Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, thank you for joining the d'Amico International Shipping second quarter and first half 2021 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Paolo d'Amico, chairman and CEO of d'Amico International Shipping. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you and good afternoon to everybody. Welcome to our conf call, and let's go straight to the presentation. If you don't mind, I would skip the executive summary, we are not doubling things, and I leave for the starting, the floor to Carlos Balestra for the overview and the key financials. Carlos, it's all yours. Thank you, Paolo. Good afternoon, everyone. As usual, we start just a quick glance of our fleet. We controlled 38 vessels as at 30th of June. We are mainly an MR player. We have, however, a small presence also in the LR1 and Handysize segments with six vessels in each of these segments. Mostly owned vessels, 20 out of 38, eight on double charter, which we consider as owned vessels because they either have purchase obligations or purchase options at very attractive prices in one case only. Then we have the time chartered-in vessels, which are mostly long-term, 9 out of the 10 time chartered-in vessels. The fleet is 76% IMO class, and it is still a young fleet, 6.9 years average age relative to an average for the industry, which is closer to 12 years in the sectors we operate in. Mostly by now, an eco fleet, 75% of the owned and bareboat vessels, and 74% of the entire fleet. Well, these results were achieved thanks to an important new building program, as we already talked about several times in the recent past. We ordered 22 new buildings since 2012, and they have all been delivered to us, the last one in Q4 2019. CapEx program, not much change since our last presentation relating to the CapEx that was planned for 2021. The large majority was already invested, $4.2 million, and only $2 million left. 2022, we only have planned investments for such purposes of $3.1 million, so around half as much as in 2021. This figure has been declining since 2020. Yeah, of course, we only have a maintenance CapEx left for now, because our priority, as we have mentioned several times in the past, currently is to continue on a deleveraging process of our balance sheet. In terms of also cash flow commitments, well, we are also lighter in terms of bank debt repayments. We have no balloons due in the second half of this year, we have $65 million due in 2022, and we are already working on the refinancings of these. Quite a few of them, we expect to be able to refinance before the end of 2021. The first balloon due here is in April, all the other ones are in the second half of 2022 in any case. They are still quite distant. We are also lighter in terms of bank debt repayments. That is also positive, not only in terms of CapEx repayments. It has declined quite sharply between 20 19 and 2020, after we terminated reimbursing the $75 million facility with Intesa, which had to be reimbursed over five years. It will continue declining more gradually going forward. That will also help us from a cash flow perspective. On the purchase options front, as we announced in the recent past, we have exercised the purchase option, the High Priority. We did so because this vessel, in any case, had quite a short lease, which was going to mature in October 2022. Therefore, since we had a very comfortable cash position, and we still do at the end of the year, we decided that it was a good idea to exercise this option to save on quite a substantial amount in interest expense, because this was also by far the most expensive bareboat we had. The other ones are at a much cheaper cost, and they have much longer tenors, so we are not in a hurry to exercise these. If the circumstances are right, because we see the market moving in the right direction and our balance sheet allows us to do so, we look forward also to exercising some of these other options and saving some money on interest expense also in this respect. Of the remaining options, we have eight, seven either in the money or theoretically in the money. Only one is slightly out of the money, the High Trader. Yes, seven of them are already exercisable. Only the Cielo di Fios, we have to wait until 2024 to be able to exercise. Going on to our TC coverage. We have been working on this throughout the second quarter, increasing the forward coverage by fixing vessels on time charter. Therefore, we have 48% coverage now for Q3, which is not a bad figure, at around $15,000 per day. That allows us to weather quite comfortably the current weak markets. This coverage declines in Q4 to 36% at an average rate of $14,800 around. Therefore, if we look at the second half, we are at around 42% at just below $15,000, which is pretty much aligned with our breakeven. We have much more exposure, of course, in 2022 and 2023, but we are quite happy having exposure in these two years because we expect the market to be much stronger by then. As previously mentioned, the percentage of eco fleet has been rising, and it's expected to continue rising as we dispose of some of our older non-eco vessels over the course of the next few years. Here we show the fleet evolution. We are not assuming any vessel sales here, but as we deliver some of our TC-in vessels, this fleet declines only very slightly over the course of the next two years. Of course, because of the declining TC coverage, our overall spot exposure increases, and so does our sensitivity for every $1,000 per day change in the TC equivalent earnings, which is of $4 million in the second half of 2021 and rises to $11 million in 2022. On the cost side, we have also been working very hard, and we achieved a very significant savings between 2018 and 2020, with a slight uptick in 2021, both on the direct operating costs and on the general and administrative costs. On the direct operating costs, of course, we benefited also from the fleet renewal program. We have all of our new buildings, the 22 vessels were built at the same group, either in Vietnam or Korea. Having modern vessels, of course, also helps in terms of cost savings. Also we invested in technology for condition-based maintenance, which allows us to increase the average lifespans of our spare parts and also reduce off-hires by preventing failures. On the G&A front and on the OpEx front, well, on the OpEx front, we benefited in 2020, unfortunately, of course, from the fact that we could perform less crew rotations, but it did lead to some cost savings. In 2021, fortunately, we can perform more crew rotations, and that did have an impact on our costs. There were also some currency effects, which affected both the operating costs, but more significantly the G&A, because especially in the first half of 2020, the US dollar was very strong. Going on to the following page, our financial structure. We are quite happy to highlight that our ratio of net financial position to fleet market value has improved relative to December 2020 despite the losses that we recorded this year. This is mainly due to the increase in asset values in Q2. The market, the asset values started moving up in Q2. I would say because of the increase in steel prices, which was very significant, that we have been experiencing this year, which has led to a sharp increase in the new building costs. That pushed up also the prices of the younger vessels in our