CMB.TECH NV (CMBT) 2020 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Euronav Q2 2020 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please also note, today's event is being recorded.

大家早上好，歡迎參加 Euronav 2020 年第二季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）另請注意，今天的活動正在錄製中。

At this time, I'd like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Brian Gallagher, Head of IR. Sir, you may begin.

此時，我想將電話會議轉交給 IR 主管 Brian Gallagher 先生。先生，您可以開始了。

Thank you. Good morning and afternoon to everyone, and thanks for joining Euronav's Q2 2020 Earnings Call.

謝謝。大家早上好，下午好，感謝您加入 Euronav 的 2020 年第二季度財報電話會議。

Before I start, I would like to say a few words. The information discussed on this call is based on information as of today, Thursday, 6th of August 2020, and may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements reflect current views with respect to future events and financial performance and may include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events, performance, underlying assumptions and other statements, which are not historical factual statements.

在開始之前，我想說幾句話。本次電話會議討論的信息基於截至今天（2020 年 8 月 6 日，星期四）的信息，可能包含涉及風險和不確定性的前瞻性陳述。前瞻性陳述反映了當前對未來事件和財務業績的看法，可能包括有關計劃、目標、目標、戰略、未來事件、業績、基本假設和其他陳述的陳述，這些陳述不是歷史事實陳述。

All forward-looking statements attributable to the company or to persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by reference to the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed in the company's filings with the SEC, which are available free of charge on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and on our own company website at www.euronav.com. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statements speaks only as of the date of this particular statement, and the company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Please take a moment to read our safe harbor statement on Page 2 of the presentation.

所有歸因於公司或代表其行事的人的前瞻性陳述均參照公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中討論的風險、不確定性和其他因素明確完全限定，這些文件可在美國證券交易委員會的網站上免費獲得網站 www.sec.gov 和我們自己公司的網站 www.euronav.com。您不應過分依賴前瞻性陳述。每份前瞻性陳述僅在本特定陳述發表之日有效，公司不承擔公開更新或修改任何前瞻性陳述的義務。實際結果可能與這些前瞻性陳述存在重大差異。請花點時間閱讀演示文稿第 2 頁上的安全港聲明。

I will now pass to our Chief Executive, Hugo De Stoop, to start with the main presentation. Hugo, over to you.

現在我將請我們的首席執行官 Hugo De Stoop 開始主要介紹。雨果，交給你了。

Thank you, Brian. Welcome to our call today. In terms of the agenda, I will firstly run through the Q1 highlights before passing on to Lieve Logghe, our CFO, who will provide a full financial review of the income statement and the balance sheet. Then Brian, our Head of Investor Relations, Market Research and Communication, will look at the current themes in the tanker market and Euronav's outlook before we take questions.

謝謝你，布萊恩。歡迎來到我們今天的電話。在議程方面，我將首先介紹第一季度的亮點，然後再轉交給我們的首席財務官 Lieve Logghe，他將對損益表和資產負債表進行全面的財務審查。然後，在我們提問之前，我們的投資者關係、市場研究和傳播主管 Brian 將研究油輪市場的當前主題和 Euronav 的前景。

So turning to Slide 4 and the highlights page. Tanker markets continued to be very strong during Q2, even stronger than in Q1, which is surprising as usually the second and third quarter are seasonally weaker. What is remarkable is that we have already enjoyed 3 consecutive quarters of VLCC rates over $60,000 a day in the spot market, and this for the first time since 2008. This robust freight market has continued into Q3, with nearly half of our VLCC covered at rates just over $60,000 a day. The Suezmax also performed very well with just under $40,000 per day so far in Q3. This is a solid foundation to enter the second half, but admittedly, with far less visibility than usual.

所以轉向幻燈片 4 和亮點頁面。油輪市場在第二季度繼續非常強勁，甚至強於第一季度，這令人驚訝，因為通常第二和第三季度季節性較弱。值得注意的是，我們已經連續 3 個季度在現貨市場享受每天超過 60,000 美元的 VLCC 費率，這是自 2008 年以來的第一次。這種強勁的貨運市場一直持續到第三季度，我們近一半的 VLCC 覆蓋在每天的費用剛剛超過 60,000 美元。到目前為止，蘇伊士型油輪在第三季度的表現也非常出色，每天不到 40,000 美元。這是進入下半場的堅實基礎，但不可否認，能見度遠低於往常。

We told earlier in the year that Q2 would bring a strong and sustained storage market opportunity. This was not really the case. Yes, a number of VLCCs were and are still being used as storage unit but far less than what many analysts and ourselves had predicted. Nevertheless, as the figures illustrate, this has been one of the strongest markets for over a decade.

我們在今年早些時候告訴我們，第二季度將帶來強大而持續的存儲市場機會。事實並非如此。是的，許多 VLCC 曾經並且仍在被用作存儲單元，但遠遠少於許多分析師和我們自己的預測。然而，正如數據所示，這是十多年來最強勁的市場之一。

With the super strong cash generation, Euronav has been able and very keen to return a lot of cash to our shareholders. We started to distribute a total of $1.57 per share in cash dividends since late May. And more recently, we have executed $75 million in share buybacks over the past 2 months, and we will do more.

憑藉超強的現金產生能力，Euronav 能夠並且非常渴望向我們的股東返還大量現金。自 5 月下旬以來，我們開始派發總額為每股 1.57 美元的現金股息。最近，我們在過去 2 個月內執行了 7500 萬美元的股票回購，而且我們還會做更多。

This brings me to Slide 5 and capital allocation at Euronav, which remains an important and key focus for the Board and management. Indeed, Euronav remains committed to returning capital and create value for our stakeholders. And obviously, a strong freight market has given us the opportunity to demonstrate this.

這讓我想到了幻燈片 5 和 Euronav 的資本配置，這仍然是董事會和管理層的一個重要和關鍵焦點。事實上，Euronav 仍然致力於回報資本並為我們的利益相關者創造價值。顯然，強勁的貨運市場讓我們有機會證明這一點。

Given the lower equity valuation, as illustrated by our share price in the last few months, we have started to buy back our own shares. So far, we have used $75 million from the Q2 earnings to buy our shares at an average value which is very accretive to existing shareholders. In addition, today, we announced that we will use a further $25 million to buy our shares using proceeds from the earnings of Q2, and we will do this by the end of September.

鑑於股權估值較低，正如我們過去幾個月的股價所示，我們已開始回購自己的股票。到目前為止，我們已經使用第二季度收益中的 7500 萬美元以平均價值購買了我們的股票，這對現有股東來說非常有利。此外，今天，我們宣布我們將再動用 2500 萬美元，利用第二季度收益的收益購買我們的股票，我們將在 9 月底前完成。

At Euronav, we always try to be balanced and consistent in our allocation. We do have some mandatory debt repayment as well as some revolving credit facilities reductions, which aren't in cash. But given where our current leverage is, we do not need to repay more debt for the time being. We have designed our return to shareholders' policy, taking many aspects of the business into account. And indeed, we are very pleased to be in a position to pay a cash dividend of $0.47 per share related to the second quarter, in addition to the $100 million I just spoke about on the share buyback program that will be returned also to our shareholders.

在 Euronav，我們始終努力在分配中保持平衡和一致。我們確實有一些強制性的債務償還以及一些循環信貸額度的減少，這些都不是現金。但考慮到我們目前的槓桿，我們暫時不需要償還更多的債務。我們在設計股東回報政策時考慮了業務的許多方面。事實上，我們很高興能夠支付與第二季度相關的每股 0.47 美元的現金股息，此外還有我剛才談到的股票回購計劃中的 1 億美元也將返還給我們的股東.

So overall, the shareholders will receive $196 million in cash from Euronav as they relate to the Q2 earnings, roughly half of it in cash dividends and half of it in share repurchase. At the same time, Euronav balance sheet is improved by $60 million cash to reduce our net debt position. When repurchasing shares, we will always try to create long-term shareholder value rather than giving support to a share price, which indeed has been very, very volatile during the quarter.

因此，總體而言，股東將從 Euronav 獲得與第二季度收益相關的 1.96 億美元現金，其中大約一半是現金股息，一半是股票回購。與此同時，Euronav 的資產負債表增加了 6000 萬美元現金，以減少我們的淨債務頭寸。回購股票時，我們將始終努力創造長期股東價值，而不是為股價提供支持，股價在本季度確實非常非常波動。

This concludes my remarks, and I will now pass on to CFO, Lieve Logghe, to run through the financials. Lieve, over to you.

我的發言到此結束，現在我將轉交給首席財務官 Lieve Logghe 來完成財務報告。生活，交給你。

Thanks, Hugo. As you mentioned, the first half year of 2020, and more specifically the second quarter, was very strong in terms of performance, reflecting the strong tanker markets. Revenues generated are $535 million, while EBITDA generated was $355 million, resulting in a net income of more or less $260 million.

謝謝，雨果。正如您所提到的，2020 年上半年，更具體地說是第二季度，表現非常強勁，反映了油輪市場的強勁表現。產生的收入為 5.35 億美元，而產生的 EBITDA 為 3.55 億美元，淨收入約為 2.6 億美元。

Whilst navigating the COVID-19 crisis, the company's clear priority has been the safety and well-being of our employees and to provide support to the extent required in the communities in which we operate. Despite the extra costs to support our crew, combined with mask and other surgical material, strong cost control of the full scope more than offset the impact in the G&A line.

在應對 COVID-19 危機的同時，公司的明確優先事項一直是我們員工的安全和福祉，並在我們運營所在社區所需的範圍內提供支持。儘管支持我們的船員需要額外成本，再加上面罩和其他手術材料，但對全範圍的強大成本控制足以抵消 G&A 生產線的影響。

Whereas the first quarter was including a positive impact of strategic fuel stock in 2019 compared to the market, we noticed a negative impact in Q2. We want to mention, however, that this fuel stock was actively managed as more than 85,000 metric tons were bought for an amount of $22.1 million for the Oceania. This represents more or less the consumption of the second quarter. Due to the strong cash management resulting in a reduced debt level and due to a beneficial interest rate environment, also interest costs reduced significantly in the first semester compared to last year.

儘管與市場相比，第一季度包括 2019 年戰略燃料庫存的積極影響，但我們注意到第二季度的負面影響。然而，我們要提及的是，該燃料庫存得到了積極管理，因為為大洋洲購買了超過 85,000 公噸，金額為 2210 萬美元。這或多或少代表了二季度的消費。由於強有力的現金管理導致債務水平降低以及有利的利率環境，與去年相比，第一季度的利息成本也顯著降低。

Moving now on to Slide 7 and the balance sheet. The company remains in a solid position with a strong financial balance sheet. I refer to the leverage ratio of 38.3% as well as the liquidity in excess of $1.1 billion. We have kept a strong level of cash at our disposal for an amount of $280 million, which is more or less in line with last year. Even though we were active during the first semester in purchasing 4 VLCC resales requiring a down payment of more than $100 million, this cash out was partially offset by the proceeds of the sale of the vessels, the Finesse, Cap Diamant and TI Hellas.

現在轉到幻燈片 7 和資產負債表。該公司憑藉強大的財務資產負債表保持穩固地位。我指的是38.3%的槓桿率以及超過11億美元的流動資金。我們保留了 2.8 億美元的可支配現金，這或多或少與去年持平。儘管我們在第一學期積極購買了 4 艘 VLCC 轉售品，需要支付超過 1 億美元的首付款，但這筆現金支出部分被出售船隻 Finesse、Cap Diamant 和 TI Hellas 的收益所抵消。

Moreover, the business required more working capital because of increased outstanding cash to be received from the customers due to the high market rates. Also, clear focus has been put on the cash collection in order to create value for our stakeholders. The good performance, combined with the cash focus, allows Euronav to keep 20% of the net income to further deleverage with high cash returns to the shareholders.

此外，由於高市場利率導致從客戶處收到的未償還現金增加，因此該業務需要更多的營運資金。此外，明確關注現金收集，以便為我們的利益相關者創造價值。良好的業績加上對現金的關注，使 Euronav 能夠保留 20% 的淨收入，以進一步去槓桿化，為股東帶來高現金回報。

I will now hand over to our Head of Investor Relations, Brian Gallagher, for the market size -- slides. Brian, over to you.

我現在將把市場規模交給我們的投資者關係主管 Brian Gallagher - 幻燈片。布賴恩，交給你了。

Thank you, Lieve. We now look at 4 broad themes in the presentation before moving on to our outlook commentary.

