Navios Maritime Partners LP (NMM) 2021 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for joining us for Navios Maritime Partners' Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. With us today from the company are Chairwoman and CEO, Ms. Angeliki Frangou; Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Stratos Desypris; Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Eri Tsironi; and Executive Vice President of Business Development, Mr. George Achniotis.

As a reminder, this conference call is being webcast. To access the webcast, please go to the Investors section of Navios Maritime Partners website at www.navios-mlp.com. You'll see the webcasting link in the middle of the page, and a copy of the presentation referenced in today's earnings conference call will also be found there.

Now I will review the safe harbor statement. This conference call should contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 about Navios Partners. Forward-looking statements are statements that not historical facts. Such forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of Navios Partners' management and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which would cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Such risks are more fully discussed in Navios Partners' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The information set forth herein should be understood in light of such risks. Navios Partners does not assume any obligation to update the information contained in this conference call.

The agenda for today's call is as follows: first, Ms. Frangou will offer opening remarks. Next, Mr. Desypris will give an overview of Navios Partners' segment data. Next, Ms. Tsironi will give an overview of Navios Partners' financial results. Then Mr. Achniotis will provide an operational update and an industry overview. And lastly, we'll open the call to take questions.

Now I'll turn the call over to Navios Partners Chairwoman and CEO, Ms. Angeliki Frangou. Angeliki?

Thank you, Daniella, and good morning to all of you joining us on today's call. I am pleased with the results for the third quarter of 2021. During Q3, Navios Partners recorded revenue of $228 million, adjusted EBITDA of $145.2 million and net income of $162.1 million.

Please turn to Slide 4. On October 15, 2021, we completed a transformative merger with Navios Acquisition. Today, NMM is one of the largest U.S. publicly listed shipping companies, with 15 vessel types diversified across 3 segments and servicing more than 10 end markets. About 1/3 of our fleet operate in each of the dry bulk, containerships and target segments. We believe that this combination offers a stronger, more resilient entity, mitigating sector-specific cyclicality.

NMM has a solid balance sheet and a modest leverage, a healthy income statement and a pipeline of about $2.2 billion in contracted revenue. Overall, our diversified platform should provide flexibility, allowing us to capitalize on cross-segment opportunities. We expect to be able to provide more predictable returns to our unitholders despite uneven sector performance.

As shown on Slide 5, 2021 has been a transformational year as we expanded in new segments year to date in 2021 as fleet increased by 163% in terms of number of vessels to 88 net vessel additions. Through these S&P activities, we increased our fleet size and reduced average age for our existing segments. For containerships, we increased fleet size by 330% and reduced average age by 24%. For dry bulk, we increased capacity by 36% and reduced average age by 18%. Of course, we also entered into the crude and product tankers segment. In sum, as shown on the chart on the bottom of the slide, we have increased available days by 171% to 47,268 available days, thereby accumulating significant scale in a short period of time.

Slide 6 details our company highlights. As I mentioned previously, Navios Partners is one of the largest U.S. publicly listed companies with over 140 vessels. We operate in 3 segments, have 15 diversified vessel types and serve over 10 end markets. As diversification started, it created resilience in the overall business model and enabled us to mitigate individual segment volatility, while also allowing us to leverage each independent sector fundamentals. The diversification also provides flexibility in operational and financial strategies as we charter, sell and purchase vessels and obtain debt finance. The net result is that we should have more predictable entity-level returns.

We also anticipate that diversification and scale should make NMM a more attractive investment platform as we take advantage of global trade patterns. Our 3 pillars are now working well. Both dry bulk and containership sectors are performing and the tanker sector has improved materially in the past few months with more improvement expected.

Slide 7 reviews our recent developments. During Q3, NMM generated $228 million in revenue, $145.2 million in adjusted EBITDA and $162.1 million in net income. For the 9 months of 2021, NMM generated $445 million [in revenue], $269.8 million in adjusted EBITDA and $398.6 million in net income. In 2021, we've completed 2 mergers. Our merger with Navios Containers increased our containerships by 29 vessels. The recently completed merger with Navios Acquisition gave us a strong foothold in the tanker sector with 45 tanker vessels. We also continue to renew and expand our fleet. Year-to-date, we expanded our dry bulk fleet by 10 vessels, increasing dry bulk capacity by 36% and reducing its average age by 18%. The acquisition calendar has not distract us from our balance sheet. We remain disciplined. Our cash balance was $141.2 million as of September 30, and we have 28.3% in net LTV. About 91% of our debt is covered by the scrap value of our vessels alone.

