FLEX LNG Ltd (FLNG) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

The management and I will be joined by my colleague Knut Traaholt, our CFO, who will run you through the numbers a bit later in the presentation. We are doing this presentation live from Nydalen, Oslo. And following the presentation, we will do a Q&A session where you can ask questions with the chat function or send an email to ir@flexlng.com. And as usual, we have some nice gifts for you for the best question. The best question wins the FLEX LNG summer kit consisting of, of course, our caps, the FLEX and the City sunglasses both in pink and black. We have a water bottle so you can hydrate. This nice Just FLEX It running shirt. I was using it yesterday and with sunny Oslo now 26 degrees it's also nice to have some sunscreen, Flex on the Beach sunscreen, and we also have a big Flex on the Beach bathing towel here. So hope you can provide some good questions. That's the most fun part of this presentation.

我和我的同事、我們的財務長克努特·特拉霍特 (Knut Traaholt) 將與管理層和我一起，稍後他將在演示中向您介紹這些數字。我們在奧斯陸尼達倫現場進行本次示範。演示結束後，我們將進行問答環節，您可以透過聊天功能提問或發送電子郵件至 ir@flexlng.com。像往常一樣，我們為回答最佳問題的您準備了一些精美的禮物。最好的問題贏得了 FLEX LNG 夏季套裝，當然包括我們的帽子、FLEX 和粉紅色和黑色的 City 太陽眼鏡。我們有一個水瓶，方便您補充水分。這款漂亮的 Just FLEX It 跑步襯衫。我昨天正在使用它，奧斯陸現在陽光明媚，氣溫為 26 度，塗上一些防曬霜也很好，Flex on the Beach 防曬霜，我們這裡還有一個大 Flex on the Beach 浴巾。所以希望你能提出一些好的問題。這是本次演示中最有趣的部分。

So, before the beginning I'm just going to remind you about our disclaimer. We will be providing some forward-looking statements, some non-GAAP measures, and there are limits to completeness of details, so we also recommend you to read our earnings report published today as well.

因此，在開始之前，我想提醒您注意我們的免責聲明。我們將提供一些前瞻性陳述、一些非公認會計準則衡量標準，且詳細資訊的完整性有限，因此我們也建議您閱讀我們今天發布的收益報告。

Okay, let's kick off the highlights. Numbers very much in line with what we have guided. Revenues came in at $90.2 million, which was, as mentioned, in line with guidance of approximately $90 million. Our net income and adjusted net income came in at $33.2 million and $37.9 million, respectively, giving our earnings per share and adjusted earnings per share of $0.62, or $0.70, respectively. Here, Knut will give you some more details on these numbers. It's basically in our adjusted numbers. We only take in the realized gains and losses on interest rate derivatives, while in the net income and earnings per share, we take in both.

好啦，下面開始重點內容吧。數字非常符合我們的指導。收入為 9020 萬美元，如上所述，與大約 9000 萬美元的指導一致。我們的淨利潤和調整後淨利潤分別為 3,320 萬美元和 3,790 萬美元，每股收益和調整後每股收益分別為 0.62 美元和 0.70 美元。在這裡，克努特將為您提供有關這些數字的更多詳細資訊。基本上就是在我們調整後的數字。我們只考慮利率衍生性商品的已實現損益，而在淨利和每股盈餘中，我們將兩者都考慮在內。

Recent events, we have added quite a lot of backlog so far this year. First, we announced extension of 2 ships with a supermajor. This is Flex Resolute, Flex Courageous. They have been now doing about 2 years of the 3-year period they were fixed for. This contract is a 3 plus 2 plus 2 years, and the charterers have now in February and March announced that they will extend those contracts from end of Q1 '25 to end of Q1 '27, and there is a further option here until Q1 2029 which we do expect will be utilized. Additionally, Cheniere which have chartered Flex Endeavour now for getting close to 3 years. Actually slightly more than 3 years. They extended this contract which has been extended also in the past. Extending this contract now by 500 days from Q3 2030 to Q1 2032. So, this is now the second longest contract we have in our portfolio. And lastly we also have secured a contract for Flex Constellation, a new contract. This is the ship you saw the picture of the funnel on the front page. We had this ship on close 3-year contract starting in '21. She was redelivered in March from that charter. We took her into our drydock and traded her spot, and we were able to find a 10-month firm charter beginning in May, which takes this ship until end of Q1 2025, where also the charterer has the to take that ship until 2026. As we have said in the past, which we also said in our Q4 presentation back in February, we were a bit cautious in terms of the market. There's a lot of ships for delivery this year while the number of molecules coming to the market is on the low side. So, the balance looks a bit in favor of charterers rather than owners, and we're therefore very happy to find a good contract for Flex Constellation taking her out of the spot market for this year.

最近發生的事件，今年到目前為止我們已經增加了相當多的積壓訂單。首先，我們宣布延長 2 艘超級大型船艦的期限。這就是弗萊克斯的堅決、弗萊克斯的勇敢。他們現在已經完成了原定 3 年期限的約 2 年。該合約為期3 年加2 年加2 年，承租人現已在2 月和3 月宣布，他們將把這些合約從25 年第一季末延長至27 年第一季末，並且還有進一步的選擇，直到2029 年第一季我們確實希望能夠利用它。此外，Cheniere 現已特許 Flex Endeavor 近 3 年。實際上3年多一點。他們延長了這份過去也曾延長過的合約。現在將該合約從 2030 年第三季延長 500 天至 2032 年第一季。因此，這是我們投資組合中第二長的合約。最後，我們還獲得了 Flex Constellation 的一份新合約。這就是您在首頁上看到的漏斗圖片的船。我們從 21 年開始與這艘船簽訂了為期 3 年的合約。她於三月從該憲章中被重新釋放。我們把她帶進我們的乾船塢並交易了她的位置，我們從5 月份開始找到了一份為期10 個月的固定租船合同，租船期限到2025 年第一季度末，租船人也有權租船到2026 年。正如我們過去所說，我們也在二月的第四季報告中說過，我們對市場持謹慎態度。今年交付的船很多，進入市場的分子數量偏少。因此，平衡看起來有點有利於承租人而不是船東，因此我們很高興為 Flex Constellation 找到一份好的合同，讓她今年退出現貨市場。

This year we have 2 dry-dockings, the sister ships Constellation and Courageous. As I mentioned, we took Constellation into dock end of March, finalized that according to plan and budget, and now we have her sister ship Flex Courageous doing a similar exercise. She's out of dock, and we are doing the final modification and expect to have this ship back in operation and back on TC end of May. Q2 is the softest quarter due to the seasonality so we do expect our time charter equivalent earnings to be reduced slightly in Q2, which has been the norm since we started this company. We expect these average rates to be around $72,000 to $74,000 as we do have 1 ship on variable higher charter, and we also have Constellation exposed to the spot market for a short period of time in Q2. Thus, revenues with 2 ships out of dry-docking and the spot market, as mentioned, we expect revenues to be close to $85 million for Q2.

今年我們有兩艘乾船塢，姊妹船星座號和勇敢號。正如我所提到的，我們在三月底將星座號駛入碼頭，根據計劃和預算最終確定了這一點，現在我們讓她的姊妹船 Flex Courageous 進行類似的演習。她已離開碼頭，我們正在進行最後的修改，預計這艘船將重新投入運營，並於 5 月底返回 TC。由於季節性原因，第二季度是最疲軟的季度，因此我們預計第二季度的期租等效收益將略有下降，這是我們成立這家公司以來的常態。我們預計這些平均費率約為 72,000 美元至 74,000 美元，因為我們確實有 1 艘船採用可變高額租船合同，而且我們還有 Constellation 在第二季度的短時間內暴露於現貨市場。因此，如同前面提到的，2 艘船離開乾塢和現貨市場的收入，我們預計第二季的收入將接近 8,500 萬美元。

Once again, the Board is pleased to announce our $0.75 per share dividend for the quarter. We have changed a bit how we are paying out the dividend. We are paying it out from contributed surplus, which might have an effect from some of our shareholders in terms of dividend taxation. This depends on where you are investing from. It means that now the last 4 quarters we paid out the dividend of $3.125 per share implying a yield of around 11%. The stock was up a bit here in Oslo this morning. It's now up about 1%. However, liquidity in the Norwegian market is fairly limited as most people investing in this company is doing that in the U.S., and the U.S. is yet to open. Opens up now in 25 minutes, and we'll see how the market reacts. In any case, we are in a very strong financial position. We have added more contract backlog than we have consumed this year and these factors all support our dividend capacity, and I will come back to the dividend in more detail shortly.