謝謝你，利夫。在繼續我們的前景評論之前，我們現在先看看演示文稿中的 4 個廣泛主題。

On Slide 9, you can see how the contracting of VLCCs has actually been a positive for the wider tanker market. This provides a medium and long-term positive backdrop for the tanker sector and for investors, which Euronav believes is structural in nature. The light blue areas show the order book to fleet ratio, which has steadily reduced over the past decade and now stands at 20-year lows. The blue bars indicate per quarter new VLCC orders, and it is clear that there is a strong correlation with the green line, which is VLCC earnings.

在幻燈片 9 上，您可以看到 VLCC 的承包實際上對更廣泛的油輪市場產生了積極影響。這為油輪行業和投資者提供了中長期的積極背景，Euronav 認為這是結構性的。淺藍色區域顯示訂單與船隊的比率，該比率在過去十年中穩步下降，目前處於 20 年低點。藍條表示每季度新的 VLCC 訂單，很明顯與綠線（即 VLCC 收益）有很強的相關性。

The interesting feature, therefore, is the development over the past 3 quarters. As Hugo said earlier, this has been the best 3 quarters from an earnings perspective for VLCC since 2008, and yet this has not triggered a rush to the shipyards and ordering of new vessels. This is very encouraging and reflects our view that there's a potent mix of structural, regulatory, financial and environmental factors, which will continue to keep new ordering at low levels going forward.

因此，有趣的特徵是過去 3 個季度的發展。正如雨果早些時候所說，從 VLCC 的盈利角度來看，這是自 2008 年以來最好的三個季度，但這並沒有引發造船廠和新船訂購的熱潮。這是非常令人鼓舞的，反映了我們的觀點，即結構、監管、金融和環境因素的強大組合，將繼續使新訂單保持在低水平。

Moving to Slide 10 and the global fleet itself, which is also providing positive messages. Both the VLCC and Suezmax global fleet average age are now back to levels not seen in 18 years. Having an aging fleet is one thing, but digging a little deeper, we see around 20% of the VLCC fleet alone, which is now not only over 15 years of age, but crucially, will have to undergo a special survey in the next 7 quarters.

轉到幻燈片 10 和全球船隊本身，這也提供了積極的信息。 VLCC 和 Suezmax 全球船隊的平均船齡現在都回到了 18 年來的最高水平。擁有老化的船隊是一回事，但更深入地挖掘，我們看到僅 VLCC 船隊就有大約 20%，現在不僅船齡超過 15 年，而且至關重要的是，它們將在未來 7 年內接受特別調查宿舍。

This is critical. Having a vessel over 15 years of age means a lower addressable market for that tanker as most charters will not take such vintages for their cargoes. But equally, there's no incentive for a vessel to leave the market either. A special survey costing upwards of $4 million, depending on the age and ship condition at that age, therefore, provides an important catalyst for an owner to effectively stick or twist. Should the sector have a period of lower freight rates, as we saw in 2018, for instance, when 50 VLCC equivalents were scrapped, then we will see pressure with this catalyst for owners to take their ships out.

這很關鍵。擁有一艘船齡超過 15 年的船隻意味著該油輪的可尋址市場較低，因為大多數租船人不會將此類年份的貨物用於其貨物。但同樣，船舶也沒有離開市場的動力。因此，根據船齡和該船齡的船舶狀況，一項耗資超過 400 萬美元的特別調查為船東有效地堅持或扭曲提供了重要的催化劑。如果該行業有一段運費率較低的時期，正如我們在 2018 年看到的那樣，例如，當 50 艘 VLCC 等量被報廢時，我們將看到這種催化劑的壓力促使船東將他們的船舶撤出。

Slide 10 almost certainly underestimates the amount of VLCCs in this situation as it's unclear how many undertook special surveys during the first half of 2020 due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

幻燈片 10 幾乎肯定低估了這種情況下的 VLCC 數量，因為尚不清楚有多少 VLCC 在 2020 年上半年由於 COVID-19 限製而進行了特別調查。

On to Slide 11. Disruption during this first half of the year, and in particular, in Q2, has actually been a positive development for the VLCC market. Slide 11 illustrates the positive level of disruption we've seen with around 150 or 18% of the global fleet of VLCCs having some form of disruption, but only part of this is related to the contango and related storage trade. 60 VLCCs will remain permanently on the sidelines covering Iranian sanctioned vessels and also those in longer-term storage and related to contango. Around 40 or so will find trading difficult, as we highlighted in line green because they have been engaged in Venezuelan trade over the past 12 months.

轉到幻燈片 11。今年上半年，尤其是第二季度的中斷實際上對 VLCC 市場來說是一個積極的發展。幻燈片 11 說明了我們所看到的積極的中斷水平，全球大約 150 或 18% 的 VLCC 船隊有某種形式的中斷，但其中只有一部分與期貨溢價和相關存儲貿易有關。 60 艘 VLCC 將永久留在場外，包括伊朗制裁的船隻以及長期儲存和與期貨溢價相關的船隻。大約 40 人會發現交易困難，正如我們以綠色線突出顯示的那樣，因為他們在過去 12 個月中一直從事委內瑞拉貿易。

That takes about 100 VLCCs out of the marketplace. This leaves a number of categories in blue, as we show on Slide 11, which have also helped underpin freight rates because they've also been largely missing from trading. The 3 categories, most notably the 35 or so, which remain on what we would term market storage driven by the contango or a need to store oil; 18 from a suspected full case in Singapore, which has seen that fleet more or less idled during the -- most of Q2; and another 20 or so, which have been held up over the last 3 months via congestion at the Chinese ports.

這需要大約 100 艘 VLCC 退出市場。正如我們在幻燈片 11 中顯示的那樣，這留下了許多藍色類別，這也有助於支撐運費，因為它們在交易中也基本上缺失了。這 3 個類別，最值得注意的是 35 個左右，它們仍然在我們所說的由期貨溢價或需要儲存石油驅動的市場儲存中； 18 來自新加坡的一個疑似完整病例，在第二季度的大部分時間裡，該機隊或多或少處於閒置狀態；以及另外 20 個左右，在過去 3 個月中因中國港口擁堵而被擱置。

We would expect this congestion at Chinese ports to remain for another couple of months, so we will see some of these categories coming in the blue returning to the world trading fleet, totaling around about 60 to 80 VLCCs. But this will be progressive, will not happen immediately and will take some time, but nonetheless, does provide a headwind for owners as we move towards the latter part of this financial and calendar year.

我們預計中國港口的這種擁堵狀況還會持續幾個月，因此我們將看到其中一些類別以藍色回歸世界貿易船隊，總計約 60 至 80 艘 VLCC。但這將是漸進的，不會立即發生，需要一些時間，但儘管如此，隨著我們邁向本財政年度和日曆年的下半年，這確實給業主帶來了阻力。

Moving on to the final market slide on Slide 12 and what actually happened in Q2. Q2, as Lieve said earlier, was a story of the oil market, and in particular, oil supply, substantially reducing the potential storage opportunity for the tanker sector that we envisaged at the start of May. The rapid reduction in oil demand during March and April as restrictions for COVID-19 kicked in prompted an increase in inventory in both onshore and floating storage. And on Slide 12, this reached a peak of around about 200 million barrels of floating storage during May.

轉到幻燈片 12 上的最終市場幻燈片以及第二季度實際發生的情況。正如 Lieve 早些時候所說，第二季度是石油市場的故事，特別是石油供應，大大減少了我們在 5 月初設想的油輪行業的潛在存儲機會。隨著對 COVID-19 的限制開始實施，3 月和 4 月石油需求迅速減少，促使陸上和浮式儲存的庫存增加。在幻燈片 12 上，這在 5 月份達到了約 2 億桶浮動存儲的峰值。

During our last earnings call in early May for Q1, it was anticipated by ourselves and most commentators that this figure would be substantially higher, thus driving a very considerable but positive disruption for the tanker market as this requirement for storage would be acute. This didn't materialize to the scale we envisaged as we saw OPEC+ cuts kicking in very quickly, Saudi and partners also reducing voluntarily another level of supply cuts towards the end of May and U.S. production switching off quicker than expected as well.

在我們 5 月初的上一次第一季度財報電話會議上，我們和大多數評論員都預計這個數字會大大提高，從而對油輪市場造成非常可觀但積極的干擾，因為這種存儲需求將非常迫切。這並沒有達到我們預期的規模，因為我們看到 OPEC+ 的減產非常迅速地開始，沙特和合作夥伴也在 5 月底自願降低另一水平的供應削減，美國的生產關閉也比預期的更快。

So the tanker market only benefited from an additional 200 million barrels of storage requirement, around half of which went on Suezmax and Aframax. This is important because these ships were taken because VLCC rates during April were especially high. And this helps to explain some of the rate differential between the tanker categories during Q2.

因此，油輪市場僅受益於額外的 2 億桶存儲需求，其中約一半用於蘇伊士型和阿芙拉型。這很重要，因為這些船是因為 4 月份的 VLCC 費率特別高而被帶走的。這有助於解釋第二季度油輪類別之間的一些費率差異。

Looking forward, the EIA forecast continued recovery of demand towards 97 million barrels per day in September before the rate of recovery eases off in Q4. But crude supply is expected to remain below these levels, implying further inventory drawdowns.

展望未來，EIA 預測 9 月份需求將繼續恢復至每天 9700 萬桶，然後恢復速度將在第四季度放緩。但原油供應預計仍將低於這些水平，這意味著庫存將進一步減少。

Taking the EIA assumptions, as Chart 12 shows, most of the inventory will then have been drawn by Q3 of next year towards the 5-year average, with floating storage also needing to be reduced on VLCC and other tanker categories. These will provide headwinds to the tanker sector into 2021, along with the demand uncertainty with regard to COVID-19. Chart 12 does not assume deliberately any floating storage forecast beyond July. But as you can see, floating storage has already come off the peak but remains high in terms of the definition. There is no doubt that some congested barrels we spoke about earlier in -- off the Chinese coast are included in this definition of storage.

採用 EIA 假設，如圖 12 所示，到明年第三季度，大部分庫存將接近 5 年平均水平，VLCC 和其他油輪類別的浮動存儲也需要減少。這些將給油輪行業帶來阻力，直至 2021 年，以及 COVID-19 的需求不確定性。圖 12 並未特意假設 7 月之後的任何浮動存儲預測。但正如您所見，浮動存儲已經脫離高峰，但在定義方面仍然很高。毫無疑問，我們之前談到的一些擁擠的桶 - 在中國沿海以外的地方都包含在這個存儲定義中。

I'll now move to Slide 13 and the return of our traffic lights, giving our outlook view for the tanker market. We didn't use the traffic light system given the extreme volatility in the oil and tanker markets during March and April when we last spoke in early May. Hence, there is more change than usual. Supply of and demand for oil moves from green, stroke green amber to both being red. This reflects mainly the OPEC+ production cuts but also OPEC's move to monthly meetings, suggesting they will be flexible in managing supply. Demand is clearly going to take some time to return to previous levels as recent spikes in COVID-19 cases globally and accompanying lockdowns have made clear.

我現在轉到幻燈片 13 和我們的紅綠燈的回歸，給出我們對油輪市場的展望。考慮到 3 月和 4 月石油和油輪市場的極端波動，我們沒有使用紅綠燈系統，而我們上一次發言是在 5 月初。因此，有比平時更多的變化。石油的供應和需求從綠色，中風綠色琥珀色變為紅色。這主要反映了 OPEC+ 減產以及 OPEC 轉向月度會議，表明他們將靈活管理供應。需求顯然需要一些時間才能恢復到之前的水平，因為最近全球 COVID-19 病例激增以及隨之而來的封鎖已經表明。

Ton miles moves from green to green to amber, reflecting the lower U.S. crude export potential as U.S. shale production is lower than before. But it's not all bad news. Vessel supply is moving in a positive direction and moved to a full green on our traffic lights, reflecting, as we spoke about earlier, the lack of ordering despite very, very high freight rates over the last 3 quarters. As we mentioned before, we continue to believe this is a positive structural feature, which provides a strong medium-term support for the tanker market. Our balance sheet with liquidity over $1 billion remains one of the strongest in the sector, and this remains on the full green.