We have been taking advantage of a robust market. NMM has $2.2 billion of contracted revenue. We will be profitable in Q4 as contracted revenue exceeds total expenses by $57 million, yet we still have 2,473 open or index-linked days. For 2022, we expect a historically low breakeven of $2,469 per open day, with 20 -- with -- our busy acquisition calendar has not distracted from our balance sheet. We remain disciplined. Our cash balance was $141.2 million as of September 30, and we have 28.3% in net LTV. About 91% of our debt is covered by the scrap value of our vessels alone. We have been taking advantage of robust markets, NMM has $2.2 billion of contracted revenue. We have been profitable in Q4 as contracted revenue exceeds total expenses by $57 million, yet, we still have about 2,473 open or index-linked days. For 2022, we expect a historically low breakeven of $2,469 per open day with 58% of our 47,268 available days open or index-linked providing us with the market exposure.

Diversification takes advantage of global trade partners and Slide 8 illustrates this. Our balanced exposure across the dry bulk, containership and tanker segment allow us to mitigate normal industry cyclicality and leverage fundamentals on offer across all sectors through our chartering and capital allocation and financing strategies. Currently, in our containership segment, given the continued strength of the market, we have been locking in long-term charters. As a result, we fixed 88.1% of our available containership days for 2022 and have $1.6 billion in total contracted revenue on charters extending through 2030.

Moving from strength to strength in our dry bulk segment, we continue to benefit from a strong spot market with 87% of our 2022 available days exposed to market rate, and we remain positioned to fix vessels who are attractive when period charters are available. Lastly, within our tanker segment, our long-term contracts provide protection and 65% of our 2022 available days remain open to capture the ongoing market recovery. While we are positioned to capture the market upside through our forward available days, our diversified chartering strategy has enabled to secure a pipeline of about $2.2 billion of contracted revenue.

At this point, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Stratos Desypris, our Chief Operating Officer, that will take you through the segment data. Stratos?

Thank you, Angeliki, and good morning all. NMM is differentiated by its industry-leading scale and diversified sector exposure. Please move to Slide 9, which provides some selected segment data. Navios Partners controls 142 vessels, with balanced exposure to the dry bulk, containership and tanker segments. Also, we have strength and stability in our balance sheet. Net loan-to-value is about 28.3% in an asset base estimated at over $4.5 billion. Moreover, Navios optimizes its flexible chartering strategy to leverage on fundamentals across its 3 sectors and calibrate charter term based upon segment opportunity. We have a contracted revenue pipeline of about $2.2 billion and about 58% of our 2022 available days are currently exposed to the market. Our market exposure base are calibrated towards dry bulk and tanker vessels, while about 88% of our containerships are fixed.

Slide 10 details our strong operating free cash flow potential. For Q4 of 2021, our contracted revenue exceeds total expenses by approximately $57 million, and we have around 2,500 days with market exposure that will provide additional operating free cash. For 2022, we have approximately 42% of our open days at $29,350 per day, and our contracted revenue provides for a breakeven of $2,469 per open day. We have 27,437 open and index days that can generate significant operating cash.

In Slide 11, you can see the strength and stability of our balance sheet. As of September 30, we had a total cash of $141.2 million and borrowings of $1.4 billion. Leverage remains very low and net loan to value is 28.3% in an asset base estimated at over $4.5 billion. Additionally, we have a staggered maturity profile with no significant maturities through 2023. But together with our contracted revenue of $2.2 billion, provides an enduring platform with significant upside potential.

Turning to Slide 12. You can see some fleet and debt updates. We have fixed 10 of our containerships for long durations, creating approximately $690 million in contracted revenue. More specifically, we have contracted our 6 newbuilding containerships delivering in 2023 and 2024 for 5 years at an average rate of $37,050 net per day, generating about $420 million of contracted revenue. These vessels were acquired for an aggregate purchase pace of $370 million. We have also chartered out 4,250 TEU containerships for periods between 3.5 and 4.5 years, generating revenues of approximately $270 million. The current average contracted net rate of the 4 vessels is approximately $2,600 per day.

