Hoegh Autoliners could be looking to charter in vessels.
Chief executive Andreas Enger said the Oslo-listed car carrier player has “world-class” newbuildings on the way plus legacy vessels operating well without debt. This created the option to expand the fleet or continue with renewing it.
“We have flexibility,” he said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday. “We could add extra charter vessels as that market opens up.”
He added: “In that way, we are in a very good position. We have all the tools in our bag: to number one, go green, but also to match capacity to our total requirements.”
The willingness to potentially charter in vessels is an about-face from the company, when executives said last October that it would not look to bring in outside vessels.
Instead, it said at the time that it would focus on its newbuilding programme. The first of 12 ships, the 9,100-ceu Hoegh Aurora (built 2024), was delivered in August.
It has since taken delivery of a second, the 9,100-ceu Hoegh Borealis (built 2024), while selling a trio of ships for $180m total.
Enger said the company could have easily employed those vessels — the 6,000-ceu Hoegh Chiba and Hoegh Kobe (both built 2006) plus the 6,500-ceu Hoegh New York (built 2005) — as the car carrier sector is massively undersupplied and capacity constrained further by vessels avoiding the Red Sea.
“The future capacity strategy we will work as it goes along. Right now we are quite tight,” he said.
“There are some vessels that will be retired in the years to come. We are managing that carefully.”
The company lists 33 ships in its fleet.
For the quarter, Hoegh Autoliners recorded a $193m profit, up from $142m for the same period last year, on the back of $349m in revenue.
The top line figure represented a drop from the $355m brought in for the same period last year.
During the period, it earned freight rates of $101.50 per cbm of cargo, up both sequentially and year over year, but moved 3.5m cbm of cargo, flat from the second quarter and down from the third quarter of 2023.
In early trading, Hoegh Autoliners shares took a dive, falling NOK 5.90 ($0.54) to NOK 127.10.