噸英里從綠色變為綠色再變為琥珀色，反映出由於美國頁岩油產量低於以前，美國原油出口潛力下降。但這也不全是壞消息。船舶供應正朝著積極的方向發展，並在我們的交通信號燈上變為全綠，正如我們之前所說，儘管過去 3 個季度的運費非常非常高，但仍缺乏訂單。正如我們之前提到的，我們仍然認為這是一個積極的結構性特徵，為油輪市場提供了強有力的中期支持。我們流動性超過 10 億美元的資產負債表仍然是該行業中最強大的資產負債表之一，而且仍然是完全綠色的。

So in conclusion, there are clearly more negative moves than positive, reflecting the more challenging outlook for tanker markets, and as Hugo said earlier, a lack of visibility that we haven't had for quite a period of time. But the 2 drivers of demand, oil supply and ton miles, will continue to be subject to uncertainty on how quickly GDP growth will return to more normalized levels and in the meantime, how crude inventory, both onshore and offshore, is drawn down to match that return in demand. However, Euronav has very little control over these macro drivers. But what we can control is our own balance sheet and our positioning, which is what we will continue to do on a proactive basis.

因此，總而言之，負面走勢顯然多於正面走勢，反映出油輪市場前景更具挑戰性，正如雨果早些時候所說，我們已經有很長一段時間沒有看到這種情況了。但需求、石油供應和噸英里數這兩個驅動因素將繼續受到 GDP 增長恢復到更正常水平的速度以及與此同時陸上和海上原油庫存如何減少以匹配的不確定性的影響需求回報。但是，Euronav 對這些宏驅動程序幾乎沒有控制權。但我們能控制的是我們自己的資產負債表和我們的定位，這是我們將在積極主動的基礎上繼續做的事情。

As we mentioned before, we have $1 billion-plus of liquidity to manage our business should we enter a period of sustained challenged freight rates. Our leverage remains amongst the lowest in the sector, and we have acted proactively over the summer months in our capital allocation by already repurchasing $75 million of the cheapest asset that's available to us, mainly our own shares. We've also added today the capacity to buy another $25 million of share buybacks derived from Q2's earnings.

正如我們之前提到的，如果我們進入運費持續面臨挑戰的時期，我們有超過 10 億美元的流動資金來管理我們的業務。我們的槓桿率仍然是該行業中最低的，而且我們在夏季的幾個月裡在我們的資本配置中採取了積極行動，已經回購了 7500 萬美元的我們可用的最便宜的資產，主要是我們自己的股票。我們今天還增加了從第二季度收益中購買另外 2500 萬美元股票回購的能力。

With that, I'll pass back to the operator and prepare for questions. Thank you for your attention.

有了這個，我會傳回接線員並準備提問。感謝您的關注。

(Operator Instructions) And our first question today comes from Amit Mehrotra from Deutsche Bank.

（操作員說明）我們今天的第一個問題來自德意志銀行的 Amit Mehrotra。

I appreciate the fair and balanced approach in the presentation. I mean the fact of the matter is a weak market could actually be quite good for a shipping company with a good balance sheet. And Euronav obviously has built the fleet through countercyclical investing via Maersk and Gener8 kind of earlier several years ago. With the balance sheet obviously getting better and better every quarter, even despite the big payouts, are there any opportunities for end block transactions, Hugo? There are obviously many private taker fleets out there that maybe there's not as much transparency or visibility on in terms of what's for sale and what's not, or the bid-ask spreads maybe are still wide. But if you can just comment on opportunities for growth in a market that's uncertain and a little bit weaker given the legacy of the company and how they've built the fleet.

我讚賞介紹中的公平和平衡的方法。我的意思是，事實上，疲軟的市場對資產負債表良好的航運公司來說可能是相當有利的。 Euronav 顯然在幾年前通過馬士基和 Gener8 的反週期投資建立了船隊。隨著資產負債表每個季度明顯變得越來越好，即使支出很大，Hugo 是否有任何結束大宗交易的機會？顯然，那裡有許多私人收購車隊，在出售什麼和不出售什麼方面可能沒有那麼多的透明度或可見性，或者買賣價差可能仍然很大。但是，如果你只能評論一個市場的增長機會，這個市場是不確定的，而且考慮到公司的遺產以及他們如何建立車隊，這個市場會有點疲軟。

Yes. Amit, well, very good question. You know that when you talk about the 2 transaction that you mentioned, the Maersk and the Gener8 one, if you remember, it's something that came up and we act upon it very quickly. In the case of Maersk, I think we did it over a Christmas holiday, in literally 2 weeks. And in the case of Gener8, if we really are talking about the agreement that we made with the Board and the shareholders, it was certainly something like less than a month of negotiation.

是的。阿米特，好，很好的問題。你知道，當你談到你提到的 2 筆交易時，馬士基和 Gener8 交易，如果你還記得的話，這是發生的事情，我們很快就採取了行動。就馬士基而言，我認為我們是在聖誕假期完成的，實際上是 2 週。就 Gener8 而言，如果我們真的在談論我們與董事會和股東達成的協議，那肯定是不到一個月的談判時間。

And I guess what I'm trying to say here is that you don't have a shopping list. You don't have a target fleet because that's not how the market works. I mean it seems that some people suddenly change their position and they decide to sell their fleet. And then it comes on to your desk. And when you have the capacity, and that is obviously balance sheet and liquidity, but also the management time to act upon those opportunities promptly, then you can seize those opportunities. And so we're not going to change that recipe. And I think that's really how it's going to happen.

我想我想在這裡說的是你沒有購物清單。你沒有目標車隊，因為市場不是這樣運作的。我的意思是，似乎有些人突然改變了立場，他們決定出售他們的艦隊。然後它就會出現在你的辦公桌上。當你有能力時，這顯然是資產負債表和流動性，還有管理時間及時對這些機會採取行動，那麼你就可以抓住這些機會。所以我們不會改變那個食譜。我認為這真的會發生。

When it relates to your question, are there already small deals to be done, I don't think so, or at least I haven't heard any. And I think that the reason is that we are on the back of 3 super strong quarters, Q4, Q1, Q2. What we have booked, and I believe the others have also booked fairly good numbers in Q3, is very, very healthy. I mean no matter what environment we are in right now, the quarter will end up to be a very good quarter.

當涉及到你的問題時，是否已經有小額交易要做，我認為沒有，或者至少我沒有聽說過。我認為原因是我們在 3 個超級強勁的季度，Q4，Q1，Q2 的支持下。我們已經預訂的，我相信其他人在第三季度也預訂了相當不錯的數字，非常非常健康。我的意思是，無論我們現在處於什麼環境，這個季度最終都會是一個非常好的季度。

And then there's a big question mark. And as I mentioned, and Brian did, too, there's probably more uncertainty about what comes in the future than in other period of time that we have seen in the past. But I just think that it's too early for people to sort of throw the towel or decide to sell their fleet or do something like that because the cash that they've generated very, very recently and up until today is phenomenal.

然後是一個大問號。正如我提到的，布賴恩也提到過，與我們過去看到的其他時期相比，未來會發生什麼可能存在更多的不確定性。但我只是認為人們現在就認輸或決定出售他們的車隊或做類似的事情還為時過早，因為他們最近和直到今天產生的現金是驚人的。

Right. Okay. So I guess as you accrue cash flows or reduce net debt, obviously, the capital allocation is just keeping it on the balance sheet, paying the dividend or buying back stock. I mean on the stock buyback, do you just keep on buying back stock as long as the equity is below NAV? I mean there's obviously some float and liquidity concern. And I think the AGM gave you the ability to kind of purchase 10% of the stock every year, if I understand that correctly. Can you just talk about, one, your limitations, kind of your -- how you think about the buyback in terms of balancing the financial positiveness of buying it below now but also kind of the limitations that, that gives you in terms of any liquidity inflow.

正確的。好的。所以我想當你增加現金流或減少淨債務時，顯然，資本配置只是將其保留在資產負債表上，支付股息或回購股票。我的意思是關於股票回購，只要股本低於資產淨值，您是否就繼續回購股票？我的意思是，顯然存在一些浮動和流動性問題。如果我理解正確的話，我認為年度股東大會讓你有能力每年購買 10% 的股票。你能不能談談，一個，你的局限性，你的 - 你如何考慮回購，以平衡現在購買它的財務積極性，以及在任何流動性方面給你帶來的限制流入。

Yes. So 2 very critical points. Yes, we believe that we are buying at a significant discount below NAV, but that's not how we're measuring it. And that's certainly not how we trigger it. The way we trigger it is by translating the current share price into a price of a VLCC or Suezmax for that matter. And at this price, we'll buy the cheaper vessel that we can buy in the market. Because if you only look at the NAV and the discount to NAV, then obviously, you're taking a picture of something that is moving target.

是的。所以2個非常關鍵的點。是的，我們相信我們正在以低於資產淨值的大幅折扣購買，但這不是我們衡量它的方式。這當然不是我們觸發它的方式。我們觸發它的方式是將當前股價轉化為 VLCC 或 Suezmax 的價格。以這個價格，我們將購買我們可以在市場上買到的更便宜的船隻。因為如果你只看 NAV 和 NAV 的折扣，那麼很明顯，你正在拍攝移動目標的照片。

If the market continues to be like it is today at $25,000, or let's say, between $20,000 and $30,000 a day, I have no doubt that the values are going to come off. And if the value come off, then the NAV comes off. And then potentially, you are improving your share price with the NAV decreasing and you go back to NAV.

如果市場繼續像今天這樣在 25,000 美元，或者說，每天在 20,000 美元到 30,000 美元之間，我相信這些價值將會下降。如果價值下降，那麼資產淨值就會下降。然後潛在地，你正在提高你的股價，資產淨值下降，然後你回到資產淨值。

So fundamentally, we prefer to have a long-term perspective. And we say, okay, today, at the current share price, we're buying a ship at probably 72 million, 73 million. Is that good value a lot? Yes, it is. If we were to go back to maybe 80 or 85, that may become the NAV of tomorrow. And there would be less reason we would be less keen to buy back our shares.

所以從根本上說，我們更願意有一個長期的觀點。我們說，好吧，今天，以目前的股價，我們購買一艘船的價格可能是 7200 萬、7300 萬。是不是物超所值？是的。如果我們回到 80 或 85，那可能會成為明天的資產淨值。而且我們沒有理由不那麼熱衷於回購我們的股票。

On the second point that you touched, which was liquidity. Honestly, I think that we are very, very, very far from decreasing the liquidity that it took us many years to build, by the way, over the 2 exchange. You have seen that we are buying over the 2 exchange. They are fairly balanced. I mean one has 60% of the trade flows. The other one has 40%, the European one. And I think we are adding sort of to the current volume of liquidity that we see in the share exchange. And it's not because you hold 5% of your capital that certainly you don't enjoy a very strong liquidity, which many investors cherish because that's the only way for them to make sure that they can buy and sell out at the time of their choosing without moving the share price.

關於您提到的第二點，即流動性。老實說，我認為我們離減少我們花了很多年時間建立的流動性還差得很遠，順便說一下，在 2 交易所。您已經看到我們在 2 交易所買入。他們相當平衡。我的意思是一個人擁有 60% 的貿易流量。另一個有 40%，歐洲的。而且我認為我們正在增加我們在股票交易所看到的當前流動性。並不是因為你持有 5% 的資本就不能享受非常強勁的流動性，許多投資者都珍惜這種流動性，因為這是他們確保可以在他們選擇的時間買入和賣出的唯一方法在不影響股價的情況下。

And that's maybe the last point, which we have said already in the remarks earlier, we're not buying to improve the share price. We are buying because it makes a lot of sense if we want to create long-term value for our shareholders. So you're not buying in order to push the share price higher in order to make a transaction the day after we've done that program. We are buying because it makes sense. That's it.

這可能是我們之前在評論中已經說過的最後一點，我們不會購買以提高股價。我們正在購買，因為如果我們想為股東創造長期價值，這很有意義。所以你買入不是為了推高股價，以便在我們完成該計劃後的第二天進行交易。我們購買是因為它有意義。就是這樣。

Our next question comes from Jon Chappell from Evercore ISI.

我們的下一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Jon Chappell。

Hugo, so the first question, kind of shorter term, the numbers you put up for the third quarter in both fleets, but especially the Suezmax fleet, substantially above what I would say have been market value since the start of the third quarter. So kind of a 2-parter here. First of all, was there any kind of legacy carryover from the strength of the second quarter, whether it was short-term charters or just extended voyages that got you to elevated level? And as we think about the rest of the quarter, should we think about benchmarks? Or do you have an elevated kind of starting point for the back half of the quarter as well?