On the S&P, we have sold 2006 Panamax vessel for $14 million. We are also constantly working on refinancing and extending maturities. We have arranged a new facility of $72.7 million for the refinancing of 3 existing facilities with short and medium-term durations. Additionally, we have agreed a new $52.7 million bareboat financing for 2 Kamsarmax vessels to be delivered in the second half of 2022 and Q1 of 2023.

I now pass the call to Eri Tsironi, our CFO, which will take you through the financial highlights. Eri?

Thank you, Stratos, and good morning all. I will briefly review our unaudited financial results for the third quarter and 9 months ended September 30, 2021. The financial information is included in the press release and is summarized in the slide presentation available on the company's website.

On August 25, 2021, Navios Partners acquired 62.4% of the equity interest in Navios Acquisition through the acquisition of 44.1 million Navios Acquisition's common shares for an aggregate investment of $150 million. As a result, the balance sheet of Navios Acquisition, together with the respective purchase price allocation adjustments, are included in Navios Partners' balance sheet as of the end of the quarter. However, the results of Navios Acquisition included in the Q3 Navios Partners results are only for the period from August 26 to September 30, 2021.

As Angeliki mentioned earlier, the merger with Navios Acquisition was completed on October 15, 2021. I would also like to highlight that 2021 results are not comparable to 2020 as in 2021, NMM acquired 2 companies and is expected to increase its available days by 85% in 2021 and by 171% in 2022 compared to 2020.

Moving to the earnings highlights in Slide 13. Total revenue for Q3 2021 was $228 million compared to $64 million for the same period last year due to the expansion of our fleet and the improved Time Charter Equivalent rates for both containers and bulkers. EBITDA and net income for Q3 2021 includes a $30.9 million gain related to the sale of 3 vessels, Navios Dedication, Navios Azalea and Harmony N, and a $4 million bargain purchase gain upon obtaining control of Navios Acquisition and $2.9 million transaction costs in relation to the merger with Navios Acquisition.

[I know] that we were able to sell these vessels for a book gain in this excellent market as we manage our rate profile. Excluding these items, total adjusted EBITDA for Q3 amounted to $145 million compared to $31 million for the same period last year. Total adjusted net income was $130 million compared to $8.8 million for the same period last year. During the quarter ended September 30, 2021, we had 9,027 available days compared to 4,499 days for Q3 2020. Fleet utilization was approximately 99%. The average combined Q3 2021 Time Charter Equivalent rate of our vessels increased by 79%, $24,447 per day. The average Q3 2021 Time Charter Equivalent rate achieved per segment was: bulkers $28,926 per day; containers $22,418 per day; and tankers $15,066 per day.

Moving to the first 9 months 2021 period, time charter revenue reached $445 million compared to $158 million in 2020. The result was a combination of the expansion of our fleet and the improved Time Charter Equivalent rates. Our available days increased by 63% to 20,421 (sic) [20,521] while the average 9 months 2021 combined Time Charter Equivalent rates increased by 76% to $20,991. Fleet utilization was approximately 99%.

EBITDA and net income for the first 9 months of 2021 include $80.8 million gain from equity in net earnings of affiliated companies, a $48 million bargain purchase gain upon obtaining control of Navios Containers and Navios Acquisition, a $30.3 million gain related to the sale of 7 of our vessels, and $2.9 million transaction costs in relation to the merger with Navios Acquisition. Excluding these items, adjusted EBITDA for the 9 months of 2021 amounted to about $270 million compared to $64 million for the same period last year. Adjusted net income for the first 9 months of 2021 amounted to $242 million compared to a $2.9 million loss for the same period last year.

Turning to Slide 14. I will briefly discuss some key balance sheet data as of September 30, 2021. Cash and cash equivalents were $141 million. Long-term borrowings, including the current portion, net of deferred fees amounted to $1.4 billion. Net debt to book capitalization was at a comfortable level of 41.7%.