董事會再次高興地宣布本季每股股息 0.75 美元。我們對支付股利的方式做了一些改變。我們從繳付盈餘中支付，這可能會在股利稅方面對我們的一些股東產生影響。這取決於您從哪裡投資。這意味著過去 4 個季度我們支付了每股 3.125 美元的股息，意味著收益率約為 11%。今天早上奧斯陸的股票略有上漲。現在上漲了約1%。然而，挪威市場的流動性相當有限，因為大多數投資該公司的人都是在美國投資的，而美國尚未開放。25 分鐘後開盤，我們將看看市場如何反應。無論如何，我們的財務狀況非常強勁。我們增加的合約積壓量比今年消耗的還要多，這些因素都支持我們的股息能力，我很快就會更詳細地討論股息。

Just to touch upon the guiding. As mentioned, we delivered $90.2 million. We guided the revenues of around $90 million. Adjusted EBITDA came in slightly higher than the guiding. We guided approximately $70 million, delivered $70.6 million, and also the TCE in line with guidance. As mentioned Q2 is the softest quarter. We also have 2 ships in drydock for this quarter, so we expect slightly lower revenues and adjusted EBITDA for that quarter. And then typically in Q3, we will have all ships back in operation. That tends to be a better quarter impacting the ship we have on a variable hire, and usually Q4 is the strongest quarter as we are heading into the winter season where demand is peaking. 2 ships in drydock and both of these are according to schedule and budgets. We expect the CapEx related to this drydocking to be around $5 million, and that $5 million will then be depreciated over the 5-year docking cycle, so about $1 million a year in depreciation from this drydocking. Having a look at the ships. Constellation here on the left-hand side and then Courageous when she was in dock, she is now berthed outside alongside quay on the yard where we're doing the final preparation to take her out to sea and back on TCE end of May.

只是談談指導。如前所述，我們交付了 9,020 萬美元。我們指導收入約 9000 萬美元。調整後 EBITDA 略高於指引值。我們指導了大約 7000 萬美元，交付了 7060 萬美元，TCE 也符合指導。如前所述，第二季是最疲軟的季度。本季我們還有 2 艘船在幹船塢，因此我們預計該季度的營收和調整後 EBITDA 略有下降。然後通常在第三季度，我們將使所有船舶恢復營運。這往往是一個對我們可變租金的船舶產生更好影響的季度，通常第四季度是最強勁的季度，因為我們即將進入需求高峰的冬季。兩艘船在乾船塢，這兩艘船均按計劃和預算進行。我們預計與本次乾塢相關的資本支出約為 500 萬美元，而這 500 萬美元將在 5 年的塢站週期內折舊，因此本次幹塢每年的折舊約為 100 萬美元。看看船隻。左邊是星座號，在碼頭時是勇敢號，現在她停泊在碼頭旁的院子裡，我們正在做最後的準備，以便在五月底將她帶出海並返回。

Looking at our fleet portfolio today. We are still at 50 years of minimum charter backlog. There is a couple of options attached here. We do expect most of the options to be declared, which will then bring the charter backlog closer probably to 69 years than the 50 years minimum. As you can see, we have ships coming off in 2033, and they were recently extended to 2032. Vigilant last year was extended to 2031. We have 2 ships with a supermajor maturing 2029. We have Freedom also with a supermajor maturing 2027 but where the charter has the option to extend that ship to '29. Resolute and Courageous recently, as I mentioned, extended from Q1 '25 to Q1 '27, and there they also have an option which we expect to be declared taking those ships to 2029.

今天就來看看我們的機隊組合。我們的包機積壓量仍維持在 50 年最低水準。這裡附加了幾個選項。我們確實預計大多數選項都會被宣布，這將使特許積壓的時間可能比最低的 50 年更接近 69 年。正如您所看到的，我們有船舶將於 2033 年下水，最近又延長至 2032 年。去年的警戒期延長至2031年。我們有 2 艘超級大型船將於 2029 年到期。我們還有一艘將於 2027 年到期的超級大船 Freedom，但租船合約可以選擇將船延長至 29 年。正如我所提到的，「堅決號」和「勇敢號」最近從 25 年第一季度延長到了 27 年第一季度，而且他們還有一個選擇，我們預計將宣布將這些船隻帶到 2029 年。

Cheniere also have 2 ships more. They have Endeavour and Vigilant. They have Volunteer and Aurora where a firm period is through Q1 '26 where they have an option to take those ships to '28. And then Cheniere also have a fifth ship, Flex Ranger, which was extended in November 2022 until end of Q1 2027. So, except for Constellation, that's the first fully open ship we have. Flex Constellation, as mentioned, she had a docking stay. She was in a short period of time in the spot market. She's now on a 10-month charter where the charterer has the option to extend that contract until end of Q1 2026. So, a lot of coverage, 100% covered for this year. And then we have 1 ship on a variable hire charter where that hire is linked to the spot market. That is firm until Q3 2025. But here the charter has 5 single options until Q3 2030. And given the fact they're paying market rate for the freight and they lose the remaining options if they are not declaring the first option, we would expect at least a couple of these options to be declared.

Cheniere 還有另外 2 艘船。他們有奮進和警惕。他們有「志願者號」和「極光號」，固定期限是到 26 年第一季度，他們可以選擇將這些船帶到 28 年。然後Cheniere還有第五艘船Flex Ranger，該船於2022年11月延長至2027年第一季末。所以，除了星座號之外，這是我們第一艘完全開放的飛船。如前所述，Flex Constellation 進行了對接停留。她在現貨市場上的時間很短。她現在簽訂了為期 10 個月的租船合同，承租人可以選擇將該合約延長至 2026 年第一季末。所以，今年的覆蓋率很高，100%。然後我們有一艘船採用可變租金租船合同，該租金與現貨市場掛鉤。這一情況在 2025 年第三季之前都將保持穩定。但在 2030 年第三季之前，該章程有 5 個單一選項。考慮到他們支付市場價格的運費，並且如果他們不宣布第一個選項，他們將失去剩餘的選項，我們預計至少會宣布其中幾個選項。

So, that backlog, of course, together with our sound financial position, creates a good environment for paying good dividends. Once again, we are paying the regular $0.75 per share, approximately $40 million. The last 12 quarters now, or 3 years, we have paid out $510 million in dividends and counting, as we have illustrated here on the slide.

因此，積壓的訂單以及我們良好的財務狀況當然為支付良好的股息創造了良好的環境。我們再次支付每股 0.75 美元的常規費用，約 4,000 萬美元。在過去的 12 個季度（即 3 年）中，我們已經支付了 5.1 億美元的股息並仍在計算中，正如我們在幻燈片中所示的那樣。

So, just before handing over to Knut and the financials, just the key decision criterias for the dividend as we have covered also in the past. We have become a bit colorblind on greenlights. Last presentation back in February, I believe it was 7th February, we warned that we had a bit cautious outlook on the spot market. But having such a number of greenlights, we forgot to take down the market outlook to yellow. We have taken it down to yellow now given the fact that there are numerous ships in the spot market and a bit soft spot market is dragging down the front end of the term rate curve. Except for that, our earnings and cash flow are strong. We have been growing the backlog, increasing the earnings visibility by these new contracts this year. We have a lot of cash, $383 million that Knut will cover. Flying colors on all the covenants. No debt maturities before '28. CapEx liabilities are 0. We don't have ships under construction, so CapEx liabilities are only related to the ships that we are drydocking, and we have done more or less the drydockings for this year.

因此，在將股利移交給克努特和財務之前，我們已經介紹了股利的關鍵決策標準。我們對綠燈已經變得有點色盲了。上次演示是在 2 月，我相信是 2 月 7 日，我們警告我們對現貨市場的前景持謹慎態度。但在獲得這麼多綠燈的情況下，我們卻忘記將市場前景調至黃色。鑑於現貨市場上有大量船舶，且現貨市場略顯疲軟，拖累了期限利率曲線的前端，我們現在已將其下調至黃色。除此之外，我們的獲利和現金流強勁。我們今年一直在增加積壓訂單，提高這些新合約的獲利可見度。我們有大量現金，克努特將支付 3.83 億美元。所有的契約都表現出色。'28 之前沒有債務到期。資本支出負債為 0。我們沒有在建造船舶，因此資本支出負債僅與我們正在幹塢的船舶有關，今年我們已經或多或少地進行了乾塢。

So, with that, I give it to you Knut.