雨果，所以第一個問題，短期而言，你在第三季度為兩個船隊提供的數字，尤其是蘇伊士型船隊，大大高於我所說的自第三季度開始以來的市場價值。所以有點像這裡的 2 夥伴。首先，第二季度的實力是否有任何遺留結轉，無論是短期租船還是只是延長航程，讓你達到更高的水平？當我們考慮本季度的剩餘時間時，我們是否應該考慮基準？或者你對本季度後半段的起點也有所提高？

So no, there is no legacy. That's for sure. But it is true that when you take the Q1, the Q2 and now half of the Q3, and thirdly, if you compare it to Clarksons or even to some of our peers, who I know have yet to announce their results, but at least they did some trading update, you can see that the fluctuations among us are larger than usual. I think that we were way ahead of our peers in Q1. This quarter, we may be slightly below. And then in Q3, it seems that we are, again, a little bit ahead of that.

所以不，沒有遺產。這是肯定的。但確實，當你拿 Q1、Q2 和現在一半的 Q3 時，第三，如果你把它與 Clarksons 甚至我們的一些同行進行比較，我知道他們還沒有公佈他們的結果，但至少他們做了一些交易更新，你可以看到我們之間的波動比平時大。我認為我們在第一季度領先於同行。本季度，我們可能略低於此。然後在第三季度，我們似乎又領先了一點。

But on average, it seems that we are all playing in the same territories. And that explains a little bit maybe the surprise of the market that we booked very good numbers for Q3. It's simply that voyages for VLCC, we've been talking about positive ton miles for the last 5 or even 10 years. Well, they get -- an average voyage seems to increase in number of days. And very often, we are very close to 90 days, and 90 days is a quarter.

但平均而言，我們似乎都在同一個地區比賽。這或許可以解釋市場對我們為第三季度預訂了非常好的數字感到驚訝。只是 VLCC 的航程，我們在過去 5 年甚至 10 年裡一直在談論正噸英里。好吧，他們得到——平均航程似乎增加了天數。很多時候，我們非常接近 90 天，而 90 天就是一個季度。

So depending on the positioning of your fleet, you may pick up some sort of bad voyage, but they are very, very good for your positioning. And then you will enjoy better rates the following quarters, but you have to endure maybe lower rates in the current quarter. And that's a little bit what we believe is happening here. So it's no legacy. But it's definitely part of a positioning of, I would say, majority of the fleet in order to benefit from rates that are higher in some part of the geographies than others.

因此，根據您艦隊的定位，您可能會遇到一些糟糕的航行，但它們對您的定位非常非常有幫助。然後你將在接下來的幾個季度享受更好的利率，但你必須忍受本季度可能更低的利率。這就是我們相信這裡正在發生的事情。所以這不是遺產。但這絕對是我想說的大多數機隊定位的一部分，以便從某些地區的費率高於其他地區的費率中獲益。

Understood. And then for the follow-up, the liquidity situation is obviously incredibly robust and something that really helps you stand apart. However, you shifted 2 of your stoplights to red. There's a ton of uncertainty. Your inventory chart, if we just follow that to the eye, it looks like mid-'21 before things get better. With the revolving credit facility rolling off, with the new bank financing coming on for the fleet renewal growth, are there any other measures you foresee taking to kind of establish a greater war chest given the cheap levels of debt right now?

明白了。然後對於後續行動，流動性情況顯然非常強勁，這確實可以幫助您脫穎而出。但是，您將 2 個紅綠燈切換為紅色。有很多不確定性。你的庫存圖表，如果我們只關注它，它看起來像是 21 年中期，然後情況才會好轉。隨著循環信貸額度的減少，隨著新的銀行融資用於機隊更新增長，鑑於目前的債務水平低廉，您是否預計會採取任何其他措施來建立更大的資金儲備？

No. It's true that we are, obviously, refinancing some of the facilities that may expire next year because we believe that today is a better time to do that than next year. So -- but I wouldn't say that's a major program. And that's probably decisions that we have to take anyway, and whether we do it now or in 6 months, it doesn't matter. So we prefer to do it now. So there will probably be some additional subs that we can announce next quarter.

不。很明顯，我們確實在為一些明年可能到期的設施再融資，因為我們認為今天比明年更適合這樣做。所以 - 但我不會說這是一個主要計劃。這可能是我們無論如何都必須做出的決定，無論我們現在做還是 6 個月後做，都沒有關係。所以我們更願意現在就做。因此，我們可能會在下個季度宣布一些額外的潛艇。

But it's true that when you're buying back your own shares, and you're not destroying them, you're also adding a little bit of ammunitions into your toolbox. And so rather than a dividend, which is a one-off event, and then when the cash is out, the cash is out, here, we are buying some sort of an asset. I mean that's our own equity, and we are parking it on the balance sheet.

但確實，當你回購自己的股票時，你並沒有銷毀它們，你也在為你的工具箱添加一點彈藥。因此，不是股息，這是一次性事件，然後當現金用完時，現金就用完了，在這裡，我們正在購買某種資產。我的意思是那是我們自己的權益，我們將其放在資產負債表上。

Our next question comes from Ben Nolan from Stifel.

我們的下一個問題來自 Stifel 的 Ben Nolan。

So I want to circle back to the question that Amit had or really, I guess, the answer that you gave, Hugo, about sort of the state of the market and asset values and how people are perhaps a little bit more insulated now than in previous down cycles given 3 really, really good quarters. Obviously, though, less cash flows probably do mean you have more sellers. How are you thinking about sort of the cadence? Do you think that ultimately, this down cycle will be substantially less severe from an asset value perspective even if it does stretch? Or what would you think about as sort of the tipping point? If you have any color there.

所以我想回到 Amit 提出的問題，或者我想，雨果，你給出的答案，關於某種程度上的市場狀況和資產價值，以及人們現在可能比過去更加隔離之前的下行週期給出了 3 個非常非常好的季度。不過，顯然，較少的現金流可能確實意味著你有更多的賣家。您如何考慮節奏？您認為從資產價值的角度來看，這個下行週期最終會不會嚴重得多，即使它確實會延長？或者你認為什麼是引爆點？如果你那裡有任何顏色。

Well, it's a little bit the same as when you guys ask us to predict the market freight rates. I mean it's very, very difficult because at the end of the day, it's a supply/demand mechanism. And then I guess people can drop their price or whatever they want to serve their vessel there, depending on how desperate they are. Obviously, after a strong period of cash generation, people tend not to be desperate. But at the same time, they don't want to see all this accumulated cash being used to compensate for potential loss. And if not loss, to me, as Brian mentioned, for further capital investment into a very expensive dry dock.

好吧，這和你們讓我們預測市場運費有點相似。我的意思是這非常非常困難，因為歸根結底，這是一種供需機制。然後我想人們可以降低他們的價格或他們想要在那里為他們的船隻提供服務的任何東西，這取決於他們有多絕望。顯然，在一段強勁的現金產生期之後，人們往往不會絕望。但與此同時，他們不希望看到所有這些積累的現金都被用來彌補潛在的損失。如果不是損失，對我來說，就像布賴恩提到的那樣，對一個非常昂貴的干船塢進行進一步的資本投資。

And let's all remember, those are already expensive when the vessel is old, but they are even more expensive this time around because most of the ships that we are talking about, which are more than 15 years of age, don't have a ballast water treatment system yet, and that's something that costs 1.2 million to 1.5 million. So it's going to be a very expensive bill, and people facing that sort of decision will think about it and will say, "Okay. I've generated a lot of cash in the last 3 quarters. Do I want to sort of waste it, reinvest in my vessel?" So that's for the older part of the fleet.

讓我們都記住，那些在舊船時已經很貴了，但這次更貴了，因為我們談論的大多數船齡超過 15 年，都沒有壓艙物還沒有水處理系統，那是要120萬到150萬的東西。所以這將是一筆非常昂貴的賬單，面臨這種決定的人會考慮並說，“好吧。我在過去三個季度賺了很多錢。我想浪費掉它嗎，再投資我的船？”所以這是針對機隊的較舊部分。

For the younger part of the fleet, I think that there are a number of challenges coming in the way of smaller ship owners, and you know how fragmented the market is. And that is related to many regulations and primarily the regulations around CO2 emissions, but not only -- I mean it's also access to capital.

對於船隊的年輕部分，我認為小型船東面臨著許多挑戰，而且你知道市場是多麼分散。這與許多法規有關，主要是有關二氧化碳排放的法規，但不僅如此——我的意思是它還與獲得資本有關。

Banks today, they prefer to rent to a public company with a good corporate governance and a lot of transparency than to small players. So I think the small players are facing severe challenges which, to my mind, to our mind, can only be addressed with size, size of a big company like Euronav or like some of the other public companies. And so that gives us real hope that when the market will soften and the value will come up, people will realize that it might be a very good opportunity to exit the market and either becoming shareholders of a bigger entity or simply take the cash and then reinvest in something else. And I think that, again, the reason why we like the structure at Euronav is that we are very flexible.

今天的銀行，他們更願意租給一家公司治理良好、透明度高的上市公司，而不是小公司。因此，我認為小公司正面臨著嚴峻的挑戰，在我看來，在我們看來，這些挑戰只能通過規模、像 Euronav 或其他一些上市公司這樣的大公司的規模來解決。因此，這給了我們真正的希望，即當市場疲軟並且價值上升時，人們會意識到這可能是退出市場並成為更大實體的股東或者只是拿走現金然後再投資於其他東西。我認為，我們之所以喜歡 Euronav 的結構，是因為我們非常靈活。

We can do mergers like we did with Gener8. We can do acquisition like we did with Maersk by paying in cash and raising some of that money in the equity markets and the rest in debt. We are very, very flexible, and we are ready to seize those opportunities when they arrive. But we're certainly not desperate to pay too much money for assets that we believe are going to become cheaper in the future when the market is not as strong as what we've seen in the last 3 or 4 quarters.

我們可以像對 Gener8 那樣進行合併。我們可以像對馬士基那樣進行收購，通過支付現金並在股票市場籌集部分資金，其餘的則通過債務籌集。我們非常非常靈活，我們準備好在機會到來時抓住這些機會。但我們當然不會急於為我們認為未來會變得更便宜的資產支付太多錢，因為市場不像我們在過去 3 或 4 個季度看到的那樣強勁。

Right. And to that end and to the -- well, actually, I'll leave that one for somebody else. I'm limited on my question. The -- I'm curious on something that probably is not very topical at the moment but something that you guys had hinted that you might be interested in, specifically scrubbers. Obviously, right now, scrubber investments made at the beginning of the year last year have not paid off very well. But I imagine that the prices are coming down. You guys said maybe we would look at it if -- in the future. Have you changed at all sort of where you're thinking on that or thinking about sort of longer term if the spreads widen, where do you want to be? And -- or is that just sort of not a path that you would want to go down?

正確的。為此，以及 - 好吧，實際上，我會把那個留給其他人。我的問題有限。 - 我很好奇目前可能不是很熱門的東西，但你們暗示過你可能感興趣的東西，特別是洗滌器。顯然，就目前而言，去年年初進行的洗滌塔投資並沒有得到很好的回報。但我認為價格正在下降。你們說也許我們會在未來考慮一下。如果利差擴大，你是否改變了你正在考慮的地方或考慮更長期的地方，你想去哪裡？並且——或者這不是您想要走的路嗎？

So I will only repeat what I said in the past. I mean we are absolutely not dogmatic about it. So we have -- we may have an opinion about whether a scrubber is going to be bad for the environment. But I think that's for the regulator's job. As far as the economics are concerned, which is very much what we are trying to study, at the moment, if you look at the forward curve, it is still not a very good investment if you're looking at a retrofit.

所以我只會重複我過去說過的話。我的意思是我們絕對不是教條主義的。所以我們 - 我們可能對洗滌器是否會對環境有害有意見。但我認為這是監管機構的工作。就經濟學而言，這是我們正在努力研究的，目前，如果你看一下遠期曲線，如果你正在考慮改造，這仍然不是一個很好的投資。

When you're looking at a new building, then it's relatively less expensive. It's almost what I would call cheap. And that's also the reason why the 4 vessels that we took earlier this year in resales, we are very happy about the fact that they are equipped with scrubbers because it means that we can enjoy the spread. But when you look at the forward curve and the spread, you may find good reason to have the option of a scrubber on a new building.

當您正在尋找新建築時，它相對便宜。這幾乎就是我所說的便宜。這也是我們今年早些時候轉售的 4 艘船的原因，我們對它們配備洗滌器這一事實感到非常高興，因為這意味著我們可以享受價差。但是當您查看遠期曲線和價差時，您可能會發現有充分的理由在新建築物上選擇洗滌塔。

But as I mentioned earlier, we're not really keen to order ships at the moment, but certainly not to retrofit. I mean with retrofit, you're still talking about north of 3 million. And I know that a lot of those equipment are cheaper. That is not the very expensive part. The very expensive part is the yard bill, and you're going to make sure that it's properly installed. I mean we have seen enough now horror stories on where the boost keeps functioning or not. And we offer our time that will obviously depend on whether the market is good or bad. But with uncertainty in the market means that the market can be good as much as it can be bad.