Turning to Slide 15. You can see our ESG initiatives. Maritime shipping is the most environmentally friendly means of transportation as it is the most carbon-efficient mode of transport. We aspire to have zero emissions by 2050. In this process, we have been pioneering and are adopting certain environmental regulations up to 2 years in advance, aiming to be one of the first fleets to achieve full compliance. Navios is a socially conscious group, whose core values include diversity, inclusion and safety. With a very strong corporate governance and clear code of ethics, our Board is composed by majority independent directors and independent committees that oversee our management and operations.

I now pass the call to George Achniotis, Executive Vice President of Business Development, to discuss the industry section. George?

Thank you, Eri. Please turn to Slide 17 for the review of the dry bulk industry. The IMF projects global GDP growth at 5.9% for 2021 and 4.9% for '22. The rate for 2021 is the highest in almost 50 years. It is led by a 7.2% expansion in China, India and developing Asia. Vaccine rollouts, continued fiscal stimulus and governmental infrastructure projects should continue to support economic growth. 2021 dry bulk trade is projected to increase by 4.5% and further increase by 2.9% in '22. Rates in all asset classes rose sharply, reflecting surge in trade driven by strong demand for both major and minor bulk commodities.

The BDI average for Q3 was 3,732, the highest quarterly average since 2008. In fact, the BDI reached 5,650 on October 7, the highest level in 13 years, led by increased iron ore exports out of Brazil, pushing capesize rates to just under $90,000 per day in early October. More recently, the freight market has corrected on the back of Chinese winter steel production limits and power shortages due to unavailability of gas and coal. However, it should be noted that current rates are still about 2x the 10-year averages.

Turning to Slide 18. Post-pandemic stimulus measures in the advanced economies and increasing industrial production has fueled demand for the 3 major bulk cargoes. Specifically, the iron ore global trade is expected to grow by 3.4% in 2021 and 2.4% in '22. Additional availability of Atlantic exports to the Far East are expected to increase as steel mills replenish stockpiles. Concerning coal, high gas prices have driven power plants to switch back to coal-fired power generation and the IEA estimates that global coal-fired electricity generation is expected to rise by nearly 5% this year and exceed pre-pandemic levels before increasing a further 3% to an all-time high in 2022.

On the grain side, global grain trade continues to be supported by an ever-increasing world population. Food security issues driven by the pandemic as well as increasing protein demand worldwide. Global grain trade has been growing by 5% CAGR since 2008, mainly driven by Asian demand.

Please turn to Slide 19. The current order book stands at 6.8% of the fleet, one of the lowest on record. Net fleet growth for 2021 is expected at 3.5% and only 1.5% for '22, below the projected increase in dry bulk demand for both years. Vessels over 20 years of age are about 8.6% of the total fleet, which compares favorably with a historically low order book. In concluding our dry bulk sector review, (inaudible) forecast to outpace net fleet growth in both 2021 and '22, a strong demand for natural resources combined with continuing COVID-related logistical disruptions and a slowing pace of newbuilding deliveries all support healthy levels of current and future freight rates.

Please turn to Slide 21, focusing on the container industry. First, COVID stimulus measures have caused a sharp recovery of demand for goods in Western OECD economies as noted on the 2 lower charts. This has led to a change in trading patterns for the containerships, which has resulted in a historic turnaround in rates. As you can see in the blue box on the lower right, increases in demand for goods for congestion and restocking will lead to containership demand growth of 6.3% in 2021 and 3.9% in '22.

Turning to Slide 22. Fleet growth is expected to be 4.2% this year and 3.8% for '22. Even with the increase in newbuilding orders, demand is forecast to outpace net fleet growth in both 2021 and '22. It should be noted that about 73% of the order book is for 13,000 TEU vessels or larger. In addition, 10.4% of the fleet is currently 20 years of age or older. This could lead to a pickup in scrapping in 2022 and sky scrapping prices combined with IMO 2023 CO2 reduction rules may induce a portion of the overage fleet to scrap.

In conclusion, positive demand fundamentals, mainly due to the restart of economic activity around the world, along with reduced fleet availability do support the container shipping industry.