所以，我把它交給你克努特。

Thank you, Oystein. So, let's have a look at the financial highlights for the quarter. Revenues in the first quarter came in at $19.2 million, or that calculates to a time charter per day of $76,500. So, the lower numbers for the first quarter versus the fourth quarter that's explained by the seasonal softer spot market impacting the revenues from Flex Artemis as well as some off-hire days for Flex Constellation while she entered drydocking. Operating expenses in the first quarter is lower at $16.7 million, and the reduction is explained by timing effects of when we expense certain operating expenses. As you may recall, in the fourth quarter, we had a number of swing sets expensed on our fleet while we had 0 in the first quarter. So operating expenses will be a bit lumpy in between quarters, but we stick to our guidance of OpEx per day of $14,900 for the full year.

謝謝你，奧伊斯坦。那麼，讓我們來看看本季的財務亮點。第一季的收入為 1,920 萬美元，或按每天的期租租金計算為 76,500 美元。因此，第一季的數字低於第四季度，這是由於季節性疲軟的現貨市場影響了 Flex Artemis 的收入，以及 Flex Constellation 在進入乾船塢期間的一些停租日。第一季的營運費用較低，為 1,670 萬美元，減少的原因是我們支出某些營運費用的時間效應。您可能還記得，在第四季度，我們的機隊支出了許多鞦韆裝置，而第一季則為 0。因此，各季度之間的營運支出會有點波動，但我們堅持全年營運支出每天 14,900 美元的指引。

Interest expenses during the quarter is fairly flat quarter on quarter, but as you see on the gain on derivatives, in the first quarter we booked a net gain of $7.3 million. That includes $700,000 in unrealized gains and $6.6 million in realized gains. During the quarter, we have also amended one of our interest rate swap. We have reduced the duration of a $50 million interest rate swap, and thereby, we have received a cash proceed of $5 million. And I will come back to that later. That results in a net income for the quarter of $33.2 million, or $0.62 per share.

本季的利息支出與上季相比相當持平，但正如您在衍生性商品收益上看到的那樣，第一季我們錄得 730 萬美元的淨收益。其中包括 70 萬美元的未實現收益和 660 萬美元的已實現收益。在本季度，我們也修改了其中一項利率掉期。我們縮短了 5,000 萬美元利率掉期的期限，因此我們收到了 500 萬美元的現金收益。我稍後會再談這個。該季度淨利潤為 3,320 萬美元，即每股 0.62 美元。

If we look at the adjusted numbers, here we adjust out unrealized gains of both interest rate derivatives and from foreign currencies. So, we strip out the $700,000 for the interest rate derivatives and also the FX loss of $400,000. And then we add back the $5 million we received from the amendment of the interest rate derivative where we reduced the tenure of that swap to July 2025. And that gives us an adjusted net income of $37.9 million, or $0.70 per share. If we look at the cash flow for the quarter, we received $49 million from operations. Now we have slightly higher net working capital, as we have prepayments in relation to the 2 drydockings that we have. $26 million in amortizations of our debt. And as we note here, if we compare the depreciation of our fleet versus the amortizations, we pay $7.5 million more to reduce our debt. And here again the $5 million from the termination of the swap, and we paid out the $40 million in dividends, giving us an end-of-quarter cash balance of $383 million.

如果我們看一下調整後的數字，我們會調整利率衍生性商品和外幣的未實現收益。因此，我們剔除利率衍生性商品的 70 萬美元以及 40 萬美元的外匯損失。然後我們加回從利率衍生性商品修訂中收到的 500 萬美元，我們將互換期限縮短至 2025 年 7 月。這樣我們的調整後淨利潤為 3790 萬美元，即每股 0.70 美元。如果我們看一下本季的現金流，就會發現我們從營運中獲得了 4900 萬美元。現在我們的淨營運資本略高，因為我們有與我們擁有的兩個乾船塢相關的預付款。 2600 萬美元的債務攤提。正如我們在此指出的，如果我們將機隊的折舊與攤提進行比較，我們將多支付 750 萬美元來減少債務。終止掉期帶來的 500 萬美元，以及我們支付的 4,000 萬美元的股息，使我們的季末現金餘額達到 3.83 億美元。

If we look at our funding portfolio, there are no changes to our debt position, except for scheduled amortizations. And as we highlight here, the split of financing between leases and term loans and also the geographically diversified providers of these both from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. And in this structure we have the $400 million revolving credit facility which we then use for cash management optimization during this high interest rate environment. And when we have $383 million in available cash, we repay our RCF during the quarters to save interest rate cost. A reminder that our first maturity on our loan portfolio is in 2028. And if we then revert to our interest rate hedging portfolio, which comprises of the interest rate derivatives, which has a book value today of $45 million. And in addition, we have fixed rate leases elements of that of nearly $200 million. That gives us a sound hedge ratio in this high interest rate environment. As I mentioned that during the first quarter, we reduced the duration of a $50 million swap, giving us $5 million in cash proceeds. And post quarter in the second quarter, we did a similar one for another $50 million, which gave us $5.4 million cash proceeds that you will see in the next quarter.

如果我們看看我們的融資組合，除了計劃攤銷外，我們的債務狀況沒有變化。正如我們在此強調的，租賃和定期貸款之間的融資劃分以及來自美國、歐洲和亞洲的地理多元化提供者。在這種結構中，我們擁有 4 億美元的循環信貸額度，然後我們將其用於在高利率環境下優化現金管理。當我們有 3.83 億美元的可用現金時，我們會在季度內償還 RCF，以節省利率成本。請注意，我們貸款組合的第一個到期日是 2028 年。然後，如果我們回到我們的利率對沖投資組合，其中包括利率衍生性商品，其目前的帳面價值為 4,500 萬美元。此外，我們還有近 2 億美元的固定利率租賃。這為我們在高利率環境下提供了良好的對沖比率。正如我所提到的，在第一季度，我們縮短了 5,000 萬美元掉期的期限，為我們帶來了 500 萬美元的現金收益。在第二季的季後，我們又進行了類似的投資 5000 萬美元，這為我們帶來了 540 萬美元的現金收益，您將在下個季度看到。

Today we also released our sixth annual ESG report for 2023 where we explain more about our initiatives for reducing emissions and how we deal with our environmental footprint, business ethics, and code of conduct, and also health and safety for our seafarers and offshore/onshore personnel. One of the key highlights here is our 7% reduced emissions compared to 2022. And also this report should be read in conjunction with our CDP reporting, which we announced last quarter, where we had received a B rating, improved from B minus in 2022.

今天，我們還發布了2023 年第六份年度ESG 報告，其中我們詳細解釋了我們的減排舉措以及我們如何處理我們的環境足跡、商業道德和行為準則，以及海員和海上/陸上人員的健康和安全人員。這裡的主要亮點之一是我們的排放量比 2022 年減少了 7%。此外，本報告還應與我們的 CDP 報告結合起來閱讀，我們上季度宣布了該報告，我們獲得了 B 級評級，較 2022 年的 B 級有所提高。

So, that concludes the financial sections and back to you Oystein.

財務部分到此結束，回到 Oystein。

Okay, great. Thanks. Yes, let's look at the market. Best way to start looking at the market is to look at export and imports. As you can see here on the left-hand side of the graph, there are 3 major exporters of LNG, with U.S. now becoming the largest one. 29 million tonnes in the four first months of the year. Australia and Qatar neck-on-neck, both of them 28 million tonnes. So, those 3 countries are the major exporters.

好的，太好了。謝謝。是的，我們看看市場。開始觀察市場的最佳方法是觀察出口和進口。正如您在圖表左側看到的，有 3 個主要液化天然氣出口國，其中美國現在已成為最大的出口國。今年前四個月產量為 2,900 萬噸。澳洲和卡達不相上下，皆為 2,800 萬噸。因此，這三個國家是主要出口國。

Despite Russia and sanctions on Russia, there's really not any widespread sanctions on Russian LNG, although there are sanctions on the new project from Russia Arctic LNG 2, which I will cover more. But despite this, Russia is still growing and maintaining the fourth largest exporter of LNG. Malaysia the fifth, and then there's a lot of other countries in the other bracket, including Norway.

