Seanergy Maritime is staying positive amid capesize woes while securing a bit of assurance for this year's first quarter.
The New York-listed owner of 10 capesize vessels obtained a $4.5m loan to help pre-pay a $12.5m scrubber investment that will eventually be reimbursed by charterers.
The capesize pureplay company acquired the debt as rates stay in the basement after plummeting since the 25 Vale dam catastrophe wiped 40 million tonnes of iron ore off the market.
The supply disruption arose after the Brazilian iron ore giant closed 50 tailing dams for testing in response to the Brumadinho dam breach.
Average daily rates for the dry bulk asset class hit a low of $4,325 on 11 March before climbing to $6,387 Friday but then slipping to $5,684 today, according to the Baltic Exchange.
Rates were at $13,288 when the dam failed, killing dozens of people.
“In the first quarter of 2019, our main focus has been on preserving liquidity in order to address the temporary market slowdown," chief executive Tsantanis said.
He said rates should improve through 2020 amid less new ship deliveries driven by IMO 2020 adoption and restoration of US-China relations and Vale's iron-ore output.
"We remain optimistic about the capesize market in 2019 and 2020," he said.
Wider loss for the fourth quarter
Despite Tsantanis' upbeat outlook, the company fell deeper into the red, registering a $3.19m loss for the three-month period versus a $116,000 deficit a year earlier.
Seanergy's revenue improved to $27m from $24.3m but expenses rose to $6.4m from $4.94m.