Please turn now to Slide 24 for the review of the tanker industry. Governments having put in place emergency monetary and fiscal plans to support their economies have kickstarted faster-than-expected recovery in the whole economy. This has led the IEA to project Q4 2021 oil demand to return close to 2019 levels, which is shown on the graph on the lower left. This increase in demand has led to a decline in OECD crude oil inventories, which have fallen below their 5-year average since February, with the largest decline coming in September, as shown on the graph on the lower right.

Turning to Slide 25. VLCC net fleet growth is projected at 3.6% for 2021 and only 1.6% for '22. This decline can be partially attributed to owners' hesitance towards the long-lived assets in light of macroeconomic uncertainty and engine technology concerns due to upcoming CO2 restrictions. The current order book is 8.3% of the fleet. Vessels over 20 years of age are 11.3% of the total fleet, which compares favorably with the low order book.

Finally, turning to Slide 26. Product tanker net fleet growth is projected at 2.4% for 2021 and only 1.9% for '22. The current product tanker order book is 6% of the fleet, which compares favorably with the 8.4% of the fleet, which is 20 years of age or older. We believe that the overall tanker order book and fleet are well balanced as the IMO 2023 and Ballast Water Management regulations will lead to some vessel retirements in the coming months.

In concluding, the tanker market continues to remain challenged, following reduced crude and product demand associated with COVID restraints. However, [OPEC past export orders], along with global oil demand returning to 2019 levels, a broad OECD inventories below their 5-year average. This, together with near record low order book, will boost crude and product tanker rates in the near term.

This concludes my presentation. I would now like to turn the call over to Angeliki for her final comments. Angeliki?

Thank you, George. This completes the formal presentation, and we open the call to questions.

(Operator Instructions) We'll take our first question from Randy Giveans with Jefferies.

Congrats again on the merger. Yes, starting off with the merger. Your fleet is clearly massive. It's diverse. So a few questions around this. You mentioned that you sold a 2006 Panamax but still have a handful of 2004 and 2005 built vessels. So any plans for further asset sales, especially on those older vessels? And then, I guess, on the other hand, any plans for further growth in either of the 3 sectors that you now have exposure to?

I think the one issue that I say is that no matter what, on the 140-vessel fleet, you will have some replacement. So think about something between 5 to 10 vessels to -- minimum per year, you will have to replace because either there is a survey or you see that, that vessel may have -- may come to -- you see that potentially in 2023, you may have more consumption for different technological or commercial reasons or CapEx that you have to put. So this is an ongoing process that we will be going over and over again, depending on -- and you have seen us doing that, even in the top -- every market, in the bottom, on the top, it is a continuous process that we do replacement, it doesn't indicate.

Now on actual investment, we just completed a $1 billion investment, 45 vessels in the tanker segment. And I think on a -- it seems to be that Q3 was the low part of the tanker segment, and we are seeing the market slowly recovering. So this is a big investment for Q3. And what we are looking is how this investment we did will play. What we have done is that we have created a fortress balance sheet by chartering the container sector, which is extremely strong, and we have seen that we have $1.6 billion contracted revenue on containers, $2.2 billion overall on the company. This -- the advantage we took on the container vessels gave us a historically low breakeven of $2,469 per open day in 2022.

So basically, we have a fortress balance sheet. We can be very comfortable watching the dry bulk market develop. We have 86% of our available days in the dry bulk open to the market exposure because we are bullish on that. And we have the tanker sector that we are watching as it recovers. So this is basically what we have been doing and what we are seeing developing.

Got it. No, that makes sense. And then you mentioned the word replacement, right? So you have 140 to 150 vessels. Is that the kind of range you want to stay with? Or would those kind of asset sales kind of bring down the fleet levels from these numbers?

There's always a replacement to keep -- one of the things that we said from -- and I think Stratos also mentioned, we have an average age. We are about 2 years below industry average. So this portfolio in order to be kept on the same age below industry average and create, you will always have a 10, 15 vessels. So it's not that you are basically -- it's not a number, but you will need to do sell and manage technologies. If we find opportunities, we can always expand and that is something that we are not shy doing. But I'm talking about as a portfolio, you like to keep an [age] profile characteristics somehow on a certain level.

