Genco Shipping & Trading sailed closer to profit despite a challenging market, thanks in part to cutting costs and outperforming on low capesize rates.
The John Wobensmith-led owner reported a $7.8m loss for the first quarter versus a $55.8m loss during the same period last year.
Loss per share came in at $0.19, just missing Wall Street consensus of $0.18 loss per share.
Revenue improved to $93.5m from $76.9m primarily due to higher ship employment on the spot market versus more time-charter employment a year earlier.
It also received a boost from attaining a capesize TCE rate of $12,054 during a quarter that saw rates bottom out at $3,695 at the very end.
Average rate across the 69-ship fleet, which also has ultramxes, supramaxes and handymaxes, came in at $9,230.
Total operating expenses fell to $94.4m from $125.3m, the latter of which included a $56.4m non-cash impairment charge on nine vessels.
“During the first quarter of 2019, we drew upon our active commercial strategy and our barbell approach to fleet composition as we effectively operated through a volatile and challenging freight rate environment," chief executive John Wobensmith said.
