Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:SHIP) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call November 14, 2023 9:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Stamatis Tsantanis - Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Stavros Gyftakis - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Tate Sullivan - Maxim Group

Kristoffer Barth Skeie - Arctic Securities

Michael Heim - NOBLE Capital Markets

Operator

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. Conference Call on the Third Quarter Ended September 30, 2023 Financial Results.

We have with us Mr. Stamatis Tsantanis, Chairman and CEO; and Mr. Stavros Gyftakis, Chief Financial Officer of Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that this conference call is being recorded today, Tuesday, November 14, 2023.

The archived webcast of the conference call will soon be made available on the Seanergy website, www.seanergymaritime.com. Many of the remarks today contain forward-looking statements based on current expectations. Actual results may differ materially from the results projected from those forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that can use the actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in the third quarter ended September 30, 2023 earnings release, which is available on the Seanergy website again, www.seanergymaritime.com.

I would now like to turn the conference over to one of your speakers today, the Chairman and CEO of the company, Mr. Stamatis Tsantanis. Please go ahead, sir.

Stamatis Tsantanis

Thank you, operator. Hello. I would like to welcome everyone to our conference call. Today, we are presenting the financial results for the third quarter and first 9 months of '23, while also announcing the distribution of another cash dividend.

Starting with our commercial performance, I'm pleased to report that in the third quarter, Seanergy achieved a daily time charter equivalent rate of $15,300, once again, overperforming the Baltic Capesize Index by around 14%. This is a result of our strategic investment in improving the energy efficiency of our fleet, where the majority of our ships is obtaining premiums over the index as well as our effective hedging strategy where we locked in about 30% of our fleet in fixed rates exceeding $20,000 a day.

Considering the performance of the Capesize market, despite the strong demand for seaborne transportation of iron ore, coal and bauxite in the first 9 months of the year, congestion stood at historical low levels. Therefore, vessel utilization improved, expanding the effective fleet supply, which in turn has put severe pressure on the spot market.