Ultramax owner Belships has added to its newbuilding orderbook as it recorded a bigger profit for the third quarter.
Gains from vessel sales and the reorganisation of its operator business lifted the Oslo-listed shipowner’s bottom line during period of weaker freight rates.
Belships said it has added a 64,000-dwt ultramax bulk carrier to its newbuilding programme in Japan, which now totals 12 vessels.
The newbuilding will be delivered during the second half of 2027 and will be named Belcargo.
The vessel is leased on similar terms as Belships’ previous lease agreements, with purchase options attached and no requirements for down payments.
Net profit for the third quarter was $19.3m, up from $15.3m in the same period last year.
Profit was lifted by a $6.5m gain on two older supramaxes sold earlier this year, plus $10m from the reorganisation of its operating business, Norwegian Bulk Carriers.
Another $4m gain will be recognised in the second quarter next year.
The quarterly result came in spite of a fall in net freight revenue, which totalled $67.3m in the three months, down from $114.6m a year earlier.
Belships is paying out 59% of its net earnings in dividends for the period “due to [the] solid cash position”. Its dividend policy is to pay out 50% of its adjusted net result.
The shipowner will pay NOK 0.50 ($0.04) per share, which is NOK 0.05 less than for the previous three months.
Belships also paid off $8.3m of its bank debt in November, which has pushed out its next repayments to 2026 and reduced its outstanding bank debt to $81m.
Belships’ 30 live vessels earned an average gross time-charter equivalent rate of $16,724 per day, compared with $17,905 per day a year earlier.
The Baltic index for 63,000-dwt ultramaxes averaged $16,591 gross per day during the quarter, based on 58,000-dwt vessels.
This compares to a daily breakeven of $10,900 per vessel per day.
Belships has fixed-rate contract coverage for 80% of ship days in the fourth quarter at about $16,200 per day.
About 37% of ship days in the next four quarters have been covered at around $16,200 per day.
Ten of Belships’ ultramaxes are currently chartered out on index-linked contracts at an average premium of 103% to the corresponding Baltic index for ultramax vessels.
Belships’ operator business Norwegian Bulk Carriers (NBC), previously known as Lighthouse Navigation, contributed $1.5m of Belships’ $27m Ebitda for the quarter.
“Despite the challenging market conditions, NBC continues to contribute to Belships’ profitability and dividend capacity,” Belships said in its quarterly report.
NBC has generated an average of $2.5m in Ebitda per quarter over the past five years.
Oslo-based NBC was formed in April when Belships raised its interest in the operator — then known as Lighthouse Navigation Management — from 50% to 67%. The rest is owned by key employees.
At the same time, Belships sold its 50.1% stake in Singapore-based operator Lighthouse Navigation Pte, which handles business from its offices in Bangkok and Melbourne.
The stake was bought by Lighthouse Navigation’s leading employees, who already owned 49.9%. The entity has been renamed Lighthouse Asia.
