Greetings, and welcome to the Diana Shipping First Quarter 2018 Conference Call. [Operator Instruction] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Edward Nebb, Investor Relations Advisor. Please proceed.

Thank you, Kelly, and thanks, to all of us for joining us for the Diana Shipping Inc. First Quarter 2018 Conference Call. The members of the management team who are with us today include: Mr. Symeon Palios, Chairman and CEO; Mr. Anastasios Margaronis, President; Mr. Andreas Michalopoulos; Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Ioannis Zafirakis, Chief Operating Officer and Secretary; and Miss Maria Dede, Chief Accounting Officer. Before management begins their remarks, let me remind you of the safe harbor notice. Certain statements made during the conference call, which are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statement under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, expectations, projections and beliefs as to future events that may not prove to be accurate and for description of the risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ from forward-looking statements, please refer to the company's filings with the SEC. And now without further delay, let me turn the call over to Mr. Symeon Palios, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Ed. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today to discuss the results of Diana Shipping Inc. for the first quarter of 2018. Our performance for the recent quarter reflected a sharp reduction in net loss, as we experienced a rising trend in time charter rates. As the dry bulk industry recovery has continued to gain in strength, all of the vessels were chartered in recent months, were fixed at significantly higher rate than their previous charter. In short, the company has benefited from its established strategy of positioning the fleet to take advantage of the improving industry cycle. To highlight our financial results, the company reported a net loss of $3.1 million and net loss attributed to common stockholders of $4.5 million for the first quarter of 2018. This was a strong improvement from the net loss of $26.5 million and a net loss attributed to common stockholders of $27.9 million reported in the first quarter of 2017. Time charter revenues rose to $48.4 million in the first quarter of 2018 compared to $31.3 million for the same period of 2017. The increase in time charter revenues was due to increased average time charter rates that we achieved for our vessels during the quarter and increased ownership days, resulting from the enlargement of our fleet. Turning to the balance sheet. Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash were $89.9 million at March 31, 2018, up from $65.8 million at the end of 2017. Long-term debt, net of deferred financing fees, including the current portion, was $587.2 million compared to stockholder' equity of $622.1 million. We continued to manage our fleet of 50 vessels in a responsible manner that promotes a balance of time charter maturities and produces a predictable revenue strength. Currently, our fixed revenue days are 71% for 2018. Looking ahead to the balance of 2018, we are confident that we continue strategic management of our fleet and solid financial resources will enable the company to continue to benefit from improving positions in the dry bulk marketplace. With that, I will now turn the call over to our President, Stasi Margaronis, for a perspective on industry conditions. He will then be followed by our Chief Financial Officer and President, Andreas Michalopoulos, who will provide a more detailed financial overview. Thank you.

Thank you, Symeon, and welcome to all of the participants of this quarterly conference call of Diana Shipping Inc. We had another interesting quarter in dry bulk freight market. And we can look at the most recent developments and try to get the pragmatic sense of the markets and where it is heading, at least, over the short and medium term. The bulk carrier market registered clear gains in 2017 from the depressed earnings environment of 2016. According to Clarksons, bulk earnings average is just under $11,000 per day in 2017, up 77% year-on-year, but still down by 38% from the 2000 to 2016 average. Seaborne dry bulk rate grew by an estimated 3.9% in 2017, which turns into 5% in terms of ton mile to total 5.1 billion tons. This compares with average growth of 0.5% per annum during 2015, 2016 period and reflected a bounce back in coal trade and growth in Chinese iron ore import amongst other factors. The Baltic Dry Index started the year at 1,230 and closed yesterday at 1,465. The Baltic Panamax Index stood at 1,340 on January 2, and closed yesterday at 1,253. The Baltic Cape Index started 2018 at 2,281 and closed yesterday at 2,616. The fluctuations of spot rate during this quarter was significant and are an indication of how finely balanced the market happens to be at this point in time. This is what makes us reasonably optimistic that if the supply demand assumptions we will menton below come to pass the market should see a steady improvement in earnings for all large bulk carriers. Let's start with macroeconomic development. World GDP growth, according to the IMF, is predicted to be 3.9% this year and about the same in 2019. For United States, GDP growth is predicted to reach 2.7%…