但正如我之前提到的，我們目前並不真正熱衷於訂購船隻，但肯定不會改裝。我的意思是，對於改造，您仍然在談論 300 萬以上。而且我知道其中很多設備都比較便宜。那不是非常昂貴的部分。非常昂貴的部分是庭院帳單，您要確保它安裝正確。我的意思是，我們現在已經看到了足夠多的關於增強功能在哪些地方起作用或不起作用的恐怖故事。我們提供的時間顯然取決於市場是好是壞。但市場的不確定性意味著市場可能好，也可能壞。

So once you have committed to something, you have to take an average rate of loss of hire, and you have to take that into account when you make your computation on the economics of whether it's a good investment or not. So for the time being, we continue to believe that it's not a good investment. And therefore, we're not going to retrofit any vessel. But if we were to buy a new building, it's certainly an option that we would take.

因此，一旦你承諾了某件事，你就必須計算平均僱傭損失率，並且在你計算它是否是一項好的投資時，你必須考慮到這一點。因此，就目前而言，我們仍然認為這不是一項好的投資。因此，我們不會改造任何船隻。但如果我們要購買一座新建築，那肯定是我們會採取的一種選擇。

Our next question comes from Mike Webber from Webber Research.

我們的下一個問題來自 Webber Research 的 Mike Webber。

Most of the near-term market stuff have already been handled. But Hugo, I wanted to touch base on, I think, something I even asked about last quarter, just in terms of propulsion and some of the shifts we're seeing and some trepidation in terms of building out the order book for a lack of -- for fear of obsolescence risk. In terms of -- we've seen a handful of LNG-powered VLCCs get ordered year to date. These are usually backed by sort of long-term business, but it kind of begs the question of what you think the right mix is for the future. So when we think about Euronav longer term, if maybe we fast forward 5 years, what do you think the fleet looks like? And do you think -- are we getting closer to the point where you guys can realistically pull the trigger on some sort of differentiated propulsion that might get more closely fit with some of the ESG mandates and renewable exposures we're seeing over the next couple of years?

大多數近期市場問題已經得到處理。但是雨果，我想談談，我想，我什至在上個季度問過的事情，就推進力和我們正在看到的一些轉變以及由於缺乏——因為害怕過時的風險。就-我們已經看到今年迄今為止訂購了一些以液化天然氣為動力的 VLCC。這些通常得到某種長期業務的支持，但這有點引出了一個問題，即您認為未來的正確組合是什麼。因此，當我們從長遠考慮 Euronav 時，如果我們快進 5 年，您認為艦隊是什麼樣的？你認為 - 我們是否正在接近你們可以實際觸發某種差異化推進的地步，這種推進可能更符合我們在接下來的幾對中看到的一些 ESG 要求和可再生能源風險年？

Yes. Well, it's a very complicated question because there is a lot of moving parts and certainly a lot of uncertainty. So we've seen so far only, to my mind, one contract for 2 vessels, dual-fuel LNG. And that was done, indeed, on the back of a time charter contract with one of the major, namely Total. And we bid for that contract, and we didn't get it because when we offer our service, we also want to have some sort of a return. And the return that the owner got was not something that we can tolerate in Euronav.

是的。好吧，這是一個非常複雜的問題，因為有很多變化的部分，當然也有很多不確定性。所以到目前為止，在我看來，我們只看到了一份兩艘船的合同，雙燃料液化天然氣。事實上，這是在與其中一家主要公司 Total 簽訂的定期租船合同的支持下完成的。我們競標該合同，但沒有成功，因為當我們提供服務時，我們也希望獲得某種回報。而業主得到的回報，也不是我們Euronav所能容忍的。

So what we had said last quarter is still very valid this quarter. We believe that the premium that you have to pay in order to get a dual-fuel vessel still requires a contract to be compensated from because otherwise, you're giving the same freight in the market. And you may pay your LNG a little bit cheaper. But that's again a moving part. I mean cheaper than LSFO. That's again a moving part. And we're trying, by the way, to find ways to lock that discount in order to justify the premium. But so far, we're not managing or we're not seeing a good return on investment. And the ceiling that is being asked is, roughly speaking, 15 million compared to conventional vessel.

所以我們上個季度所說的在本季度仍然非常有效。我們認為，為了獲得雙燃料船而必須支付的保費仍然需要合同來補償，否則，您將在市場上提供相同的運費。而且您可能會以更便宜的價格支付液化天然氣。但這又是一個動人的部分。我的意思是比 LSFO 便宜。這又是一個動人的部分。順便說一句，我們正在努力尋找鎖定折扣的方法，以證明溢價是合理的。但到目前為止，我們沒有管理或沒有看到良好的投資回報。與傳統船隻相比，所要求的上限粗略地說是 1500 萬。

Having said that, we also monitor the yard, and we see that the yards are becoming a little bit more desperate by the day on getting orders. And they understand very well that they are not getting orders for 2 reasons. I mean first of all, it's because the market has its own uncertainties. But secondly and more importantly, it's because there is a lack of certainty on the owner side of what technology will be the one to adopt for the long-term future. Because if we are only looking at a transition period, 5 years, potentially 10 years, that's only half of the life of a ship. So are you going to buy a technology for half of the life? Then it's not a premium of 15 million that you're paying. It's a premium of 50 million. So that becomes very expensive. So you can see that there's a lot of things moving.

話雖如此，我們也對船廠進行監控，我們看到船廠在接到訂單時變得越來越絕望。他們非常了解他們沒有收到訂單的原因有兩個。我的意思是，首先，這是因為市場有其自身的不確定性。但其次也是更重要的是，這是因為所有者方面缺乏確定性，無法確定長期採用哪種技術。因為如果我們只看過渡期，5 年，可能是 10 年，那隻是一艘船壽命的一半。那麼你打算買一個技術用半輩子嗎？那麼你支付的不是1500萬的溢價。就是5000萬的溢價。所以這變得非常昂貴。所以你可以看到有很多東西在移動。

There has been also a lot of announcement being made recently around hydrogen. I mean people thought that this was a good fuel for the future, but it could only arrive 15 or 20 years down the road. But it seems that as we are moving, people are making this, well, theoretical fuel more accessible maybe within the next 5 years.

最近也有很多關於氫的公告。我的意思是人們認為這是未來的好燃料，但它只能在 15 或 20 年後到達。但似乎隨著我們的前進，人們可能會在未來 5 年內使這種理論上的燃料更容易獲得。

So once we project ourselves in the next 5 years, I think that we will continue to have a little bit of uncertainty, which would not trigger a lot of newbuilding orders. We will see whether this hydrogen potential is a real -- I mean can materialize into real life. And I think that if that's the case, then people will start ordering hydrogen vessels. And I understand that in other markets, it's already the case. And then we will see whether the LNG dual-fuel vessel has a future because, of course, the LNG can also be produced synthetically. And in that case, then it's not a fossil fuel and then technology is available.

因此，一旦我們預測未來 5 年的情況，我認為我們將繼續存在一些不確定性，這不會觸發大量新造船訂單。我們將看看這種氫勢是否真實——我的意思是可以在現實生活中實現。我認為，如果是這樣的話，那麼人們就會開始訂購氫氣容器。我知道在其他市場，情況已經如此。然後再看LNG雙燃料船有沒有前途，當然LNG也可以合成。在那種情況下，它就不是化石燃料，然後技術就可用了。

So we are watching absolutely everything. I think a lot of owners are doing the same. The benefits, I would say, that we may have is because of our large fleet, if we were to order 2 vessels with a specific technology, we're not betting the farm doing that, whereas in older fleet, again, we'll bet more of the farm if they order 2 ships on the feed of less than [10 feet], let's say.

所以我們絕對在看一切。我想很多業主都在做同樣的事情。我想說的是，我們可能擁有的好處是因為我們擁有龐大的船隊，如果我們要訂購 2 艘具有特定技術的船隻，我們不會打賭農場會這樣做，而在舊船隊中，我們會再次比方說，如果他們在小於 [10 英尺] 的飼料上訂購 2 艘船，就可以在農場下注更多。

Got you. Well, there's a good corollary there to take off-line in terms of blending hydrogen and natural gas and some of the bunkering infrastructure needed. But I guess it's interesting to hear that you participated in that tender. Maybe kind of thinking about it more specifically, and to your point, there's a lack of bunkering infrastructure to support LNG as a little water propulsion for merchant ships. I mean you couldn't even really feel in the U.S. Gulf right now if you wanted to. But in a sense that could provide an opportunity, and you guys have always -- not always, but you're certainly not averse to taking interesting angles on bunkers and some of your supply needs, I'm wondering, is there a realistic scenario that can look -- that you guys can look to vertically integrate to maybe provide some of the infrastructure that might be needed to facilitate that trade? Or is that too far afield?

明白了好吧，在混合氫氣和天然氣以及所需的一些加註基礎設施方面，有一個很好的推論可以脫機。但我想听到你參加了那次招標很有趣。也許更具體地考慮一下，就你的觀點而言，缺乏支持液化天然氣作為商船的一點水力推進的燃料基礎設施。我的意思是，如果你願意，你現在甚至無法真正感受到美國海灣。但從某種意義上說，這可能會提供一個機會，你們一直——不總是，但你們肯定不反對從有趣的角度看待地堡和你們的一些供應需求，我想知道，是否有一個現實的場景這看起來 - 你們可以尋求垂直整合，以提供一些促進該貿易可能需要的基礎設施？還是那太遠了？

It's not too far, but it's never going to become a business line. I think if we have to bridge something, then we might do so. We preferably work in joint venture with people. Of course, if you order a ship on the back of a contract, it's not really your problem. So why should you solve it? Because the banks are being paid by your customer. And so the customer will be responsible to find a place where it can bunker.

不算太遠，但絕不會成為事業線。我認為如果我們必須彌合某些東西，那麼我們可能會這樣做。我們最好與人合資。當然，如果你根據合同訂購了一艘船，那真的不是你的問題。那你為什麼要解決它呢？因為銀行是由您的客戶支付的。因此，客戶將負責找到一個可以掩體的地方。

It might also be the reason why we're still talking about dual-fuel and not single-fuel LNG because I know that the yards are also now turning their heads towards ships that would be single-fuel LNG. Today, that would be way too risky, indeed, because of the infrastructure not being there for the move.

這也可能是我們仍在談論雙燃料而不是單一燃料 LNG 的原因，因為我知道造船廠現在也正在轉向使用單一燃料 LNG 的船舶。今天，這確實太冒險了，因為基礎設施不適合移動。

If we were to order speculatively a ship or 2, usually we do it in pair, and there would be dual-fuel LNG vessels and single fuel. So there wouldn't be a contract attached. That's because we would have been able to secure the LNG at a discount to the LSFO in order to justify that premium. There, again, if you can do that, it's probably with the physical delivery. And again, it's no longer your problem. It's more the problem of the bunker provider, which is likely to be another major. So I don't really see that happening on the LNG.

如果我們要投機訂購一艘或兩艘船，通常我們會成對進行，並且會有雙燃料液化天然氣船和單一燃料船。所以不會有附加合同。那是因為我們本可以以低於 LSFO 的價格獲得液化天然氣，以證明溢價是合理的。再一次，如果你能做到這一點，那很可能是實物交割。再一次，這不再是你的問題。更多的是地堡供應商的問題，這很可能是另一大主力。所以我真的沒有看到這種情況發生在液化天然氣上。

On the hydrogen, it's a very different picture because, obviously, the hydrogen is only as good as its production. So brown hydrogen is -- produce the same amount of CO2, if not more. And so you need green hydrogen. And green hydrogen, I don't see a lot of initiative being taken, even though in Europe, some of those are being supported by the EU.

在氫氣方面，情況截然不同，因為很明顯，氫氣的好壞取決於它的產量。所以棕色氫是——產生相同數量的二氧化碳，如果不是更多的話。所以你需要綠色氫。而綠色氫，我沒有看到採取很多主動行動，儘管在歐洲，其中一些得到了歐盟的支持。

So if we get governmental money to do something, then it becomes very attractive, including for our shareholders because we are building an asset, we're building knowledge, we are potentially using it for our own purpose. And all of that is being subsidized by the state, which is always very interesting. So you can see that as a business line. Probably not. But there are a lot of things that could be interesting for us to do, and that could be beneficial for our shareholders.

