Euroseas’ profit has improved from a year ago, in great part due to bringing an eco newbuilding into its fleet.
The New York-listed owner of 19 boxships posted $32.2m in profit for the third quarter, up from $25.2m for the same period last year.
Adjusted profit totalled $28.2m, up from $20.9m in the third quarter in 2022.
The adjusted results led to earnings per share of $4.07 for the quarter, beating one analyst’s forecast of $3.01, according to data from Yahoo Finance.
Revenue came in at $50.7m, up from $46m.
Euroseas said it owned 19 vessels that earned an average time charter equivalent rate of nearly $30,100 per day during the third quarter. A year ago, it owned 18 vessels that earned a TCE rate of just under $30,900 per day.
Euroseas took delivery of the 2,800-teu eco newbuilding Terataki in July 2023 from Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in South Korea and put it on a 36 to 48-month charter with Asyad Lines at $48,000 per day, as previously reported in TradeWinds.
Despite the better results, chief executive Aristides Pittas painted a rather gloomy picture for the container sector as a result of lower demand, better supply-chain efficiency and a spike in ship deliveries.
“By the end of the third quarter of 2023, containership market rates were down 20% to 25% for the types of vessels in our fleet as compared to June 2023; and furthermore, during October and early November, they continued their decline, dropping approximately another 5%,” he said.
“As it is evident, one of the challenges in the market is the absorption of the container ship orderbook still standing at about 26.6% of the existing fleet.”
He said most of the newbuildings will be larger boxships that will not operate in the feeder segment in which Euroseas operates, but the new arrivals will create negative rate sentiment throughout the entire sector.
“The tone in the market will likely be set by the large orderbook of the intermediate and large container ship sectors,” he said.
But Euroseas is “well insulated” from pending lower rates with a $400m contracted revenue backlog that developed in 2021 and 2022, and 25% of its available days for 2025 are already booked at high rates, he said.
The company also rapidly grew liquidity, which stood at $48.3m as of 30 September.
“In that respect, we will continue our quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share and continue executing on our share repurchase programme as we believe that repurchasing our stock, which is trading significantly below its charter adjusted net asset value, represents a great investment opportunity,” Pittas said.
Euroseas earned $89.8m in profit for the first nine months, up from $85.9m last year. Revenue remained flat at around $140m for both periods.
