'd be helpful. Aristides, can you talk about the, you know, S&P market and just what you're seeing there and sort of your stance right now on, you know, additional moves to either enhance the fleet or expand the fleet?

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

Well, I think we need to first see how things settle down after this vibrant move in the market. I mean, the very strong improvement in charter rates that we saw in September and the subsequent drop in October and how that affects values. If we do see the market correcting as far as values are concerned, we haven't seen that yet, and it doesn't really happen unless the market is low for quite some time or relatively low for quite some time.

We want to see how things develop first before we decide on a particular move in acquiring maybe another ship, or even selling an older one and replacing it with a younger one, which is something that is also a thought that we have had, but we are not ready to implement any of these options at this point. We are more on a wait and see situation at this current moment.

Poe Fratt
Transportation and Logistics Equity Research Analyst, NOBLE Capital Markets

Great. That's helpful. I'd be remiss if I didn't say looks like the Euroseas acquisition this morning looks pretty interesting. Congratulations on that.

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

Yes. Yes. That's a very good move, but that's a different company. Okay.

Poe Fratt
Transportation and Logistics Equity Research Analyst, NOBLE Capital Markets

Yep. No, exactly. Thank you so much.

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Operator

We have no further questions on the line. I will now hand back to Mr. Pittas for closing remarks.

Aristides Pittas
Chairman and CEO, EuroDry

Thank you, everybody, for participating in today's call, and we'll be back with you next year with the end of the year results, which we all know will be great, and we will take it from there. Let's see what 2022 will bring. Bye-bye.

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