儘管有俄羅斯和對俄羅斯的製裁，但實際上並沒有對俄羅斯液化天然氣進行廣泛的製裁，儘管俄羅斯北極液化天然氣2號新項目受到了製裁，我將對此進行更多介紹。但儘管如此，俄羅斯仍在成長並維持第四大液化天然氣出口國的地位。馬來西亞排名第五，然後還有許多其他國家，包括挪威。

On the import side, we have seen a marked shift this year in where the cargoes are flowing. Europe entered storage levels at a very high level and have been lucky 2 winters in a row in terms of the winter temperatures and thus the gas requirements and with ample storage levels in Europe. Europe has been pulling back from the market and which has also sent prices down to very competitive levels and this has opened up a lot of demand in Asia and especially emerging Asia. China, despite the somewhat disappointing growth in China after scrapping of the COVID policies a bit more than a year ago, they're growing very healthy, 15% up, and have become once again the biggest importer. Japan, flat together with South Korea and also Taiwan, which are the more mature Asian economies. India, a lot of economic growth in India and optimism about India. Lately growing at the same pace as China at 15%. And then as you can see the highest growth actually is in the other bracket, which includes a lot of emerging Asian economies up 28% there. The biggest outlier, I would say, is Thailand growing this year 1 million tonnes, up 25%. And Thailand actually also grew 25% the full year last year. So, we do see that the prices are spurring demand in Asia, which I will cover on the next slide here.

在進口方面，我們看到今年貨物流向發生了明顯變化。歐洲的儲存水平處於非常高的水平，並且在冬季溫度和天然氣需求方面連續兩個冬天很幸運，歐洲擁有充足的儲存水平。歐洲一直在退出市場，這也導致價格降至非常有競爭力的水平，這為亞洲，尤其是亞洲新興市場帶來了大量需求。中國，儘管一年多前取消新冠疫情政策後，中國的經濟成長有些令人失望，但它們的成長非常健康，成長了 15%，並再次成為最大的進口國。日本與韓國和台灣持平，都是較成熟的亞洲經濟體。印度，印度經濟成長很多，人們對印度樂觀。最近以與中國相同的速度成長 15%。然後，正如你所看到的，成長最快的實際上是在另一個群組，其中包括許多新興亞洲經濟體，成長了 28%。我想說，最大的異常情況是泰國今年的產量為 100 萬噸，增加了 25%。泰國去年全年實際上也成長了 25%。因此，我們確實看到價格正在刺激亞洲的需求，我將在下一張投影片中介紹這一點。

You do see the graph of the price of LNG, come down a lot. August 2022 was the peak when the European gas prices hit $100 per million BTU, on par with $600 per barrel of oil. Today we are stabilizing around $11, $12 dollars for both the LNG in Europe or the gas price in Europe TTF and then the JKM, which is the Asian spot prices, where we actually now see a situation where spot LNG is cheaper than contracted LNG. So about approximately 1/3 of this market is spot market where people are contracting the LNG on a spot basis while the other part of the market is contracted LNG, which is typically priced towards oil prices at a discount to oil of around 20%. Henry Hub flatlined at around $2, which makes it very profitable for U.S. exporters to export natural gas out of U.S. to international markets. And also as Stephen in Bloomberg had covered in an article recently in Bloomberg, these prices are spurring demand in Asia and, of course, it has a huge impact on this price drop, especially as I will cover in Europe, which is very dependent on spot prices. When they fall, the importers basically get a lot more LNG for their money, and it's almost like a tax relief.

你確實看到液化天然氣價格的圖表，下降了很多。2022 年 8 月是歐洲天然氣價格達到峰值的峰值，達到每百萬 BTU 100 美元，相當於每桶 600 美元。今天，歐洲液化天然氣或歐洲 TTF 的天然氣價格穩定在 11 美元、12 美元左右，然後是 JKM，即亞洲現貨價格，我們現在實際上看到現貨液化天然氣比合約液化天然氣便宜的情況。因此，這個市場的大約 1/3 是現貨市場，人們在現貨基礎上簽訂液化天然氣合同，而市場的另一部分是合同液化天然氣，其定價通常與石油價格相比，折扣約為 20%。亨利中心價格穩定在 2 美元左右，這使得美國出口商從美國向國際市場出口天然氣非常有利可圖。正如彭博社的史蒂芬最近在彭博社的一篇文章中所報道的那樣，這些價格刺激了亞洲的需求，當然，它對價格下降產生了巨大的影響，特別是我將在歐洲報道，歐洲非常依賴現貨價格。當價格下跌時，進口商基本上可以用他們的錢獲得更多的液化天然氣，這幾乎就像減稅一樣。

So just to give some more details. European LNG imports lagging, as I mentioned, 20% behind last year because of the ample storage levels. Demand subversion, although we do see some green shoots in terms of demand coming back in Europe with these prices, and then also some more contribution from renewables, while in Asia we see much higher demand than last year and in the high range of the last couple of years.

所以只是提供一些更多細節。正如我所提到的，由於儲存水準充足，歐洲液化天然氣進口量落後於去年 20%。需求顛覆，儘管我們確實看到歐洲的需求在這些價格下回升，而且可再生能源也做出了更多貢獻，而在亞洲，我們看到需求比去年高得多，並且處於去年的高位區間許多年。

I mentioned Europe the region, the most dependent on spot cargoes, natural gas storage levels came out very high into this winter. Out of the season, we are around 67% full storage level. Now when we have started the injection season and the target for EU is that you want to get to 90% fully storage level by end of November, and I do think we will be on track to meet that target. But as I said, Europe is very dependent on spot cargoes, and for the last couple of years now have been the buyer of first and last resort. Now they are pulling a bit back from the market leaving room for emerging markets. And as we have said in the past, Europe's energy policy is a bit like a John Bon Jovi song, it's living on a prayer, hoping that the weather will be good. And if not they have to be paying up in order to entice those cargoes to go to Europe rather than Asia. Which also means that when you see on contracting of new LNG, it's some of the rather the European superpowers signing up for flexible portfolio contracts, this being ENI, Shell, Total, Equinor, buying flexible LNG from especially U.S. where they can trade that worldwide as there is so much political uncertainty about the regulatory framework for natural gas in Europe when you have a 20-year horizon.

我提到歐洲是最依賴現貨貨物的地區，今年冬天天然氣儲存水準非常高。淡季期間，我們的儲存水準約為 67%。現在，當我們開始注入季節時，歐盟的目標是在 11 月底之前達到 90% 的完全儲存水平，我確實認為我們將有望實現該目標。但正如我所說，歐洲非常依賴現貨貨物，並且在過去幾年中一直是首選和最後的買家。現在他們正在從市場上撤出一些，為新興市場留下了空間。正如我們過去所說，歐洲的能源政策有點像約翰·邦·喬維的歌曲，它靠祈禱為生，希望天氣好。如果不是，他們就必須付出代價才能吸引這些貨物前往歐洲而不是亞洲。這也意味著，當你看到新液化天然氣的合約時，一些歐洲超級大國簽署了靈活的投資組合合同，例如埃尼集團、殼牌、道達爾、Equinor，從特別是美國購買靈活的液化天然氣，他們可以在全球範圍內進行交易。

Looking at bottlenecks, it's been a lot in the media lately, most recently with the Suez Canal. So traffic through Suez has been very limited more or less non-existing this year after the Houthi rebels started targeting marine traffic, and we do see Qatar have started to divert cargoes through Cape of Good Hope, 3 million tonnes this winter season, which is up basically infinity. We've also had congestion issues in Panama, especially end of last year, but we also see it now with the auction prices in Panama being very high, we've seen close to $2 million in auction fees for Panama. So we see a huge drop in U.S. LNG going through Panama, and they are rather being sent the long way from U.S. to Asia via Cape of Good Hope as Suez is not really a very viable alternative, which both of these 2 trends are dragging out sailing distances and thus requiring more ships than if the canals were working properly, which is in general good for shipping market as ships has to sail longer and that you require more ships for each cargo in order to move the cargoes.

