Star Bulk Carriers co-chief financial officer Christos Begleris admits his company cannot guarantee consistent earnings in volatile markets.

But he told the Marine Money Ship Finance Forum in London on Thursday that the US-listed operation has a few ways of smoothing out rate troughs.

The CFO pointed to Ebitda of $200m in 2019 and $900m in 2021 as evidence of the huge swings that can be seen in bulker profitability.

But the decision to fit the whole fleet with scrubbers in 2019 at a cost of $250m, including off-hire, has proved key to insulating the bottom line from downturns.

Depending on the gap in price between cheaper high-sulphur fuel oil and the more expensive low-sulphur alternative, Star Bulk can earn a premium of between $2,000 and $7,000 per day from its scrubber-fitted vessels.

And the owner is also focused on being the lowest-cost operator through its in-house management team.

This expertise is worth more than $1,000 per day “and protects us from the downside”, Begleris said.

Constant efforts to lower financial costs also help, the CFO added.

“We can be profitable when some of our competitors are generating a loss in tough rate environments,” he told the conference.

The CFO described the scrubber programme as a “big project” involving a number of different shipyards.

The cost had been earned back in June 2022, or in two and half years since inception.

But the work does not stop there, Begleris explained.

“We have built an organisation around the scrubbers. We have a specific team working on maintenance and performance,” he said.

Due to this, Star Bulk has been able to operate scrubbers for 98% of all available days over the last three years.

“It’s not enough to just install the scrubbers. You need to have an organisation to follow up on the performance,” the finance chief said.

Begleris has been with Star Bulk for 10 years.

He said one of the greatest lessons he has learned in that time is one preached by Greek owners for generations.

“It’s so important to invest in assets at the low point of the cycle. Buy cheap and then have the financial ability to support those investments until the market turns,” the CFO told the conference.

“We are lucky to enjoy markets with very high volatility,” he concluded.