A grounded ship cut into Pyxis Tankers’ first-quarter bottom line.
The New York-listed MR tanker owner posted a $3.4m loss in the first three months of 2022, deeper than the $2m loss in the same period last year.
It said the 50,295-dwt Pyxis Epsilon (built 2015) ran aground in port, taking it out of service for 43 days and lowering fleet utilisation to 74.3%.
The casualty hurt the company’s performance, as did higher costs from a larger fleet, lower average rates and higher bunker costs.
“Our results ... reflected the lingering effects from the Covid-19 Omicron variant on mobility and economic activity, which resulted in a continuation of a soft spot chartering environment,” chief executive Valentios Valentis said.
“Moreover, our quarterly results were impacted by non-recurring operational events, including the sale of two vessels and an accidental grounding of one of our MR product tankers, which resulted in reduced operating days for revenue opportunities.”
For the quarter, Pyxis brought in $6.3m in revenue from its fleet of five MRs.
It was more than the $3.6m for the first three months of 2021, but the larger fleet raised voyage costs and operating expenses by $3m.
The ships earned a time charter equivalent average of $11,227 per day in the first quarter, down from $12,738 per day a year earlier.
The company did not provide details on the Pyxis Epsilon’s grounding, except to say it returned to service in late March.
According to AIS data, the ship arrived in Beirut on 7 February and stayed until 16 February.
It then made its way to Greece, where it appeared to arrive at the Talos Shipyard in Eleusis in late February, staying for roughly a month.
