Hello, and welcome to the Diana Shipping Inc. 2023 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Ed Nebb, Investor Relations for Diana Shipping. Please go ahead, Ed.

Thank you, Kevin, and thanks to everyone who is joining us today for the Diana Shipping Inc. 2023 fourth quarter and full year conference call. With us today from management are Semiramis Paliou, Chief Executive Officer, and she will introduce the other members of the management team. And so without further ado, I will turn the call over to Ms. Paliou.

Thank you, Ed. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Diana Shipping Inc.'s Fourth Quarter and End of Year 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. As Ed said, I'm Semiramis Paliou, the CEO of the company. And it's my pleasure to present alongside our esteemed team, Mr. Stasi Margaronis, who is the Director and President; Mr. Ioannis Zafirakis, Director, CFO and Chief Strategy Officer; Mr. Eleftherios Papatrifon, Director. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone to review the forward-looking statement on Page 4 of the accompanying presentation, please. So despite market conditions being mixed during the last quarter of 2023 and in early 2024, our disciplined chartering strategy has allowed us to continue generating positive free cash flows. Within February, we have witnessed the market sentiment improving significantly. And as a result, current market conditions are more robust. In this background, we announced a cash dividend for the fourth quarter of 2023 of $0.075 per share. Turning to Slide 5. I will review with you the company's snapshot as of today. Our fleet comprises 41 vessels in the water with a total deadweight of approximately 4.5 million tons. Our fleet utilization has remained consistently high, reaching 99.7% for the fiscal year 2023, attributed to our prudent and efficient management of our vessels. Additionally, as of the end of the fourth quarter, we employed 1,018 people at sea and the shore. Moving on to Slide 6. Let's go over the key highlights from the third quarter and recent developments. We recently executed the contract for the acquisition of 281,000 deadweight methanol dual-fuel newbuilding Kamsarmax dry bulk vessels built at Tsuneishi Group for a purchase price of $46 million each. These vessels are expected to be delivered to the company in the second half of 2027 and the first half of…

Thank you, Semiramis. Slide number 9 clearly shows the two main points. One has to do with the market conditions deteriorating compared to -- for the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to 2022, and you can see that on the revenue side being $60 million compared to $75 million in 2022 for the same quarter. But the other point that you can see here is that we have managed to increase our cash position in the end of the year to $161 million point something compared to $143.9 million. And also, we have managed to decrease our long-term and finance liabilities, that's net of deferred financing costs, to $642.8 million compared to $663.4 million regardless of the market conditions. Now, if we move to the next slide, you can see this slide basically on the time charter equivalent, time charter rate for the three months ended December 31, the fact that our time charter equivalent has been $15,162 compared to $21,100 in the same quarter in the previous year. Again, this is mainly due to the market condition deteriorating. If we move to the next slide, what is worth mentioning is that the improved utilization rate to 99.7% compared to 98.9% in the same quarter in -- in the same year 2022. And also, the fact that the time charter equivalent for the year has been $16.7 thousand compared to $22.7 thousand in the previous year. The daily vessel operating expenses, they have increased slightly to $5,700 compared to $5,574. What is worth mentioning also is that we have managed to keep our weighted average age to 10.5 years, although a year has passed from 10.2. Going to the income statement. I think you can clearly see that we made $0.06 in this the last quarter of 2023 compared to…

Thank you, Ioannis. And from me, also a warm welcome to all the participants in Diana's first earnings call for 2024. On this slide, I'd like to mention that from our last conference call, we have brought to your attention that geopolitical events continue to have an important influence on dry bulk earnings. According to Clarksons bulker, Suez Canal transits are running about 40% below those seen during the first half of December last year. This is partially the result of several owners operators, including ourselves avoiding the area due to the increased risks of attack and consequent risk to seafarers lives. This decrease in Suez Canal transit is estimated to have increased the dry bulk rate average haul length by around 1%. The Clarksons base case forecast, assuming one quarter of disruption, factors in a 0.3% dry bulk tonne mile demand uplift for the full year 2024. This comes at the same time as Panama Canal restrictions due to draft limitations in Lake Gatun, where water levels are at critically low levels of less than 25 meters. This is another factor already driving some trade towards longer alternative routes. Turning to the time charter rate now that we are witnessing Capesize 12-month employment hire rates stands at around $26,500 per day [basis Pacific delivery] (ph) with the most recent peak being $30,000 per day seen in March 2022. Today's 12-month rate of Kamsarmax is $18,250 per day. And it was around $29,500 at the end of March 2022. For Ultramaxes, the 12-month time charter hire rate is $17,000 per day and the last peak was again $29,250 per day in March 2022. These rates are well above those reported three months ago in our last earnings call. Turning to macroeconomic considerations now. The [IMF] (ph) GDP growth forecast for…

Thank you, Stasi. Before we open the call up to question-and-answer session, I would like to summarize the key points from today's presentation. Firstly, our dedication is on generating and securing positive free cash flows. Through prudent and active management of our balance sheet, we aim to capitalize on the opportunities presented. Secondly, we are proactive in renewing and modernizing our fleet, enhancing our ecological footprint in greener investments, aligning with our sustainability and environmental responsibility. Thirdly, our dedication persists in adhering to a strategy that offers stability in a cyclical business while striving to maximize long-term shareholder value. Thank you very much. We can now -- I will turn the call back to our operator for the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today is coming from Kristoffer Skeie from Arctic Securities. Your line is now live.

Hello. Congrats on another good quarter. I was just wondering if you could comment on the balance sheet and investments in equity securities of $20.7 million as of year-end? And is that related to this offshore joint venture or…? Yeah, thanks.

This is an investment that we have. We do not have to disclose the details of that investment. It's not material enough that we need to do a filing. So unfortunately, we cannot disclose.

Thank you. We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any further or closing comments.

Thank you very much for joining us today and look forward to seeing you at our next earnings call. Thank you very much.

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.