Diana Shipping Inc. (NYSE:DSX) Q2 2022 Results Conference Call July 28, 2022 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Ed Nebb - IR

Semiramis Paliou - CEO

Anastasios Margaronis - President

Ioannis Zafirakis - CFO and Chief Strategy Officer

Eleftherios Papatrifon - Chief Operating Officer

Maria Dede - Chief Accounting Officer

Operator

Greetings. Welcome to Diana Shipping's 2022 Second Quarter Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded.

At this time, I'll now turn the conference over to Ed Nebb, Investor Relations. Mr. Nebb, you may now begin.

Ed Nebb

Thank you, Rob. And thanks to everyone who is joining us today for the Diana Shipping, Inc. 2022 second quarter conference call. Leading the call today will be Semiramis Paliou, Chief Executive Officer, along with other members of the management team. And so without further ado, I will turn the call over to Ms. Paliou, again, Chief Executive Officer.

Semiramis Paliou

Thank you, Ed. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Diana Shipping Inc.'s second quarter 2022 earnings call. My name, as Ed said, is Semiramis Paliou, the company's CEO, and it is an honor to have the opportunity to present to you today. Joining me on this call this morning, we have Mr. Anastasios Margaronis, President of Diana Shipping; Mr. Ioannis Zafirakis, CFO and Chief Strategy Officer; Mr. Eleftherios Papatrifon, Chief Operating Officer; and Ms. Maria Dede, the company's Chief Accounting Officer.

Before I begin, I kindly ask everyone to review the forward-looking statements applicable to today's presentation, which can be found on Page 4 of the accompanying second quarter's presentation. The second quarter of 2022 has been another great quarter for our company and continues the trend of robust profitability since mid last year. Market conditions remained positive during the second quarter and, in tandem with our chartering strategy, allowed us to continue generating attractive free cash flows. As a result, we have announced an even higher quarterly dividend for this quarter, reflecting our confidence in the market.

Turning to Slide 5, I will review with you the company's snapshot as of today. Not much has changed since our last quarter, and we find ourselves owning and operating 35 vessels in the water with a carrying capacity of approximately 4.5 million deadweight tons. Five vessels in our fleet are unmortgaged. It should be noted that, as already announced, the merchant vessel Baltimore has been sold and is expected to be delivered to her new owners during the third quarter of this year. Our fleet utilization has remained at very high levels, coming in at 99.1% for the first half of 2022. 33 vessels in our fleet are managed in-house by Diana Shipping Services and 2 vessels are managed by our 50-50 joint venture, Diana Wilhelmsen Management Limited. At the end of the second quarter, we employed 156 people at sea and ashore.