最近，媒體對瓶頸問題進行了許多報導，最近一次是關於蘇伊士運河。因此，在胡塞叛亂分子開始瞄準海上交通之後，今年通過蘇伊士運河的交通非常有限，或多或少不存在，而且我們確實看到卡達已開始透過好望角轉移貨物，今年冬季的貨物運輸量為300萬噸，基本上是無限大。我們在巴拿馬也遇到了擁擠問題，尤其是去年年底，但我們現在也看到了這個問題，巴拿馬的拍賣價格非常高，我們看到巴拿馬的拍賣費用接近 200 萬美元。因此，我們看到通過巴拿馬的美國液化天然氣數量大幅下降，而且它們寧願通過好望角從美國長途運輸到亞洲，因為蘇伊士運河並不是一個非常可行的替代方案，這兩種趨勢都在拖延航行距離，因此比運河正常運作時需要更多的船隻，這通常對航運市場有利，因為船隻必須航行更長時間，並且每件貨物都需要更多的船隻才能運輸貨物。

We have had some couple of questions lately about 2 topics, so we will just cover them briefly. What we see a lot is questions about what about the closure of Strait of Hormuz, what will the impact be for LNG market. So, of course, there are 2 big LNG exporters in that region. So while in oil it's a lot about Saudi Arabia, about 20% of the oil is flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, which is a rather narrow strait, it's a bit similar for LNG. Here the bigger producers are Qatar and United Arab Emirates. So while on oil it's about 20% of the market, it's quite similar for LNG, about 20% of all LNG is traveling through this narrow strait. And, of course, a closure of this would be devastating, not only for export but also for the world economy as energy prices would soar. We think that is a very, very low probability, but it's a high impact. And on the right-hand side here you can see the 2 major exporters, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, where those cargoes have gone in the last 16 months from January 2023 until end of April. You do see a lot of these cargoes going to Asia, which makes sense. It's the shortest route, and especially India, which is very close situated to these 2 countries. So we don't think this will happen. The effects for the world economy of closing this strait is too big, both in terms of oil and LNG and actually Iran is also very dependent on getting their oil cargoes especially sold, which are typically being sold to China. So China also have an interest in keeping the traffic through this strait open.

最近我們有一些關於兩個主題的問題，所以我們將簡要介紹它們。我們看到很多問題是霍爾木茲海峽的關閉會對液化天然氣市場產生什麼影響。當然，該地區有兩家大型液化天然氣出口國。因此，在石油方面，很大程度上與沙烏地阿拉伯有關，大約 20% 的石油流經霍爾木茲海峽，這是一個相當狹窄的海峽，對於液化天然氣來說有點類似。較大的生產國是卡達和阿拉伯聯合大公國。因此，雖然石油占市場的 20% 左右，但液化天然氣的情況非常相似，約 20% 的液化天然氣通過這個狹窄的海峽運輸。當然，關閉這一點將是毀滅性的，不僅對出口，而且對世界經濟也是如此，因為能源價格將飆升。我們認為這種可能性非常非常低，但影響很大。在右側，您可以看到卡達和阿拉伯聯合大公國這兩個主要出口國，這些貨物在 2023 年 1 月至 4 月底的過去 16 個月內運往這兩個國家。你確實看到很多貨物運往亞洲，這是有道理的。這是最短路線，尤其是印度，距離這兩個國家非常近。所以我們認為這不會發生。關閉這條海峽對世界經濟的影響太大了，無論是在石油還是液化天然氣方面，實際上伊朗也非常依賴特別出售其石油貨物，這些貨物通常被出售給中國。因此，保持該海峽交通暢通也符合中國的利益。

Then the second question we get quite a lot is Russia and what will happen with Russia. As I mentioned, Russia being the fourth biggest exporter and they're planning to ramp up. Arctic LNG 2 should be up and running. This project have been hit by sanction, which is postponing the startup of this. The Russians state that the first train should be operational, but they are planning also to add further trains to this project, 2 more trains, which could bring up the capacity for the project from 7 million tonnes to 20 million tonnes, and then they do also have some other projects. So this is a big uncertainty. However, what we have seen in the past is the Russians have been able to get surprisingly many hydrocarbons on ships, if we look at the oil and the petroleum market. We do see now, EU this week have not been able to sanction Russian LNG. It's really just U.S. and UK, which is not importing Russian LNG. But now the EU has let the member states decide themselves whether they want to ban Russian LNG. In general, we do think that all the cargoes here will be produced, and we will have a bit of a similar trading picture that we have seen in the product and the oil side, where the BRICS are supporting each other.

然後我們收到的第二個問題是俄羅斯以及俄羅斯將會發生什麼事。正如我所提到的，俄羅斯是第四大出口國，他們正計劃擴大出口。Arctic LNG 2 應該已啟動並運行。該項目已受到製裁，推遲了啟動。俄羅斯表示，第一列列車應該投入運行，但他們還計劃為該項目增加更多列車，再增加兩列列車，這可以將該項目的運力從700 萬噸提高到2000 萬噸，然後他們就會這樣做還有一些其他項目。所以這是一個很大的不確定性。然而，如果我們看看石油和石油市場，我們過去看到的是，俄羅斯人能夠在船上獲得數量驚人的碳氫化合物。我們現在確實看到，歐盟本週未能製裁俄羅斯液化天然氣。實際上只有美國和英國沒有進口俄羅斯液化天然氣。但現在歐盟已經讓成員國自行決定是否要禁止俄羅斯液化天然氣。總的來說，我們確實認為這裡的所有貨物都會生產，我們將看到與我們在產品和石油方面看到的類似的交易情況，金磚國家相互支持。

So, we do think that if Europe are not taking the Russian cargoes, the other countries in the BRICS being Brazil, India, China, South Africa, are willing buyers of the Russian LNG, which will result in longer sailing distances. The limiting factor for Russia being, of course, the number of icebreaking vessels they have, so they will have to do more ship-to-ship transfers. Also getting the Arctic LNG 2 project up and running is more challenging with all the sanctions. But we do not expect any shut-in of Russian LNG. That has not been the case on the oil side. We don't expect it to be happening on the LNG side either. And this could potentially be the start of LNG dark fleet. And TradeWinds have a good article, Lucy Hine in TradeWinds today about a lot of activity on the steam side where there's a lot of unknown buyers. So if you don't have subscription to that, I think, that at least we can cover this a bit here in our presentation. We do think that the Russians are planning to do something similar we've seen on the oil and petroleum side and that these cargoes will flow, and they will be maybe soaking up some of the steam tonnage that would otherwise be scrapped.

因此，我們確實認為，如果歐洲不接受俄羅斯貨物，金磚五國的其他國家，包括巴西、印度、中國、南非，都願意購買俄羅斯液化天然氣，這將導致航行距離更長。當然，俄羅斯的限制因素是他們擁有的破冰船數量，因此他們將不得不進行更多的船對船轉運。此外，由於所有製裁，北極液化天然氣 2 號計畫的啟動和運作也更具挑戰性。但我們預計俄羅斯液化天然氣不會關閉。石油方面的情況並非如此。我們預計液化天然氣方面也不會發生這種情況。這可能是液化天然氣黑暗艦隊的開端。TradeWinds 有一篇很好的文章，Lucy Hine 今天在 TradeWinds 上講述了 Steam 方面的大量活動，其中有很多未知的買家。因此，如果您沒有訂閱該內容，我認為至少我們可以在演示中對此進行一些介紹。我們確實認為俄羅斯人正計劃做一些與我們在石油方面看到的類似的事情，這些貨物將會流動，而且它們可能會吸收一些本來會報廢的蒸汽噸位。

Looking at another driver here is, of course, coal. With the high LNG prices, coal has been coming back a lot. We have seen that in EU during the energy crisis, coal really grew quite a lot, despite this not being the intended policy of EU. With gas prices now coming down to earth, the EU has been able to reduce their imports, but China, India, the big coal consumer keep growing their coal consumptions.

這裡的另一個驅動因素當然是煤炭。隨著液化天然氣價格的高漲，煤炭價格大幅回升。我們看到，在歐盟能源危機期間，煤炭確實成長了不少，儘管這不是歐盟的政策初衷。隨著天然氣價格回落，歐盟已能減少進口，但煤炭消費大國中國、印度的煤炭消費量卻持續成長。

There's been a lot of talk about LNG and emissions. There came out a good report recently from BRG Energy in April, measuring the GHG emissions from various sources of both LNG, pipeline gas, coal, et cetera, to measure the greenhouse gas emission intensity of these various sources. And what they actually find is U.S. LNG is quite good in terms of the GHG emission and thus reducing coal by around half in terms of emission. And the EIA also came out with a report recently this year where actually the methane emission from coal is slightly higher than the methane emission for the natural gas value chain. So, we do think that LNG is a good way of reducing emission, not only the greenhouse gas emissions, but also the pollution emissions, this being the SOx, the NOx, the particle matter, which is really detrimental to people's health. So we find LNG is a good solution, but that doesn't mean we have to be complacent. We still have to bring down emissions from the LNG value chains. And I do think that our ships, being the most modern ships, with a lot of these ships, in our fleet, 9 out of 13 being MEGI ships, hardly without any methane emissions, are a good solution in order to bring down emissions in the value chain.