因此，如果我們獲得政府資金來做某事，那麼它就會變得非常有吸引力，包括對我們的股東來說，因為我們正在建立資產，我們正在積累知識，我們可能會將其用於我們自己的目的。而這一切都得到了國家的補貼，這總是很有趣。所以你可以把它看作一條業務線。可能不是。但是我們可以做很多有趣的事情，這對我們的股東來說可能是有益的。

Got it. And just to be clear, you're talking about hydrogen at the propulsion as a fuel as opposed to moving hydrogen on bulk with a specialized carrier?

知道了。需要明確的是，您是在談論推進中的氫氣作為燃料，而不是使用專門的載體散裝運輸氫氣？

Yes. No, I would say both. I mean you cannot open a European newspaper or at least an economic newspaper that doesn't talk about a hydrogen project or at least the government pushing for hydrogen or the EU pushing for hydrogen. So it's absolutely everything. It's about the provision of it, it's about transportation of it, and it's about the delivery of that project. And most of the time, we're talking about ammonia rather than hydrogen because it's just easier to handle.

是的。不，我會說兩者。我的意思是，你不能打開一份歐洲報紙，或者至少是一份不談論氫項目的經濟報紙，或者至少是政府推動氫氣或歐盟推動氫氣的報紙。所以這絕對是一切。它是關於它的提供，它是關於它的運輸，它是關於該項目的交付。大多數時候，我們談論的是氨而不是氫，因為它更容易處理。

But again, I mean we want to see how it develops. But again, I mean some of those programs are very, very generous. So yes, and I don't think it would be a big deviation because then it would mean that it becomes the fuel of the future.

但是，我的意思是我們想看看它是如何發展的。但是，我的意思是其中一些程序非常非常慷慨。所以是的，我認為這不會有很大的偏差，因為那樣就意味著它會成為未來的燃料。

Our next question comes from Randy Giveans from Jefferies LLC.

我們的下一個問題來自 Jefferies LLC 的 Randy Giveans。

Obviously, congrats on the strong second quarter and the impressive 3Q rates here, obviously above kind of all-in breakeven levels in the seasonal trough period. With that, how has time charter rates, how has that market responded in terms of rates and also liquidity? And has Euronav signed any time charters over the past couple of weeks here in the summer?

顯然，祝賀第二季度的強勁表現和令人印象深刻的第三季度利率，顯然高於季節性低谷期的總體盈虧平衡水平。那麼，定期租船費率如何，該市場在費率和流動性方面的反應如何？在過去的幾周里，Euronav 是否在夏季在這裡簽署了任何定期租船合同？

No. We haven't signed anything new in the last couple of weeks. I think that there was a frenzy for time charter, which were more related to storage activities or at least a combination of trading and storage. But that's for -- I mean a story of -- for the month of May rather than June or July. I think it's currently -- we've seen the rates running off. They came back relatively strongly for a few weeks. They are off again. And so on the back of that, I don't think you could hope for very strong rates in any time charter.

沒有。過去幾週我們沒有簽署任何新協議。我認為當時出現了對期租的狂熱，這更多地與倉儲活動相關，或者至少是貿易和倉儲的結合。但那是為了——我的意思是——關於五月份的故事，而不是六月或七月。我認為目前——我們已經看到利率正在下降。他們在幾週內相對強勁地回歸。他們又出發了。因此，在此基礎上，我認為您不能指望在任何定期租船合同中獲得非常高的利率。

So even if they were there, I'm not sure that we would be interested to sign sort of a long-term time charter more than a year at a rate that would not be very interesting, unless we have a profit element mixed into it or something like that. And so clearly, we haven't done anything. We are not seeing a loss of liquidity in the market. And even if we were seeing something in the market, I think that given where the spot market is, those rates may not be interesting enough for us to put some ships in it.

因此，即使他們在那裡，我也不確定我們是否有興趣以不會很有趣的價格簽署一份超過一年的長期定期租船合同，除非我們將利潤因素混入其中或類似的東西。很明顯，我們什麼也沒做。我們沒有看到市場流動性的損失。即使我們在市場上看到了一些東西，我認為考慮到現貨市場的位置，這些利率可能不足以讓我們將一些船投入其中。

Got it. That makes sense. And then currently, your VLSFO prices are well below the, I guess, $440 a tonne of your VLSFO inventory that you're storing. So with that, what's happening to the fuel on the Oceania? Have you been drawing from it or maybe taking advantage of the weak VLSFO market and restocking that inventory?

知道了。這就說得通了。然後目前，你的 VLSFO 價格遠低於你存儲的 VLSFO 庫存的每噸 440 美元。那麼，大洋洲的燃料發生了什麼？您是從中吸取教訓，還是利用 VLSFO 市場疲軟的機會補充庫存？

Yes. So in the proprietary remark that Lieve mentioned, so yes, indeed, we -- in fact, we can talk about phases. So at the beginning of the year, when what we had in stock was cheaper than the market, we obviously used only that even using swapping, delivering in Singapore and getting it back in the U.S. Gulf. So we have used -- that was Phase 1.

是的。所以在 Lieve 提到的專有評論中，是的，我們確實可以談論階段。所以在今年年初，當我們的庫存比市場便宜時，我們顯然只使用了那些，即使使用交換，在新加坡交付並在美國海灣取回。所以我們使用了——那是第 1 階段。

And Phase 2 was oil price collapsed, and with that, fuel oil price collapsed as well. And we completely stopped using the fuel that we had on board the Oceania. We only bought from the market. Then the oil price -- and with it, the fuel oil started to recover, and we are now at $45. And we're probably around $350 for the fuel oil for VLSFO, and that is still cheaper than what we have on board the Oceania, but it's not as big of a difference as we once had and certainly what we announced at the end of Q1. The other thing that we have done -- so that was Phase 2.

第二階段是油價暴跌，隨之而來的是燃料油價格暴跌。我們完全停止使用大洋洲號上的燃料。我們只從市場上買的。然後是油價——隨之而來的是，燃料油開始回升，我們現在的價格是 45 美元。 VLSFO 燃料油的價格可能約為 350 美元，這仍然比我們在大洋洲船上的價格便宜，但與我們曾經擁有的相比並沒有那麼大的差異，當然也沒有我們在第一季度末宣布的那樣.我們所做的另一件事——那就是第 2 階段。

The other thing that we have done now in what we call Phase 3 is using the volume discount that we can benefit from. And you now use that if you have a place to store the oil, like on board the Oceania, and buying some funds in the market, I mean, lots of 30,000 tonnes or 40,000 tonnes, and mixing them, mixing them. I don't mean physical mixing but placing them into the Oceania and having averaging down your cost of inventory.

我們現在在所謂的第 3 階段所做的另一件事是使用我們可以從中受益的批量折扣。如果你有地方儲存石油，比如在大洋洲上，你現在可以使用它，並在市場上購買一些資金，我的意思是，大量的 30,000 噸或 40,000 噸，然後混合它們，混合它們。我不是指物理混合，而是將它們放入大洋洲並平均降低庫存成本。

So we had announced our cost of inventory to be around 450, 500 well in Q4 or even in Q1. And today, we would be below 400 , thanks to this policy of buying more, mixing down or averaging down the cost. But we are doing that meticulously and not in one go. So we're not buying another 200,000 tonnes. We are really buying, I would say, 20% more of our own needs in terms of consumption in order to mix down the inventory cost. And that explains why the mark-to-market has significantly decreased from the last time we reported on it. And we will continue doing that. And we believe that by the end of the year, the Oceania will either be empty or will be full of fuel oil at a price that is identical to the market.

因此，我們宣布第四季度甚至第一季度的庫存成本約為 450、500。而今天，由於這種購買更多、混合或平均降低成本的政策，我們將低於 400。但我們正在一絲不苟地做這件事，而不是一蹴而就。所以我們不會再購買 200,000 噸。我想說，我們實際上是在消費方面多購買 20% 的自身需求，以降低庫存成本。這解釋了為什麼與我們上次報告時相比，按市值計價顯著下降。我們將繼續這樣做。我們相信，到今年年底，大洋洲要么空無一人，要么滿載燃料油，價格與市場一致。

Our next question comes from Greg Lewis from BTIG.

我們的下一個問題來自 BTIG 的 Greg Lewis。

Hugo, I guess just going back to the slides, in the slide, what was that, 13, where you talked about ton miles and the downgrading of ton miles. It's interesting. It seems like ton miles had been expanding for at least a few years. So I guess what I'm wondering is kind of what drove this downgrade? And really, how should we think about what's it going to take to get this down? What's it going to take to get ton miles growing again in the tanker market?

雨果，我想回到幻燈片，在幻燈片中，那是什麼，13，你在那裡談論噸英里和噸英里的降級。這真有趣。噸英里似乎已經擴大了至少幾年。所以我想我想知道是什麼導致了這次降級？真的，我們應該如何考慮如何才能解決這個問題？怎樣才能讓油輪市場的噸英里數再次增長？

It's obviously -- the reason why it has been growing in the past was very much on the back of the U.S. production. I think that this crisis, to a certain extent, similar to the crisis that we saw in '14, '15, took part of the production down. But the minute you go over $40, and we are now at $45, you see that some of those fields are being exploited again. And I think if you were to go at $50, you would see even more.

很明顯——它過去一直在增長的原因在很大程度上取決於美國的生產。我認為這場危機在某種程度上類似於我們在 14 年、15 年看到的危機，導致部分產量下降。但是當你超過 40 美元時，我們現在是 45 美元，你會看到其中一些油田再次被開採。而且我認為，如果您以 50 美元的價格購買，您會看到更多。

So it's a little bit difficult to predict what the production is going to be in the U.S., and that is a big driver of ton miles. But it's also true that people tend to forget that in the meantime, the Brazilian production has gone up tremendously, certainly more discreetly, but year-on-year, adding more barrels to be delivered. And that is also a provider of ton mile, which is much more stable and certainly systematically testing to the Far East because there are far less political tensions.

因此，很難預測美國的產量，而這是噸英里的重要驅動力。但同樣真實的是，人們往往會忘記與此同時，巴西的產量大幅增加，當然是更加謹慎，但與去年同期相比，增加了更多的桶要交付。這也是噸英里的提供者，它更加穩定，並且肯定會系統地測試遠東，因為政治緊張局勢要小得多。

And that leads me to the second point about, well, it's very hard to predict where ton miles are going to go because it seems that political decisions, trade wars, election, I mean, you name it, have a big influence on where the Far East in general and China in particular is sourcing its oil. And so at some point, they were the largest buyer from U.S. oils. Then there was a period where they didn't buy anything, and they became the largest buyer of Brazilian oil. And I think it was Korea and Japan who took the balance coming from the U.S. So it was the same destination, which was good. But again, there are so many political factors playing in that it's difficult to predict what -- where ton miles are going to go.

這引出了我的第二點，好吧，很難預測噸英里將走向何方，因為政治決策、貿易戰、選舉，我的意思是，你能想到的，對它的發展方向有很大的影響。整個遠東地區，尤其是中國，都在採購石油。所以在某個時候，他們是美國石油的最大買家。然後有一段時間他們什麼都不買，他們成了巴西石油的最大買家。而且我認為是韓國和日本拿走了來自美國的餘額。所以這是同一個目的地，這很好。但同樣，有太多的政治因素在起作用，很難預測——噸英里會去哪裡。

Trade is the big word and is sort of the name of the game. As various people continue to trade oil to send it to different destinations, I think we're going to continue to have good ton miles. I don't think that we will see a massive increase of it, but I believe that it's going to stabilize at the levels where we are.

貿易是個大詞，是遊戲的名稱。隨著不同的人繼續交易石油以將其運送到不同的目的地，我認為我們將繼續擁有良好的噸英里數。我不認為我們會看到它的大幅增加，但我相信它會穩定在我們現在的水平。

Okay. Great. And then just one more for me. I mean you talked a lot about the potential for vessel retirements. Just obviously, you guys have a modern, efficient fleet. But I mean you do have -- you have a couple of Suezmaxes that are plus 15 years old. As you think about what's going to -- and not -- maybe it's for Euronav, but maybe it's broader fleet. I mean is it going to be kind of that 5-year special survey? Or I mean could -- do you see interim surveys for 15-plus-year-old vessels, I guess, one on your 17, 18-year potentially being a catalyst to retire vessels where we are? Or do you think it's more, hey, once a vessel gets its 5-year survey, it's pretty much good till it's 20? Just kind of curious if you've been -- and maybe if you can elaborate on that.

