John Fredriksen's Flex LNG is expecting better earnings as LNGC markets tighten, following what it called an "unsatisfactory" first six months.
The start-up's net loss was cut to $2.9m in the second quarter against $6.7m in 2017.
The four operational ships brought in less revenue at $7m, compared to $8m a year ago, but operating costs were reduced to $3.1m from $14.44m.
EBITDA was $3m versus a loss of $7.4m in 2017.
CEO Oystein Kalleklev said: "During the first half of 2018, Flex LNG delivered unsatisfactory financial results due to disappointing utilisation of Flex Enterprise which has operated in the spot market in this period.
"As we are in the start-up phase, one idle vessel makes a big impact on our financial accounts."
He added: "We are however making good progress on building a very substantial LNG shipping company based on large modern fuel efficient LNG carriers which we are very confident will be the preferred vessels in the increasing market for seaborne transportation of LNG.
Confidence flowing
"As we remain confident that the market will become tighter going forward we do expect that our financial performance will improve given the fact that we are well positioned with our current fleet of modern LNG carriers."
Four more ships are due from yards in 2019 and 2020.
All four current LNGCs are fully financed and the company has a "very healthy financial position" for the remaining four newbuildings, it said.
Flex views the market as having "very favorable" near-term and long-term fundamentals.