關於液化天然氣和排放的討論很多。BRG Energy最近在4月發布了一份不錯的報告，測量了LNG、管道天然氣、煤炭等各種來源的溫室氣體排放量，以衡量這些不同來源的溫室氣體排放強度。他們實際發現，美國液化天然氣在溫室氣體排放方面相當不錯，因此煤炭排放量減少了一半左右。今年EIA也發布了一份報告，實際上煤炭的甲烷排放量略高於天然氣價值鏈的甲烷排放量。所以，我們確實認為液化天然氣是減少排放的好方法，不僅減少溫室氣體排放，也減少污染排放，也就是硫氧化物、氮氧化物、微粒，這些對人們的健康確實有害。所以我們發現液化天然氣是一個很好的解決方案，但這並不意味著我們必須自滿。我們仍必須減少液化天然氣價值鏈的排放。我確實認為，我們的船舶是最現代化的船舶，我們的船隊中有很多這樣的船舶，其中13 艘中的9 艘是MEGI 船舶，幾乎沒有任何甲烷排放，是減少排放的一個很好的解決方案。

Okay. And then before concluding, just have a bit look at the LNG shipping market. Newbuilding prices have been on an uphill way the last couple of years, gone up about 40% from the bottom, have stabilized now at around $260 million. And this, together with a long lead time, lead time now typically 4 years, high interest rates have pushed up the long-term term rates you need in order to invest in new ships to around $100,000. With the softer spot market, we have now shorter-term rates, the 5-year term rates actually being lower than the 10-year charter rate. Typically, shorter duration time charter rates tend to be higher than the long-term, but right now the whole rate curve is in contango, given the near-term weakness in the spot market.

好的。在得出結論之前，先來看看液化天然氣運輸市場。過去幾年，新船價格一直呈上升趨勢，較谷底上漲了約 40%，目前已穩定在 2.6 億美元左右。再加上較長的交付週期（現在通常為 4 年），高利率已將投資新船所需的長期利率推高至 10 萬美元左右。由於現貨市場疲軟，我們現在有較短期的利率，5 年期利率實際上低於 10 年期租船利率。通常情況下，短期期租租船費率往往高於長期租船費率，但鑑於現貨市場近期疲軟，目前整個費率曲線處於升水狀態。

And this is, of course, driven by what we see here on the next slide, a lot of ships coming for delivery '24 and '25, while the new volumes to the markets are typically coming end of '25 into '26 and onwards, which I will give some more details on shortly. We, however, do see that with these high prices, contracting activity has been a bit more subdued lately. It's mostly been Qatar active buying more of the ships they have reserved as they are rapidly expanding their capacity and need ships. And we do actually now have a situation where we have an order book stretching all the way out to 2031. That said, even though there's a lot of ships for delivery, more or less all of these ships are contracted. They are not contracted on speculation. And there are 2 reasons for this. It's because of the high growth, which I will cover shortly, in the market. You need more ships to take that growth. And then it's the fact that we have a lot of older steamships, which are economically uncompetitive and where we do see a need to renew the fleet and scrap these older ships. So, we need new ships to replace those older ships. And looking at rates today, with spot rates for modern tonnage at around 50,000, that means the steamships are making rates in the low $20,000, which means that when you take in the cost of docking these ships, these are very expensive ships to dock because they are old. It means that these ships are running at OpEx level. So, if you add the installment and interest costs on top of that, these ships are not making any money at all. So, that together with a lot of these ships coming off long-term contracts, we think, as also described in TradeWinds today, will result in more steamships being scrapped in the coming years. And that together with more growth will rebalance the market sometime from end of '25. '26, '27 onwards when we have ships available again in the market.

當然，這是由我們在下一張幻燈片中看到的推動的，許多船舶將在 24 和 25 年交付，而市場上的新貨量通常會在 25 年底到 26 年底及之後推出。很快提供更多詳細資訊。然而，我們確實看到，由於價格如此高，最近的承包活動有些疲軟。主要是卡達積極購買更多他們保留的船舶，因為他們正在迅速擴大其運力並需要船舶。事實上，我們現在確實有這樣的情況：我們的訂單簿一直延伸到 2031 年。也就是說，儘管有很多船舶需要交付，但或多或​​少所有這些船舶都是簽約的。他們並非因投機而簽訂合約。這有兩個原因。這是因為市場的高成長，我很快就會介紹這一點。你需要更多的船隻來應對這種增長。事實上，我們有很多舊輪船，這些輪船在經濟上沒有競爭力，我們確實認為有必要更新船隊並報廢這些舊輪船。因此，我們需要新船來取代那些舊船。看看今天的費率，現代噸位的即期費率約為50,000，這意味著輪船的費率低至20,000 美元，這意味著當您考慮這些船舶的停靠成本時，這些船舶的停靠成本非常昂貴，因為他們老了。這意味著這些船舶正在運作支出等級運作。因此，如果再加上分期付款和利息成本，這些船舶根本賺不到錢。因此，我們認為，正如 TradeWinds 今天所描述的那樣，加上許多此類船舶即將結束長期合同，將導致未來幾年更多的輪船被報廢。加上更多的成長，市場將在 25 世紀末的某個時候重新平衡。 '26、'27 起，當我們再次在市場上提供船舶。

So, before concluding, just showing the different projects. Qatar, almost doubling their capacity, export going from 77 million tonnes, expected to be 142 million tonnes by end of this decade. U.S., despite the moratorium from Biden, they are set to almost double their exports. We do expect after the election, the moratorium will be lifted and U.S., a lot of these U.S. projects which are ready to go will be sanctioned, and we will see more growth from U.S., as mentioned, from end '25 onwards, when we have ships open and we can recontract them. As I mentioned, the long-term rates are at around $100,000. Last year, we made $80,000 on average on our ships. So, we do think that will give us an opportunity to recontract ships at better rates later this decade.

因此，在結束之前，僅展示不同的項目。卡達的產能幾乎翻了一番，出口量從 7,700 萬噸增加到本世紀末的 1.42 億噸。儘管拜登暫停了美國的出口，但美國的出口仍將增加近一倍。我們確實預計，大選後，暫停令將被取消，美國的許多準備就緒的美國項目將受到製裁，正如前面提到的，從 25 年底開始，我們將看到美國的更多增長。我們可以重新承包它們。正如我所提到的，長期利率約為 10 萬美元。去年，我們在船上的平均收入為 80,000 美元。因此，我們確實認為這將使我們有機會在本十年晚些時候以更好的價格重新承包船舶。

So, to conclude, as mentioned, revenues in line with guidance; net income and adjusted income, $33 million and $38 million, respectively, giving us $0.62 or $0.70 of EPS, depending on the measure. We have done a lot of contracts this year for 3 extensions and 1 new contract, as mentioned. Our drydockings are going according to plan. We do expect Q2, as usual, to be the softest quarter for the year. But once we get both ships back in operation in Q3 and spot market typically get tighter in Q3 and even more so in Q4, we expect revenues and earnings to bounce back in Q3 and Q4. And with that and the strong contract position, we are declaring a dividend of $0.75, 11% yield. And as Knut also mentioned, we have a very good financial position to keep on paying this dividend, which has been $510 million the last 3 years.

因此，如上所述，得出結論，收入符合指導；淨利潤和調整後收入分別為 3,300 萬美元和 3,800 萬美元，每股收益為 0.62 美元或 0.70 美元，具體取決於衡量標準。如前所述，今年我們簽訂了許多合同，其中包括 3 份續約合約和 1 份新合約。我們的干塢正在按計劃進行。我們確實預計第二季將像往常一樣成為今年最疲軟的季度。但一旦我們在第三季度讓兩艘船恢復運營，並且現貨市場通常在第三季度變得更加緊張，在第四季度更加緊張，我們預計收入和盈利將在第三季度和第四季度反彈。憑藉這一點以及強勁的合約狀況，我們宣布派發 0.75 美元的股息，收益率為 11%。正如克努特也提到的，我們的財務狀況非常好，可以繼續支付股息，過去 3 年的股息為 5.1 億美元。

So, with that, let's see who are winning the Flex summer gift in the Q&A session, Knut. I think I have to move all this stuff. Let's see. Do you want some sunglasses?

那麼，讓我們看看誰在問答環節中贏得了 Flex 夏季禮物，Knut。我想我必須把所有這些東西搬走。讓我們來看看。你想要一些太陽眼鏡嗎？

Okay. Thank you for the questions you have sent in. Maybe to kick off with one of the comments you mentioned at the end here. There's been a number of comments regarding the dividend and sustainability of the dividend. Do you have any more to elaborate? And there's also questions about what the decision factors are for the Board. We have listed a number of them.

好的。感謝您提出的問題。也許可以從你最後提到的評論之一開始。關於股息和股息的可持續性有很多評論。您還有什麼要詳細說明的嗎？還有關於董事會的決策因素是什麼的問題。我們列出了其中的一些。

9 I believe it is.

9 我相信是的。

So maybe you can elaborate around the decision process and your view on the sustainability of the dividend level.