Yes. No, that's fair. I think the sales of the older ones will slowly reduce that or I guess, keep it relatively young. All right.

Second question, looking at Slides 11 and 14 clearly showing the strength of your balance sheet. You mentioned earlier in the call, your fixed charter backlog is giving you pretty substantial cash flow visibility, very low spot day breakevens. So I guess, going forward, is there a specific debt target or leverage ratio you're pursuing before kind of switching to some kind of return of capital, be it either repurchasing units at a massive discount to NAV or increasing the quarterly distribution?

I think the number one is that what we see is a good positioning on the company. You have this low breakeven, $2,400, historically the lowest. But don't forget, we are 86% of our available days open on dry bulk. And the tanker sector is just coming off -- just coming up from a very low point, which was the lowest point in Q3. So basically what we want to see is number one, this market, dry bulk to materialize, which we are bullish about it, but also to -- a recovery on the tanker segment. So on that, what -- after these 2 conditions, we are seeing as a return -- a total return to our investor as an important part of our strategy.

Got it. And do you have a maybe preference there in terms of repurchases or distribution increase?

I think this is something that we are very (inaudible).

We'll go next to Omar Nokta, Clarksons Securities.

And also congratulations on your first call here post-merger. I wanted to maybe follow up on the commentary you just had with Randy, just in terms of deployment of capital. Right now, you're generating huge sums of cash and that's likely to grow here as we look ahead with the time charters you just announced on the containers. You can pay down debt aggressively, you can reward shareholders aggressively and you can actually acquire assets fairly aggressively.

In terms of those sort of 3, are you willing to rank at the moment, of those 3, which is the most appealing or if one outranks the other two? Or any sort of color you can give on how you are thinking strategically about whether you decide to pay down debt, pay back shareholders or grow the company?

I mean when we did the transaction, we're about 35% -- we increased our debt to about 35%. So the target is always to bring down the debt and that is to about 20%. But overall, today, the biggest thing that we have to see is that we have created operationally a unique platform. We have -- the historically low breakeven gives us on a 47,000 days. You have a huge fleet and you have a breakeven per open day of $2,460. This is unique. But on the other side, we are very exposed to the market. We are 86%, which I think is a rather big percentage for our dry bulk to be open, but we have the luxury.

We see a good market potential, but we have to see it to be aligned. And also, we have to see that target, which we also see a good potential, to actually happen. If these conditions happen, the next thing on the market, on the debt, I think we are in a -- we can both allocate on reduction of our debt and also on actually providing to our investors. So this is something that we are focusing very much. But the most important is we need to have the right conditions. We have -- we see the potential, but we see -- we need to see it materialize.

Definitely sounds like you have the flexibility across the board with that. And I did want to also just ask about the containership charters, which I thought were -- you ordered those 4 plus 2 ships, if I recall and it was somewhat opportunistic at the time, they were on a speculative basis, I guess, or at least were ordered without charters. Here you fixed them for the $37,000 a day, which as I run the numbers, it looks like a 5-year payback, which sounds pretty substantial given these are new buildings.

In that context, and thinking of deploying capital in the future, we've talked about how maybe tankers is an appealing asset class to go after because it's the bottom of the market to an extent. But on this containership opportunity, how repeatable could you say that deal is, where you order those ships and then subsequently contracted them, and now you have basically a 5, maybe 5.5-year payback? Is that a repeatable opportunity you think?

It's like arbitrary. If everyone does it, it's not anymore existing. But the reality, just to go back to your question is, this is the following thing. I mean the capacity of the ship -- the shipyard capacity has been full. And also we see that materials may be going up. So you always have to be very alert to see what is the best area where the opportunity lies. Sometimes it's in newbuilding, sometimes it's in secondhand vessels, in different sectors. That is -- there is no one formula to this, and you need to be always running the different scenarios.

We did see one thing that we saw a great opportunity on the container segment. We saw that the smaller vessels, and this is a wide body, the 5,500 TEUs, what is unique, what we like about this vessel is about in the Asia flexible vessel, 260 meters, very nice dimensions, you can absolutely take advantage of the point-to-point transportation that is now developing, the difference on the supply chain and from -- and all these from just -- in tank, just in case.