好的。偉大的。然後再給我一個。我的意思是你談到了很多關於船舶退役的可能性。很明顯，你們擁有一支現代化、高效的艦隊。但我的意思是你確實有——你有幾艘超過 15 年的蘇伊士型油輪。當您考慮將要發生什麼而不是發生什麼時，也許是為了 Euronav，但也許是更廣泛的艦隊。我的意思是它會是那種為期 5 年的特別調查嗎？或者我的意思是可以 - 你是否看到對 15 年以上船齡的船隻進行中期調查，我猜，你的 17 年，18 年可能會成為我們所在船隻退役的催化劑？或者你認為它更多，嘿，一旦一艘船獲得 5 年的調查，它在 20 歲之前就已經很好了？只是有點好奇你是否去過——也許你可以詳細說明一下。

Yes. And I think we -- well, we need to differentiate Euronav and maybe some of the other players with the rest of the world fleet. And the reason is if you build a ship and you trade a ship for the better part of its 20-year life, 25-year life, dual service are not going to be as expensive as the ones who have been buying those ships or the ships has changed hands many times but also and very importantly, vessels in the hands of, I would say, second-tier owners who don't maintain their vessels at the same levels as a Euronav or maybe another public company would do.

是的。而且我認為我們 - 好吧，我們需要將 Euronav 和其他一些參與者與世界其他艦隊區分開來。原因是，如果你建造一艘船，然後用這艘船換取其 20 年、25 年壽命的大部分時間，雙重服務不會像那些購買這些船的人或船隻已經易手很多次，而且非常重要的是，船隻在我想說的二級所有者手中，他們不會將船隻維護在與 Euronav 或其他上市公司相同的水平。

So that's where you need to differentiate Euronav with the others because when we are facing those builds and those decisions, first of all, as you have seen, we tend to sell the vessels when they are around 15. We don't wait until they are 20, and that's due to the fact that we try to market our services to the type of clients that don't want to trade vessels that are more than 15 years.

所以這就是你需要將 Euronav 與其他公司區分開來的地方，因為當我們面對這些建造和那些決定時，首先，正如你所看到的，我們傾向於在船隻 15 歲左右時出售它們。我們不會等到他們是 20，這是因為我們試圖向不想交易超過 15 年的船隻的客戶類型推銷我們的服務。

But from time to time, we do. I mean in the last 5 years, I think that we kept ships until they were 20 years old or nearly 20 years, so 19. And that was because, again, the main one was so good that they were on time charter, namely to Valero, and there was no reason for us to sell them.

但有時，我們會這樣做。我的意思是，在過去的 5 年裡，我認為我們一直保留船舶，直到它們使用了 20 年或將近 20 年，所以 19 年。那也是因為，主要的一艘非常好，它們是定期租用的，即瓦萊羅，我們沒有理由賣掉它們。

So Euronav, usually we sell at 15. On exceptions, we keep them at 20, but that's more on time charter than spots. And then because they are in very good conditions, we're able to sell them, and you've seen what we've done this year, at a premium. And usually, those people try to trade them again, so not send them to the recycling yard, for at least another 2.5 years from their anniversary, beat 17.5 or beat 20.

所以 Euronav，通常我們以 15 美元的價格出售。在例外情況下，我們將它們保持在 20 美元，但這更符合期租而不是現貨。然後因為它們的狀況非常好，我們能夠出售它們，你已經看到了我們今年所做的，溢價。通常，那些人會嘗試再次交易它們，因此不要將它們送往回收場，至少再過 2.5 年，從他們的周年紀念日算起，擊敗 17.5 或擊敗 20。

When you look at the market, which is obviously a much bigger population of ships, most of those ships have not been in the hands of the same owner since the beginning. And their aging is very much in relation to the way they've been maintained. And one can clearly say because you can see the bill that they are facing when they pass the survey that they will have to spend more money. And that is really the question and the dilemma that those owners will have.

當你看看市場時，這顯然是一個更大的船舶數量，其中大部分船舶從一開始就沒有掌握在同一所有者手中。它們的老化與它們的保養方式有很大關係。人們可以清楚地說，因為你可以看到他們在通過調查時所面臨的賬單，他們將不得不花更多的錢。這確實是這些所有者將面臨的問題和困境。

Do you want to spend $3.5 million or $4 million, including the ballast water treatment system for only another 2.5 years because at that point in time, it's every 2.5 years that you have to go to the dry dock? Or do you throw the towel and say, "Okay. I prefer to receive money. I prefer to receive between 7 million and 10 million for a Suezmax and maybe 15 million to 20 million for a VLCC, depending on where the scrap is -- stock prices are?" And we have seen no later than in 2018 that most of the time, people facing those dilemma will take their ships to the scrap yards because they believe that it's not good investments, to pass the survey and then to hope for the best in the freight environment that is, at the time of that decision, not very attractive.

您是否願意花費 350 萬或 400 萬美元（包括壓載水處理系統）再使用 2.5 年，因為在那個時間點，您必須每 2.5 年去一次幹船塢？或者你會扔掉毛巾說，“好吧。我更願意收錢。我更願意為蘇伊士型油輪獲得 700 萬到 1000 萬美元，為 VLCC 獲得 1500 萬到 2000 萬美元，這取決於廢料的位置——股價是多少？”而且我們最遲在 2018 年看到，大多數時候，面臨這些困境的人會將他們的船帶到廢品場，因為他們認為這不是好的投資，通過調查然後寄希望於最好的運費在做出該決定時，環境不是很有吸引力。

That's the reason why we insist so much on this age profile because we didn't have that feature for nearly 10 years. I mean since we swapped single hull to double hull, we have artificially rejuvenated the fleet. And so when you're vessel is 12 years old or even 15 years old, that's not really an easy decision. When it's 17.5, when it's 20, there are even vessels of 22.5 in our slide, it's much easier to take, but you need a low freight market.

這就是為什麼我們如此堅持這個年齡概況的原因，因為我們已經將近 10 年沒有這個功能了。我的意思是，自從我們將單殼換成雙殼後，我們就人為地讓艦隊煥發了活力。因此，當您的船隻 12 歲甚至 15 歲時，這並不是一個容易的決定。 17.5的時候，20的時候，我們slide裡還有22.5的船，拿起來容易多了，但是需要低運價的市場。

Our next question comes from Chris Wetherbee from Citi.

我們的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 Chris Wetherbee。

I'll leave it at one. It's been a long call. I wanted to talk a little bit about the vessel supply slide and understand maybe how the 60 to 80 vessels that are tied up and have the potential to come back into the market kind of factor into that thought process. It would seem that while the order book has kind of come in a bit, those vessels do present somewhat of an overhang. So I know the crystal ball is particularly cloudy at this point. But if you could help us maybe better understand how you would anticipate those vessels reentering the market, maybe the timing of that over the next several quarters, that would be very helpful.

我會把它留在一個。這是一個很長的電話。我想談談船舶供應的下滑，並了解 60 到 80 艘被捆綁並有可能重新進入市場的船舶是如何影響這個思考過程的。看起來雖然訂單有所增加，但這些船隻確實有些懸垂。所以我知道此時水晶球特別混濁。但是，如果你能幫助我們更好地了解你將如何預測這些船隻重新進入市場，也許是在接下來的幾個季度重新進入市場的時間，那將非常有幫助。

Maybe I will start, but then I would like to -- for Brian to jump in. And the start will be, indeed, it's not an exact science. There was a lot of contract -- about 50 VLCC contractors for storage, and that was for 6 months. So one should believe that those vessels are going to come back in October, November of this year. And that's certainly not going to be good for the market. It should put pressure onto the market.

也許我會開始，但我想——讓 Brian 參與進來。確實，這不是一門精確的科學。有很多合同——大約 50 個 VLCC 承包商進行存儲，為期 6 個月。因此，人們應該相信這些船隻將在今年 10 月、11 月返回。這肯定對市場不利。它應該給市場帶來壓力。

But then when you look at previous contango situations and how the fleet that was -- that had been used in storage was redelivered to the trading fleet, it's true that it's -- it happened over a much longer period of time. And the reason why it happened over a much longer period of time is simply because at the end of the contract, you usually have a month and maybe more of options. The guys who have taken those ships are traders, so they may want to deliver the oil in a place that is very different from where the ship is at the end of the contract. You can have a situation where you have a contango again.

但是，當您查看之前的期貨溢價情況以及如何將用於存儲的船隊重新交付給貿易船隊時，確實如此-它發生的時間要長得多。它之所以會在更長的時間內發生，原因很簡單，因為在合同結束時，你通常有一個月甚至更多的選擇權。拿走這些船的人是商人，所以他們可能想把石油送到一個與合同結束時船所在的地方截然不同的地方。您可能會遇到再次出現正價差的情況。

And it's interesting, I saw a report this morning talking about a contango situation very much in China because a lot of those vessels are in storing or in congestion around China. When you look at the forward curve of this new index -- new oil index called Shanghai oil index, there is nearly $11 of contango over the next 12 months. And so that -- just for that matter, you would incentivize a lot of people to store oil outside China just for that matter.

有趣的是，我今天早上看到一份報告非常談論中國的期貨溢價情況，因為許多船隻在中國周圍儲存或擁堵。當你看這個新指數的遠期曲線時——新的石油指數稱為上海石油指數，在接下來的 12 個月裡有近 11 美元的期貨溢價。因此——就此而言，你會激勵很多人為此在中國境外儲存石油。

So you can see that it's not an exact science, and you don't know when those vessels are going to return. But it is true that if they would return to the market, it's not good. And we will prefer them not to return to the market. And the more concentration that will be around those returns, the more pressure there will be on the market. If it's over a long period of time or longer period of time, then it seems to create less problems.

所以你可以看到這不是一門精確的科學，你不知道那些船隻什麼時候會回來。但確實，如果他們要重返市場，那就不好了。我們更希望他們不要重返市場。圍繞這些回報的關注度越高，市場上的壓力就越大。如果它持續了很長一段時間或更長的時間，那麼它似乎會產生較少的問題。

Brian, do you have anything to add to that?

布賴恩，你有什麼要補充的嗎？

Two things. The contango we had in '15, '16 peaked -- we didn't get the peak in the amount of ships that were held on contango for another 9 months after that. As Hugo said, today is a bit of a lag and a delay. There may be some lumpiness around October, November when we get these 6-month contracts coming back. But it's also very difficult to see, say, the ocean tanker situation or the ships being released at once. We expect them to be gone on the piece now.

兩件事情。我們在 15 年、16 年的期貨溢價達到頂峰——在那之後的 9 個月裡，我們沒有達到期貨溢價的峰值。正如雨果所說，今天有點滯後和拖延。在 10 月和 11 月左右，當我們收回這些 6 個月的合同時，可能會有一些波動。但也很難看到遠洋油輪的情況或立即釋放的船隻。我們希望他們現在就消失了。

So look, it is a headwind. There will be some lumpiness, we believe, around October, November. But we do believe this will be over a reasonably prolonged period. It's not going to be dozens of ships all appearing at the same time.

所以看，這是逆風。我們相信，在 10 月、11 月左右會有一些波動。但我們確實相信這將持續一段相當長的時間。不會有數十艘船同時出現。

And our next question comes from Omar Nokta from Clarksons.

我們的下一個問題來自 Clarksons 的 Omar Nokta。

You guys gave a fairly realistic overview of what's happening in the oil markets today and what's to be on the come. It's kind of hopeful and sobering at the same time with the red traffic lights in your presentation for both oil supply and demand. The market, as you say, is in transition with destocking now in play. Last week, the U.S. reported a 10-plus million barrel draw in crude stocks. And yesterday, it reported another 7 million barrel draw. So clearly, we're in this heavy portion of the destock, at least state side. And potentially, we can extrapolate that the same may be happening globally. Are you encouraged with these recent declines in stockpiles and that perhaps maybe this tells us that the market -- or at least the oil market may be getting into balance much earlier than we might otherwise think?

你們對當今石油市場正在發生的事情以及即將發生的事情給出了相當現實的概述。在您的石油供應和需求演示文稿中，紅色交通燈同時給人以希望和清醒的感覺。正如您所說，市場正在轉型，去庫存正在發揮作用。上週，美國報告稱原油庫存減少了 10 多萬桶。昨天，它又報告了 700 萬桶的抽油。很明顯，我們處於去庫存的重要部分，至少在州方面是這樣。並且有可能，我們可以推斷，同樣的情況可能正在全球範圍內發生。最近這些庫存下降是否讓您感到鼓舞，也許這告訴我們市場 - 或者至少石油市場可能比我們想像的要早得多？

Well, I think that's almost a fact. I think a lot of market participants have been taken by surprise. And certainly, we were also taken by surprise of how much has been drawn from those storage. And yes, we believe that it's a feature of certainly the OECD countries but probably also in the Middle East. The quicker it goes back to the 5-year sort of average, the better it will be to rebalance the oil market and therefore, the need for oil transportation services.