因此，也許您可以詳細闡述決策過程以及您對股利水準可持續性的看法。

Yes, I think, it's a couple of items. Of course, we look at the earnings. So, I think you know the best measure, and that's why we have the adjusted numbers, is the adjusted earnings per share, $0.70, because there we only include the realized gains and not the unrealized gains. So we are paying out slightly more than our earnings today, but it's not much. It's slightly more in terms of how we look at it. Of course, we have a contract portfolio. And as I mentioned, we do have some ships coming off charters later in this decade from '26, '27, '28 onwards, where we do see the ability to possibly recontract those ships at higher rate levels. Another factor is the fact that we have $383 million of cash, and every quarter we are paying down our debt. So, the amount, once your debt gets lower, also your interest costs get lower.

是的，我想，這是幾個項目。當然，我們還是看收益。所以，我認為你知道最好的衡量標準，這就是為什麼我們有調整後的數字，即調整後的每股收益，0.70 美元，因為我們只包括已實現的收益，而不包括未實現的收益。因此，我們今天支付的支出略高於我們的收入，但不多。就我們如何看待它而言，它稍微重要一些。當然，我們有合約組合。正如我所提到的，我們確實有一些船舶在本十年晚些時候從'26'、'27'、'28年開始終止租用，我們確實看到有能力以更高的費率重新承包這些船舶。另一個因素是我們擁有 3.83 億美元的現金，每季我們都在償還債務。因此，一旦您的債務減少，您的利息成本也會降低。

So that means that when you have $383 million of cash, we could do either 2 things. We could do what you would call a dividend recap. We don't need to have $383 million on our balance sheet. We could probably pay a huge one-off dividend of $250 million or so, and then rather stay on a lower cash balance level. However, we have structured a lot of this cash as $400 million revolvers, so we don't really pay the cost of carrying it. We reduce the revolver during the interim of quarters, where we are paying around 70 basis points to have it on standby until '28. So it's more about those kind of factors. We do think options will be declared. A lot of these options have higher rates. So we do think that eventually, over time, our earnings will grow, and then over time, our interest expenses will fall once we are deleveraging. As Knut showed in his graph, we are deleveraging $7.5 million more per quarter than our depreciation. So, we are quite comfortable with that. We can run this company with less than $100 million of cash. We don't have a lot of working capital. We saw this quarter, we had a bit of buildup on working capital, mostly due to prepayment of drydockings. But we are on a time charter business, which means that all charters are paying us higher the first day of the month at the latest, and then typically, we are paying our expenses later in the month and then debt in arrears. So, that means we have a negative working capital to run the business.

因此，這意味著當你擁有 3.83 億美元現金時，我們可以做兩件事之一。我們可以進行所謂的股息回顧。我們的資產負債表上不需要 3.83 億美元。我們可能可以支付 2.5 億美元左右的巨額一次性股息，然後寧願保持較低的現金餘額水準。然而，我們將大部分現金設計為 4 億美元的左輪手槍，因此我們並沒有真正支付攜帶這些現金的成本。我們在季度過渡期間減少了左輪手槍的數量，為此我們支付了大約 70 個基點，以使其處於待命狀態直至 28 年。所以更多的是關於這些因素。我們確實認為選項將會被宣布。其中許多選項的費率較高。因此，我們確實認為，最終，隨著時間的推移，我們的收益將會成長，然後隨著時間的推移，一旦我們去槓桿化，我們的利息支出就會下降。正如克努特在圖表中所示，我們每季的去槓桿化程度比折舊多 750 萬美元。所以，我們對此感到非常滿意。我們可以用不到 1 億美元的現金來經營這家公司。我們沒有很多營運資金。我們看到本季我們的營運資金增加，主要是由於乾船塢的預付款。但我們從事定期租船業務，這意味著所有租船最晚都會在當月第一天向我們支付更高的費用，然後通常我們會在本月晚些時候支付費用，然後支付拖欠的債務。因此，這意味著我們有負營運資金來經營業務。

So, I think that makes it quite easy to also model the cash flow. Right now, we're paying out a bit more because we have the money to do it, and then eventually down the road, we think this will stabilize at the level where earnings will be up, and interest expenses will be down, because if you look at it, our OpEx $14,900, most of our cost is finance cost, is installments and interest. I also do believe, my personal view is that at 1 time here Fed will pivot. It's only 1 time that we have had Fed hiking interest rates at this kind of level without having any effect on the real economy, and that's been in 1994. So, I do eventually think that we will see a pivot where rates will be coming down as well, and we have anticipated that in terms of cutting a bit on our duration of our hedges in order to be able to benefit from that as well. And then, of course, we have the decision criteria, which we have shown in the slide deck.

因此，我認為這使得現金流建模變得非常容易。現在，我們要支付更多的錢，因為我們有錢來做這件事，然後最終，我們認為這將穩定在收入上升的水平，利息支出將會下降，因為如果你看一下，我們的OpEx是14,900美元，我們的大部分成本是財務成本，是分期付款和利息。我也確實相信，我個人的觀點是，聯準會將在此時轉向。聯準會在沒有對實體經濟產生任何影響的情況下以這種水準升息，那是1994年的一次。因此，我確實認為最終我們將看到利率也會下降的關鍵點，我們預計會稍微縮短對沖期限，以便也能夠從中受益。當然，我們也有決策標準，我們已在幻燈片中展示了這些標準。

And Sherif Elmaghrabi from BTIG asked, with no maturities until 2028, have you given a thought of prepaying some of the debt to increase the financial flexibility? And as we discussed in the presentation, we have the $400 million RCF. And in between quarters, we prepay it down to reduce the interest rate cost. And in essence, it is a reduction of that in between quarters, but we've maintained the commitment, which in fact, in our view, increases our financial flexibility, if there are investments that can be made, but also to support the business case in general.

BTIG 的 Sherif Elmaghrabi 問道，由於 2028 年之前沒有到期日，你們是否考慮過提前償還部分債務以提高財務靈活性？正如我們在演示中討論的那樣，我們擁有 4 億美元的 RCF。在兩個季度之間，我們預付利息以降低利率成本。從本質上講，這是季度之間的減少，但我們維持了這一承諾，事實上，我們認為，如果可以進行投資，這會增加我們的財務靈活性，而且還能支持業務一般情況下。

Yes, it's like having a checkbook ready with very limited costs, and we can jump on any opportunity. We have in the past provided bids on several ships, a lot of ships, to be honest, where we can then put a bid in on those ships without having to go to an investment bank or some bankers to underwrite the financing for us. We can bid because we have the revolver and gives us a lot of flexibility. If we pay it back, we don't get it back. So, it reduces the flexibility.

是的，這就像準備了一本成本非常有限的支票簿，我們可以抓住任何機會。老實說，我們過去曾對幾艘船、很多船進行過投標，然後我們就可以對這些船進行投標，而不必去投資銀行或一些銀行家為我們承保融資。我們可以投標，因為我們有左輪手槍，這給了我們很大的彈性。如果我們還錢，我們就收不回來了。因此，它降低了靈活性。

And that segues exactly into the next topic of how to spend it and investments. Certain questions are more specific. We've been muted on newbuildings on the speculative side. But the question more on the opportunities to order newbuildings backed by long-term contract.

這就直接進入了下一個主題：如何花錢和投資。某些問題更為具體。我們對新造船的投機方面一直保持沉默。但問題更多的是訂購有長期合約支持的新船的機會。

Lately, it's been mostly Qatar being active in the tender market, ordering more than 100 ships based on these tenders and contracts. We have not participated in that for reasons we have explained in the past. So, there's been very few tenders for newbuildings. Also being a reflection of the fact that newbuilding prices are high, lead time is high. Once you have a risk-free rate at 5.3%, and you have to wait for 4 years to get the ship, that also drags up the cost of that ship. So, that $260 million might easily become $280 million, $285 million when you're also adding in supervision costs. So that means if you do a calculation on it, that's why you get to these rates of $100,000. Today, there's a lot of modern ships on the water, MEGI XDF, which means that instead of doing tenders for newbuilds, more people are looking at existing tonnage. We find it more favorable to rather bid in on our ships. We have Constellation coming up in '25 or '26, we have Ranger coming up in 2027, we have Aurora, Volunteer coming up in 2028, which means that we can rather bid on the basis of those existing ships and probably be more competitive than building a new ship.

