Danaos Corporation (NYSE:DAC) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 7, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Evangelos Chatzis - Chief Financial Officer

John Coustas - Chief Executive Officer

Conference Call Participants

Omar Nokta - Jefferies

Chris Wetherbee - Citigroup

Operator

Good day and welcome to the Danaos Corporation Conference Call to discuss the Financial Results for the 3 months ended June 30, 2023. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. Hosting the call today is Dr. John Coustas, Chief Executive Officer of Danaos Corporation; and Mr. Evangelos Chatzis, Chief Financial Officer of Danaos Corporation. Dr. Coustas and Mr. Chatzis will be making some introductory comments and then we'll open the call for questions and answers. Please go ahead.

Evangelos Chatzis

Thank you, operator and good morning to everyone and thank you for joining us today.

Before we begin, I quickly want to remind everyone that management remarks this morning may contain certain forward-looking statements and that actual results could differ materially from those projected today. These forward-looking statements are made as of today and we undertake no obligation to update them. Factors that might affect future results are discussed in our filings with the SEC and we encourage you to review these detailed Safe Harbor and Risk Factor disclosures. Please also note that where we feel appropriate, we will continue to refer to non-GAAP financial measures such as EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income to evaluate our business. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and accompanying materials.

With that, let me now turn the call over to Dr. John Coustas, who will provide the broad overview of the quarter. John?

John Coustas

Thank you, Evangelos. Good morning and thank you all for joining today's call to discuss our results for the second quarter of 2023.

The world economy has stagnated in the second quarter of 2023, resulting in a gradual easing of the container market. Danaos' active strategy in the current market condition is made possible by the prudent approach we have taken to manage our balance sheet to conservative levels as well as our successful chartering strategy. The latter is reflected in our operating revenues of $241 million which is near to previous record despite a charter market drop that is more than 50% lower than a year ago.

We continue to be active in the charter market, highlighting the resilience of our business model and secured nearly $0.5 billion in new charter contracts during the quarter. Our total charter backlog increased to $2.5 billion as of the end of the quarter and contracted charter coverage currently stands at 99% for 2023 and 86% for 2024.