Danaos Corporation (NYSE:DAC) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 14, 2024 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

John Coustas - CEO

Evangelos Chatzis - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Omar Nokta - Jefferies

Clement Mullins - Value Investors

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Danaos Corporation conference call to discuss the financial results for the Three Months ended December 31, 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 will open the call to a question-and-answer session. Please go ahead.

Evangelos Chatzis

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us today. Before we begin, I quickly want to remind everyone that management’s 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, adjusted net income, time charter equivalent revenues and time charter equivalent dollar income per day 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 fourth quarter of 2023. Danaos continues to deliver strong results in the fourth quarter of 2023 as geopolitical events continue to impact global shipping markets. Mostly recently, the conflict in the Middle East expanded to the seas with attacks on vessels in the Red Sea area.

These dramatically older trade routes and the performance of liner companies, as most major companies decided to re-route their vessels away from the Suez Canal, sailing longer distances around the Cape of Good Hope to reach Europe. This in turn increased on mild demand leading to capacity shortage, that drove box rates significantly higher up, up to 300%, while it's expected that box rates will remain elevated as long as the disruption continues.