最近，卡達在招標市場上表現活躍，根據這些招標和合約訂購了 100 多艘船舶。由於我們過去解釋過的原因，我們沒有參與其中。因此，新造船的招標很少。這也反映了新造船價格高、交貨時間長的事實。一旦你的無風險利率達到5.3%，你必須等待4年才能拿到這艘船，這也會拉高該船的成本。因此，如果加上監管成本，這 2.6 億美元可能很容易變成 2.8 億美元、2.85 億美元。因此，這意味著如果您進行計算，您將獲得 100,000 美元的費率。如今，水面上有許多現代化船舶，MEGI XDF，這意味著更多的人不再對新建船舶進行招標，而是專注於現有噸位。我們發現競標我們的船隻更為有利。我們將在25 或26 年推出Constellation，我們將在2027 年推出Ranger，我們將在2028 年推出Aurora、Volunteer，這意味著我們可以在現有船舶的基礎上進行投標，並且可能比其他船舶更具競爭力建造一艘新船。

That said, of course, we are looking at it from time to time. But we find it more interesting to market our existing ships. We are looking sometimes for buying second-hand tonnage, so far not been successful. Being successful, bidding and buying ships is really about having the highest bid. So, that doesn't necessarily make it successful if you win. So, we try to always measure if we are buying other ships, we don't want to impact our dividend capacity negatively. So if buying ships and getting a lower return on that and paying our dividends is what we have to do, we rather pay out a dividend.

當然，我們會不時地關注它。但我們發現推銷現有船舶更有趣。我們有時會尋找購買二手噸位的機會，但到目前為止還沒有成功。要成功，投標和購買船舶實際上就是獲得最高的出價。所以，即使你贏了，也不一定會成功。因此，我們總是嘗試衡量我們是否購買其他船舶，我們不想對我們的股息能力產生負面影響。因此，如果我們必須購買船舶並獲得較低的回報並支付股息，那麼我們寧願支付股息。

And then there's a specific question on ship technology and size. And would you consider an 180,000 cubic for any advantages by that size?

然後是關於船舶技術和尺寸的具體問題。您會考慮 180,000 立方體的尺寸有什麼優勢嗎？

Yes, our advantage is it's 6,000 cubic bigger. So, that's the main upside. There is downside, however. It makes it slightly less tradable, possibly. You have to do a ship-shore compatibility studies. It's a bit easier when most people are doing the 174,000 size which is the market standard. But for sure, we're open to look at 180,000. There are pros and cons. What we are most focused is on price. So, we will measure that towards the price. If buying 180,000 is a lot more expensive, well, maybe not. If it's basically the same price, well, maybe we do it.

是的，我們的優勢是大了6000立方。所以，這是主要的優點。然而，也有缺點。這可能會使其可交易性稍微降低一些。您必須進行船岸相容性研究。當大多數人採用市場標準 174,000 尺寸時，這會更容易一些。但可以肯定的是，我們對 180,000 持開放態度。有優點也有缺點。我們最關注的是價格。因此，我們將根據價格來衡量。如果買18萬就貴很多了，好吧，也許不會。如果價格基本上相同的話，也許我們會這樣做。

And then we have a question from Scott Leong in SSY Global. With the general perception that newer is better, but commercially there's not too much of a difference between a newbuilding today versus our vessels. Can you say something about the commercial attractiveness of our vessels versus a newbuilding?

然後我們有來自 SSY Global 的 Scott Leong 的問題。人們普遍認為越新越好，但從商業角度來看，今天的新船與我們的船舶之間沒有太大差異。您能談談我們的船舶與新造船相比的商業吸引力嗎？

You're right, Scott. There are like 3 or 4 different technologies. You have the steam, and then you, of course, have new steam and old steam. And then you have the tri-fuel. And in that tri-fuel segment, you also have a bit the first-generation tri-fuels and then the second generation and some size difference. And then once you get into the 2-stroke, you have a modern diesel engine for a ship, which can burn LNG. And the thermal efficiency of that engine, it's basically the same as all ships as the newbuilds. It's around 50% to 52% thermal efficiency. So, on the ships they're building today, it's more about adding more equipment. So maybe they're adding a full [relic]. We have full [relic] on 3 out of 4 ships. We have partial [relic] on 4 of our ships. So that is a factor. Maybe you add this air lubrication, which is a compressor pushing bubbles under the hull to reduce drag or friction through the water, which optimize speed a bit. Some energy saving devices, but a lot of energy saving devices we are retrofitting to our ships. So there's very few differences in terms of newbuild today and the newbuildings we have today, and efficiency is more the same.

你是對的，斯科特。大約有 3 或 4 種不同的技術。你有了蒸汽，當然還有新蒸汽和舊蒸汽。然後你就有了三燃料。在三燃料細分市場中，也有一些第一代三燃料發動機，然後是第二代以及一些尺寸差異。一旦進入二衝程，您就擁有了可以燃燒液化天然氣的現代化船舶柴油引擎。而該引擎的熱效率，與所有新建船舶基本相同。熱效率約為 50% 至 52%。因此，在他們今天建造的船上，更多的是添加更多設備。所以也許他們正在添加一個完整的[遺跡]。我們四艘船上有三艘擁有完整的[遺物]。我們的四艘船上有部分[遺物]。所以這是一個因素。也許您添加了這種空氣潤滑，這是一種將氣泡推到船體下方的壓縮機，以減少水中的阻力或摩擦，從而稍微優化速度。一些節能裝置，但是我們正在為我們的船舶改裝許多節能裝置。因此，今天的新建築和我們今天擁有的新建築幾乎沒有什麼區別，而且效率更加相似。

I think there's 1 benefit of having a ship that's been trading for some while. It's been to a lot of ports. It has already checked all the boxes in terms of the ship-shore compatibility studies. So, it's not like you have to do that work all over again when you have a new ship. It's been proven. Sometimes you have some new hiccups when you take delivery of the ships. We have found out of those hiccups, and we have corrected those hiccups, which means you have a ship which has a proven track record in terms of operational performance. So, I think people always like new, but our ships are as good as new. And if you look at the pictures from some of our drydocking, these ships look brand new once they're getting out of the dock after the 5-year special survey.

我認為擁有一艘已經交易了一段時間的船有一個好處。已經去過很多港口了。它已經檢查了船岸相容性研究方面的所有方框。所以，當你擁有一艘新船時，你不必重新做這些工作。這已經被證明了。有時，當您接收船舶時，您會遇到一些新的問題。我們已經發現了這些問題，並且已經糾正了這些問題，這意味著您擁有一艘在營運績效方面擁有良好記錄的船舶。所以，我認為人們總是喜歡新的，但我們的船卻像新的一樣。如果你看一下我們幹船塢的一些照片，這些船舶在經過五年的特別檢驗後離開碼頭時看起來煥然一新。

I think that concludes the Q&A session for this time.

我想這次的問答環節就到此結束了。

Okay. The gift. Yes. Let's give it to Scott then, because it's a good question. So, Scott, you will be the lucky winner of all the stuff I showed earlier, as well as this bathing towel, Flex on the Beach. So, I wish you a very good summer. I hope you enjoy it. Remember to use the sunscreen, and we will be back in August, hopefully when it's still summer, with our Q2 numbers, which we have guided today. And as I mentioned, we do think Q3 will be stronger because then we have all ships in operation and typically rates will be higher in August than they are in May. So usually, historically, we are starting to be sniffing on 6-digit numbers once you're getting into end August, September. So, for us, it doesn't matter that much. We're fully covered for the year. 12 of the 13 ships are on fixed hire, but we have 1 ship linked to the spot market. So, we like the spot market to be good. And typically, a good spot market also drags up the term rates. So with that, thank you for joining and have a good summer.

好的。禮物。是的。那麼讓我們把這個問題交給史考特吧，因為這是一個很好的問題。所以，斯科特，您將成為我之前展示的所有產品以及這款浴巾 Flex on the Beach 的幸運贏家。所以，祝你有個愉快的夏天。我希望你喜歡它。記得使用防曬霜，我們將在八月回來，希望還是夏天，我們今天已經指導了第二季的數據。正如我所提到的，我們確實認為第三季會更強勁，因為那時我們所有的船舶都在運營，通常八月的費率會高於五月。因此，通常情況下，從歷史上看，一旦進入八月底、九月，我們就會開始嗅探 6 位數字。所以，對我們來說，這並不重要。我們全年都得到了充分保障。 13 艘船中有 12 艘是固定租金，但我們有 1 艘船與現貨市場掛鉤。因此，我們希望現貨市場表現良好。通常情況下，良好的現貨市場也會拉高期限利率。因此，感謝您的加入並祝您夏天愉快。