So all the unique things that we see on the supply thing happening, this vessel, we think, is a good match. And basically, by ordering these vessels, you go away from the baby Panamax that used to be the vessel that was designed at that time for passing through Panama Canal, but we sold that, had a good life afterwards to something that is particularly big for the necessities of the Inter-Asia trade.

Yes. Definitely looks well timed and a good overall return. Maybe just -- I know -- one final one I did want to ask, I noticed in the release and you mentioned it also in your comments, just about securing dry bulk charters in the period market when the time makes sense. Could you just give a flavor of sort of what the liquidity looks like from your perspective in terms of deploying the dry bulk fleet away from spot on to time charters? What does the liquidity look like across say the 1-year to 3-year time frame?

I think the -- you can find the 1-year versus 3-year, you are basically today discussing hugely, and you don't see the 3-year market developing. It will take some time. I mean there is good -- I mean, we saw volatility. We went (inaudible) from 80,000. We are down to around 30,000. Now 30,000 is a very good level. But purely the volatility that we show, create -- people are still waiting to make an assessment on period. You need to wait and see that market develop. We are not shy of actually fixing.

If you have seen in the container segment, what we did, we -- and this is the example that you see on the charters we just announced, we were fixing 1 year. And today, we fixed over 4 years and over 2.5x the rate. So you are actually creating this cash flow when the market is right. So we need to wait for the dry bulk. We enjoy the -- we have the luxury because of our balance sheet and a low breakeven to really -- to have the luxury to be open and to capture the spot market and wait for the period market to come. And this is the strategy going forward.

Yes, the essence of the diversified fleet. Thanks, Angeliki, for your comments.

Thank you.

We'll take the next question from James of Citigroup.

Just wanted to actually ask about how you're thinking about the capital structure from here. I mean you've got a much larger asset base. It's more diversified. You're thinking about basically moving forward with an even lower level of leverage than you have now. Is this in point where something like an unsecured piece of debt might make sense, something that basically might be a little bit more permanent pieces of capital? Just trying to understand what -- how you're thinking about the work to be done on that side.

The big thing is about debt. We are looking at reducing further debt. One other thing we have done is we have about $1.5 billion in -- I mean, Eri will give the exact numbers, but $1.5 billion on debt. We have about (inaudible) commercial banks, about [600] in Japanese and Chinese leases, which provides us more easier covenant. So we're creating this with this different two-tier financing, and this is something we like to keep the flexibility of having the Asian leases plus the commercial banks in Europe. And overall, we like to have a low leverage. I think the low leverage is a big driver to our model.

Got it. And then separately, congestion in supply chain, which is generally front and center. And obviously, it's been a large factor in the market. But has that lack of visibility to sort of the core demand created any sort of headwind to getting business done on the containership thing? This is actually more pertinent in the container shipping side, but could there be any sort of headwind you're getting? Any sort of incremental business done or extending for -- or extending any particular target of vessels? Just trying to understand if that's actually sort of impacting your operations outside of just the rate impact. Just trying to understand how the feed through there.

Big picture, just -- you should understand that all the inefficiency is net positive for our business. So basically, we can fix, and you have seen in the container segment, we fixed multiyear contracts. We -- the announcement we did between the 6 newbuildings that we did for 5 years and 4 other vessels, we did quite significant number of what was that 600 and...

$690 million of contracted revenue.

$690 million of contracted revenue. So this is a net benefit in efficiency, and we get advantage of this on the long-term period because they need (inaudible).

Yes. Totally -- completely understand the benefits to sort of the market capacity and rates, but trying to understand just basically, the lack of visibility has been sort of discouraged sort of incremental ordering or sort of any commitments on your customers' part. It doesn't sound like it has, but just curious if there's any sort of hold back because of that lack of visibility. Just curious there.

Sorry, I'm not 100% sure on the question. I can -- it's a little bit hard to hear you. But one of the things I'll say is that we see visibility on chartering. There is demand for charters, if I answer your question, and we have seen it. And this is something that actually has benefited us quite significant on this market, especially on the container.

I'll turn the call back over to Angeliki for any closing remarks.

Thank you. This completes our quarterly results for NMM. Thank you.

This does conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.