好吧，我認為這幾乎是事實。我認為很多市場參與者都感到意外。當然，我們也對從這些存儲中提取的數量感到驚訝。是的，我們相信這肯定是經合組織國家的一個特點，但也可能是中東的一個特點。它越快回到 5 年平均水平，就越有利於重新平衡石油市場，從而更好地滿足對石油運輸服務的需求。

So yes, it's quite good and it's happening at the moment because at the moment, we have a number of ships that are not part of the trading fleet, as we just discussed. And so the more we can draw -- or the more of the work we can draw on those stocks, why we have those vessels outside of trading fleet, the better it will be for the recovery. But that is a hope. That is a wish. That is not something that we can control. But at the moment, we are very pleased to see the rate at which it's taking place.

所以是的，這很好，而且目前正在發生，因為正如我們剛才討論的那樣，目前我們有許多不屬於貿易船隊的船隻。因此，我們可以提取的越多 - 或者我們可以從這些庫存中提取的工作越多，為什麼我們在貿易船隊之外擁有這些船隻，對複蘇就越好。但這是一個希望。那是一個願望。那不是我們可以控制的。但目前，我們很高興看到它發生的速度。

Okay. Yes, that's fair. And Brian addressed this just in the last question. But with respect to what we're seeing in China, clearly, congestion has been -- it's been significant, and it's really made the floating storage figures even larger. But those -- that congestion has been ongoing now, I think, basically since March, April, if not earlier. From your perspective, what is -- what -- I know you addressed it a bit in the opening remarks and throughout the Q&A. What really has been driving that congestion? Because it has been going for a long time. Is it strategic reserve building? And also, when does that start to thin up? Because it seems to have gone on a bit longer than we had anticipated.

好的。是的，這很公平。 Brian 在最後一個問題中提到了這個問題。但就我們在中國看到的情況而言，很明顯，擁堵一直很嚴重，這確實使浮動存儲數據變得更大。但是那些 - 我認為基本上從 3 月、4 月開始，如果不是更早的話，擁堵現在一直在持續。從你的角度來看，什麼是——什麼——我知道你在開場白和整個問答過程中都提到了一點。究竟是什麼導致了這種擁堵？因為它已經走了很長時間了。是戰略儲備建設嗎？而且，什麼時候開始變薄？因為它似乎比我們預期的要長一些。

Brian, do you want to take that one?

布賴恩，你要拿那個嗎？

Sure. Yes. No, sorry, apologies. Yes, obviously. I mean it has been. I mean obviously, some of the recent congestion had a negative factor of weather. But I think you also have to remember in the last sort of 10 weeks has been -- one very, very good reason for that congestion is there's been a huge amount of heavy lifting, i.e., buying of crude by China. We've, simultaneously to the quarterly presentation today, put some -- an updated investor deck. 50 slides are there.

當然。是的。不，對不起，抱歉。是的，很明顯。我的意思是它已經。我的意思是，很明顯，最近的一些擁堵有天氣的負面因素。但我認為你還必須記住，在過去的 10 周里——造成擁堵的一個非常非常好的原因是有大量繁重的工作，即中國購買原油。在今天的季度報告中，我們同時放了一些——更新的投資者平台。那裡有 50 張幻燈片。

And we look at the Chinese who have been very incentivized by their own government from the private sector to buy below $40 per oil in terms of price per barrel. And they've made a lot of orders, and their preferred mechanism or methodology of delivery is via VLCCs. And it tends to go to 1 or 2 ports. And they had the congestion. So the funnel is very thin at that end.

我們看看中國人，他們受到本國政府的極大激勵，從私營部門購買每桶價格低於 40 美元的石油。他們已經下了很多訂單，他們首選的交付機製或方法是通過 VLCC。而且它傾向於去 1 或 2 個端口。他們有擁堵。所以漏斗在那一端非常薄。

So that's why, again, in the prepared remarks, we said we do believe there's a little bit more to come. This is going to take some more time just to unwind. It's just simply a question of a lot of volume going through a relatively small delivery channel. And of course, as we've seen from the data, they've each been record imports over the last 3 months or so.

所以這就是為什麼，在準備好的評論中，我們說我們確實相信還有更多的事情要做。這將需要更多時間來放鬆。這只是通過相對較小的交付渠道進行大量交易的問題。當然，正如我們從數據中看到的那樣，它們在過去 3 個月左右的時間裡都創下了進口記錄。

So yes, I think there are some 1 or 2 specific factors, but that really just explains it. It's been a largely VLCC trade, which has added to that congested angle. But as Hugo said earlier, if this can continue -- this will continue for the next 2 or 3 months, and they get inventory taken away from both other floating storage and from onshore, then that's going to add to a quicker equilibrium for the tanker markets. But that's the short answer on the Chinese. It's just been simply a big volume play over the last 2 to 3 months.

所以是的，我認為有一些 1 或 2 個特定因素，但這實際上只是解釋了它。這主要是 VLCC 交易，這增加了這個擁擠的角度。但正如 Hugo 早些時候所說，如果這種情況能夠繼續下去——這將在接下來的 2 或 3 個月內持續下去，並且他們從其他浮動存儲和陸上存儲中取出庫存，那麼這將有助於油輪更快地達到平衡市場。但這是對中國人的簡短回答。在過去的 2 到 3 個月裡，這只是一場大交易。

And our next question comes from Luc Van der Elst from Delen Private Bank.

我們的下一個問題來自德倫私人銀行的 Luc Van der Elst。

Yes. Hugo, in the press release, you mentioned again the difficulties that you are facing to move the crews from the ships and to bring in the new crews. Is that actually taking part of the capacity out of the market for yourself and for the whole sector?

是的。雨果，在新聞稿中，你再次提到了將船員從船上轉移和引進新船員所面臨的困難。這真的是為了你自己和整個行業而將部分產能從市場上拿走嗎？

No, not at all. In the sense that people that are on board continue to work. And therefore, there's no ship out there that stand still due to lack of crew. The problem is really changing the crew to get new people on board. But obviously, if we can't get new people on board, then the people that are currently on board do not disembark. And we have as many difficulties disembarking people as we have difficulties sending new crew to places where the ship is going to call the port and where the location would take place. But it's -- I mean thank you for your question because this is a real problem, and it's a growing problem.

一點都不。從某種意義上說，船上的人繼續工作。因此，沒有一艘船會因為缺少船員而停滯不前。問題實際上是更換船員以吸引新人加入。但顯然，如果我們不能讓新人上船，那麼目前在船上的人就不會下船。我們很難讓人們下船，因為我們很難將新船員派往船舶將要停靠港口和地點的地方。但它——我的意思是感謝你提出問題，因為這是一個真正的問題，而且是一個日益嚴重的問題。

At Euronav, the statistics started to go down in July. And that was because some of the big hubs, the big ports like Singapore and Hong Kong, were opening up. And we were able to change some of our people and certainly the ones that have been very -- 19 months on board. But at the moment, unfortunately, it seems that there is a second wave hitting a lot of those countries. And so the numbers are growing again. And when I speak about Euronav, I also know that it is the case for the rest of the world, the rest of the shipping world.

在 Euronav，統計數據在 7 月份開始下降。這是因為一些大型樞紐，如新加坡和香港等大型港口正在開放。我們能夠改變我們的一些人，當然還有那些已經工作了 19 個月的人。但不幸的是，目前似乎有第二波襲擊了很多這些國家。因此，數字再次增長。當我談到 Euronav 時，我也知道世界其他地方，航運界的其他地方也是如此。

And people don't realize that at some point, something will happen, and it will create a big disruption. And we said we don't want to arrive there. We need to think about our colleagues on board our ships. That's our primary focus. But very quickly after that, you also need to realize that we're talking about human beings and everybody has its own limits. So today, it's not creating any disruption, but I'm afraid if we continue not to recognize them as key workers, it will create severe disruptions.

人們沒有意識到，在某個時候，會發生一些事情，並且會造成巨大的破壞。我們說我們不想到達那裡。我們需要為船上的同事著想。這是我們的主要關注點。但在那之後很快，你還需要意識到我們談論的是人類，每個人都有自己的局限性。所以今天，它並沒有造成任何破壞，但恐怕如果我們繼續不承認他們是關鍵員工，就會造成嚴重的破壞。

So it does not create any legal problems for the moment?

所以暫時不會造成任何法律問題？

What do you mean by legal problems? I mean everybody...

你說的法律問題是什麼意思？我是說每個人...

Well, how long can you keep a crew on a vessel? Do you need agreement of the crew to stay onboard?

那麼，您可以讓船員在船上待多久？您需要船員同意才能留在船上嗎？

Of course. Well, I mean stay on board, if they cannot disembark, it's not in the hands of Euronav, indeed. You arrive to a port, and in today's world, it's very different than 50 or 100 years ago, where seafarers were disembarking and visiting the bars of those cities. Today, it's heavily restricted, heavily controlled. You need to have visa in place. You will be escorted to nearby airports. And at the moment, that is exactly what is not happening. People cannot leave the ship. I mean if they try to leave the ship, they will be arrested. That's how bad the situation is.

當然。好吧，我的意思是留在船上，如果他們不能下船，那確實不在 Euronav 的手中。你到達一個港口，在當今世界，它與 50 或 100 年前截然不同，當時海員下船並參觀這些城市的酒吧。今天，它受到嚴格限制，嚴格控制。你需要有簽證。您將被護送到附近的機場。而目前，這正是沒有發生的事情。人們不能離開船。我的意思是，如果他們試圖離開這艘船，他們就會被逮捕。情況就是這麼糟糕。

So how long can you keep people on board? We keep those people on board because there's nowhere else to go. And then they continue to work because that's a very good way to earn a living and send that money to their families, where their families are. So how long it can be? It can be a lot longer, but then you have the mental health. And that is even more important than the physical health because, quite frankly, I mean working, we all work all year round. Onboard ships, you work 6 months and then you go off 6 months, or you work 3 months and then you go off 3 months. But if you are being asked to work longer, then you work longer.

那麼，你能讓人們在船上待多久？我們讓這些人留在船上，因為他們無處可去。然後他們繼續工作，因為這是謀生並將錢寄給家人的好方法，他們的家人就在那裡。那麼可以多長時間呢？它可能會更長，但你會有心理健康。這甚至比身體健康更重要，因為坦率地說，我指的是工作，我們全年都在工作。在船上，您工作 6 個月然後休假 6 個月，或者您工作 3 個月然後休假 3 個月。但如果你被要求工作更長時間，那麼你就工作更長時間。

So the physical fatigue is not really probably. It's the mental fatigue. And what is really creating a problem is not to be able to tell those people you will be rotated on or off by this date. You have to tell those people, and we are very, very transparent with them, also with the success that we have because that's important, that we don't know.

所以身體疲勞並不是真的可能。是精神上的疲憊。真正造成問題的是無法告訴那些人你將在這個日期之前輪換。你必須告訴那些人，我們對他們非常、非常透明，對我們所取得的成功也是如此，因為這很重要，我們不知道。

We don't know when we arrive to Singapore, for instance, the rules that was the rule 2 weeks ago will still be in place because when they change the rule, they change it overnight. And that's because the number of COVID case is increasing. And suddenly they lock down the city or the port or the country, and people are no longer able to be rotated on and off.

例如，我們不知道什麼時候到達新加坡，兩週前的規則仍然有效，因為當他們改變規則時，他們會在一夜之間改變。那是因為 COVID 病例的數量在增加。突然間，他們封鎖了城市、港口或國家，人們無法再輪換上課或下課。

So it's a very, very complex situation. And the only solution, as far as we are concerned, is to give the seafarers a status, and status is key workers because there's a lot of people that continue to travel all over the world as they have this status. And we believe that the shipping world is providing an essential service to the world. And for that reason, we should treat those human being with consideration and give them the status of key workers.

所以這是一個非常非常複雜的情況。就我們而言，唯一的解決辦法是給海員一個地位，而地位是關鍵工人，因為有很多人因為擁有這種地位而繼續在世界各地旅行。我們相信航運界正在為世界提供必不可少的服務。出於這個原因，我們應該體諒那些人，並給予他們關鍵工作者的地位。

And ladies and gentlemen, with that, we'll conclude today's question-and-answer session and today's conference call. We do thank you for joining today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.

女士們，先生們，我們將結束今天的問答環節和今天的電話會議。我們非常感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開線路。