NAT’s Earnings Decrease Despite Larger Fleet
Image Courtesy: NATBermuda-based tanker owner Nordic American Tankers (NAT) has seen its operating cash flow drop to USD 40.7 million in the second quarter of 2016 from an operating cash flow of USD 54.5 million reported in the same quarter a year earlier.
The company said that the second quarter of the year showed “solid results” as NAT’s expanding fleet, trading in the spot market and under contract, produced about USD 28,500 per day per vessel.
Furthermore, NAT’s net income for the quarter plunged to USD 12.9 million from USD 30.9 million seen in the corresponding quarter of 2015.
For the whole fleet, the company had a total of 65 days offhire during the quarter, of which 59 days were planned offhire. For the rest of 2016, six vessels are expected to undergo drydocking, if not one or two of them are moved to 2017, the company said.
“NAT continues to maintain a strong balance sheet with low net debt and is focusing on keeping low financial risk. At the end of the second quarter of 2016, the company had net debt of about USD 303 million or about USD 11 million per vessel,” NAT added.
During the quarter, the company took delivery of all four 150,000 dwt Suezmax tankers bought in May 2016. The ships were purchased from the Greek shipping firm Nereus Shipping for a price of USD 106 million.
Following the delivery of these four vessels, the company owns a fleet of 30 Suezmax vessels, including two newbuildings from Korea, scheduled for delivery in August 2016 and January 2017.