Thank you, Stasi, and good morning. I'm pleased to be discussing today with you Diana's operational results for the three-months ended March 31, 2018. Net loss and net loss attributed to common stockholders amounted to $3.1 million and $4.5 million, respectively. Loss per common share was $0.04. Time charter revenues increased to $48.4 million compared to $31.3 million in the first quarter of 2017. The increase was due to the increased average time charter rate that we achieved through our vessels during the quarter, and revenues derived from the addition to our fleet of the vessels Astarte, Electra and Phaidra delivered in May, 2017. This increase was partly offset mainly by a decrease in revenues due to the grounding of the Melite and her sail in October 2017. Ownership days were 4,500 in the first quarter of 2018 compared to 4,313 in the same quarter 2017. Fleet utilization was 99.8% compared to 98.2% for the same quarter of 2017. And the daily time charter equivalent rate was $10,416 compared to $7,069 for the same quarter of 2017. Voyage expenses were $2.1 million for the quarter compared to $1.1 million for the same quarter of 2017. The increase in voyage expenses was due to an increase in commissions due to increased revenues. Vessel operating expenses amounted to $22.9 million compared to $21.3 million for the first quarter of 2017, an increase by 8%. The increase was mainly due to the 4% increase in ownership days, resulting from the enlargement of the fleet and increased crew and environmental costs. Daily operating expenses were $5,096 for the first quarter of 2018 compared to $4,942 for the same quarter 2017, representing an increase of 2%. Depreciation and amortization of deferred charges amounted to $13 million. General and administrative expenses were $7 million compared to $5.8 million for the same quarter last year. The increase was mainly due to increased payroll cost, mainly due to the increase in euro-dollar exchange rate. Management fees to related party were $0.6 million compared to $0.4 million for the same quarter last year. The increase was due to the transfer of three additional vessels to Diana Wilhelmsen Management Limited during 2017. Interest and finance costs amounted to $6.9 million compared to $6.4 million in the same quarter of 2017. This increase was mainly attributable to increased interest due to increased interest rates, partly offset by decreased average debt compared to the same quarter 2017. Interest and other income amounted to $1.4 million compared to $0.6 million for the same quarter last year. The increase in the interest rate and the outstanding balance of the loan due from Diana Containerships Inc. following the new loan agreement on June 30, 2017. Thank you for your attention. We would be pleased to respond to your questions now. And I will turn the call to the operator, who will instruct you as to the procedure for asking questions. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Mr. Christopher Robertson with Jefferies.

Hi, good morning and thanks for taking my call. Looks like the vessel utilization was pretty high for the quarter. Do you expect a similar level in Q2? And can you walk us through the planned dry docking for the rest of the year?

Yes, we expect the same type of utilization for Q2. This is normal utilization for shipping usually unless unexpected things are happening. For the second quarter, the dry dock that we're foreseeing is three vessels, multivessel Phaidra and multivessel Nirefs and multivessel Alcyon

And you had $30 million in cash from investing this quarter, can you go into the sources of that cash?

What did you say? Can you repeat the question?

On the cash flow, the $30 million in cash from Investing, can you go into the source of that cash?

This is the money that was received from Diana Containership Inc. Loan and repayment of loan proceeds.

Okay. And one last question, what's the market appetite for some of the older Panamax vessels and could we see some vessel sales during 2018 as the market improves?

As the market improves, we have said that, for us, every vessel that we buy is an option to be sold in a good market again in the future. And therefore, in a better market, certainly, we may -- you may see us selling some of our vessels.

All right. That’s it from me. Thanks.

Thank you very much. Have a nice day.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. And I would like to turn the call back to management for closing remarks.