Denmark-based Concordia Maritime is eyeing upcoming charter renewals as it seeks to capitalise on rising product tanker rates.
The Stena-owned company has five of its 10 P-MAX vessels of 65,000 dwt working on the spot market.
But three are on two-year charters to a South American oil company until November 2021 and the other two are fixed on consecutive voyage deals in and out of Brazil, a market it described as niche, until May and June.
Chief executive Kim Ullman said negotiations would soon begin over new deals.
"We will talk to them in March," he told TradeWinds.
The company posted a net loss in the fourth quarter of SEK 29.5m ($3.05m), versus SEK 19.5m the year before.
This was blamed by Ullman on delay effects from having vessels on fixed-rate deals, meaning the "tanker boom" did not begin to be noticed at the company until the end of the period.
Spot market earnings for the product fleet in the fourth quarter were $14,800, which was lower than average earnings of $20,000 per day for the market, due to these delays.
Ullman added that "only a few ships are fixing at the very peak of the market" at any one time, however.
Banking relationships sold
The company has new cash reserves in place after refinancing eight of the P-MAX ships with its banking group during the fourth quarter.
This took place two years before expiry of the previous agreement, securing an extension until December 2024 at similar conditions.
Concordia has also added $24m to the loan as part of the new deal.
Ullman said he could not reveal what the cash would be used for, nor name the lenders, but he referred to them as "our old relationship banks that we have had for a long time".
He added: "We are very happy about that and the new loan. We still have our banks with us."
Regarding the IMO 2020 transition on 1 January, he said: "We are not investing in scrubbers. There was enough compliant fuel. We didn't expect it to be a problem, and it wasn't a problem."
Looking ahead, he added: "We are upbeat. We are in a much better structural position than previously.
"The markets will be volatile, but on a higher level. There is no tanker market that will stay high and flat. Something like a virus can push sentiment down."
As for a potential profit in the first quarter, Ullman would only say that its guidance for the 56% of product tanker days and 42% of suezmax days fixed for the period shows those deals to be profitable.
