Class CNBC_Focus Trimestrali: d'Amico International Shipping Commento ai risultati 1° semestre 2023

First of all, the fundamentals that we have been preaching for a long time: the fact that refineries are increasingly moving east while the consumption markets are essentially west, excluding China, of course, and this lengthens the routes. And the products that come out of the refineries have to travel more and to do the same quantity you need a higher number of ships. So demand already arises from the dislocation of the refining centers, and this is a process that has been going on for years and we had obviously already seen it. It is clear that we have a very strong input from this, from the Ukraine-Russia crisis because, as I said last time in the last call, Russia was the largest supplier of diesel to Europe. Europe closed purchases from Russia, so Russia by force of circumstances had to sell further away, so another excess demand. At the same time, Europe itself now goes to get its diesel from the Middle East or the United States, and also here we are talking about longer routes, not to mention that often it even buys in Korea or China. So the system has lengthened, the fleet has remained substantially the same because very few new ships are coming out for a series of reasons: one, the shipyards are full of orders for container ships and LNG carriers; two, we have a very great uncertainty about what will be the future fuels, so you must not think that a ship is operated for 15 years, but a life of over 20, and so there is the risk of building a ship that is already obsolete even if it is new, so yes.

The theoretical margins are all there because the book value of the company is 4 euros, so we are trading below book value, the NAV is over 6, so frankly all the elements are there to say that the value is all there. To make a forecast for the rest of the year, I feel like saying that it will be a good second half. We are currently living through the third quarter; normally the third quarter is the most sluggish, let's say the weakest, and yet we are seeing good demand and the ships are turning well, and we will have the fourth quarter which instead is normally the best, so I have no reason to think that there are particular dangers ahead of us. What the stock will do, I don't know.

For now, very little. It must be said that to OPEC we add the fact that Russia is actually starting to cut the half million barrels that it had been saying for months, but for the moment on the freight market itself there is no impact because evidently we are starting to eat into the inventories. This could also be a positive element in the future because normally stocks must be replenished and this will create a greater increase in ships to rebuild them. Clear.

For the moment, it's clear, we look at everything, but even at this moment I would say that the situation is as it is, we don't see other elements of growth. We are currently focused on debt reduction and clearly on a better distribution of future dividends.