fleet. Of course, also demolition prices have been moving up quite significantly, and that provided support for the vessel values of the more middle-age vessels and all the slightly older vessels in our fleet. Going forward to the following page, of course, the increase in asset values also reflects the positive fundamentals and the fact that there is an expectation that the current weak markets won't last that long, and that we will soon be operating in a much stronger market. In terms of financial results, a quick look at the mainline items of the P&L. We lost $5.4 million in Q2. In the first half, it is $15.2, so quarter-on-quarter, it is a big improvement relative to the $9.3 million we lost in Q1 this year. Excluding non-recurring items, we lost $5 million in the second quarter of this year and $14.4 million in the first half of this year. Despite the weak markets, we did generate a good level of EBITDA, $32 million, in the first half of this year. Going on to a quick look at the daily TCE equivalent results for both the spot and the time charter vessels. Spot vessels in Q2 $ 12,720. I believe we did very well here relative to the market. Our vessels were properly positioned. A bit skill, a bit luck, I would say. I believe even if we look at H1, the result for our spot vessels of $ 11.3 is quite strong relative to the weak markets we experienced. We did underperform a bit in Q1 2021, but we more than compensated for that in Q2. In terms of spot employment, of course, if we then include the time charter coverage that we had, which was at above $15,000 per day, $ 15.8 in Q1 and $ 15.2 in Q2 this year. This allowed us to achieve a blended rate of 13.9 in Q2 2021, and of almost 13.4 in the first half of the year, which I believe is actually quite a good result given the circumstances. Also, I would say relative to many of our peers, which are more exposed to the spot market than we are. I pass it over to Paolo for the market overview. Thank you, Carlos. The market, you know very well where we are coming from, and I have a feeling, and it is a general opinion, that the market did bottom, and we are entering in a period where we should see some improvements on the second half, and second half is already on the actual quarter, and especially on the last quarter of the year. We are seeing a recovery in demand on the refining throughputs. We expected that we have a recovery of 2.7 MMbpd between June and August 2021. You know where we are coming from in terms of floating storage, because when COVID started, the price of oil collapsed, everybody start buying oil. Oil went even in negative territory for a couple of days, start a very strong storage program, and this has been very good on the moment that they start chartering ship for the storage, but afterwards, we paid that in a very expensive way. Now all this is gone, the market is rebalancing from that situation. What's happening today is more vehicles are rolling in the street. People are getting vaccinated. They are more confident. We still have this Delta variant, which is, of course, creating some problems. Overall, I would say consumption of gasoline is certainly recovering, and U.S. is close to 2019 levels. Even here in Europe, we see more cars in the street. What is missing to the equation is jet fuel. We are still 24% lower than 2019 in terms of commercial flights. There is some recovery, but there's still a way to go, and of course, jet is cargo missing on the markets. On longer term, we see a healthy demand growth with a stronger participation of clean products to the total seaborne trade. From 25% in 2000, we are close to 33% in 2020, and we expect to go to 34% in 2021, 2022. There is, on longer term, a large potential upside on asset values, because of course, we are getting out of the negative cycle and we are rather optimistic for the future. There is, on longer term always, a dramatic change in the refinery landscape. Older and inefficient refineries in Europe are closing down, and also in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand lost its total refining capacity. It was only one refinery. Australia lost most of them. We have a growth which is basically all in Middle East and in China. This is creating more ton-miles, so is more demand for product carriers. On the supply side, so on number of ships, on the fleet growth, we have one strong demolition market, which will stimulate a lot ship owners with older ships, with 20 years old, 18 years old ships, to scrap their vessel. The price is very good because we are talking of something around $600 per lightweight ton. Not only, but the new regulation coming in, the new indexes which we have to match, starting from 2023, are creating more pressure to recycle older vessels. This is increasing the number of demolition candidates. Most of the MR fleet is being built in the first half of, let's say, the first three quarters of year 2000, so up to 2006, 2007. They are getting over the 15 year of age, and we are feeling this demolition already, because last year in 2020, only 10 MR and LR1s have been scrapped. This year, already 26 have been demolished in the first half of 2021. The double we did in half of the time, the double of a number. There are still limited new building orders. The supply side We are having a very slow fleet growth, which is a very positive thing for us. We think that the rebound of demand, that is happening because oil consumption is going up, and more and more countries are at least trying, but also succeeding in many cases, to go back to normal life. Demand will overtake certainly supply at certain stage, which is, for us, not far away. In the future, we think that the second half of 2021 will be certainly by far much better than the first, and 2022 will pay us back what we have been suffering up to now. Carlos? Hello? Carlos? Yeah. Sorry, I was on mute. Sorry. Just a quick look at the NAV evolution in our fleet. This has been declining after peaking in March 2020, at $320 million. It troughed in end of March this year at $213 million, and it then rebounded, because of what we just mentioned, the increase in asset values to $245 million. This, of course, as mentioned in the past already, is based on the broker valuations that we receive, also for testing loan-to-value covenants on our loans. On a per share basis in the US dollar terms, the NAV per share bounced back from $0.17 to $0.20 between the end of March and the end of June this year. We are now trading again at a very big discount to NAV, 39%, which we deem is excessive given the positive fundamentals that we see for the sector for the reasons we covered, I would say, in this presentation. Maybe there is a still a soft patch in front of us as we need more jet fuel to be consumed. The trend is quite clear in that respect. We need especially some areas of the world which are a bit further behind in the vaccination programs to accelerate. That, of course, would then drive demand. As we are seeing, OPEC seems to be prioritizing a market in equilibrium, although probably slightly undersupplied. They seem to be following through, and adapting the supply to what are the expectations on the demand side. We expect this behavior to continue going forward. Demand is the key here, and in that respect, we believe vaccination programs are key. The path forward is pretty clear and we definitely expect an improving market going forward. I believe that is it. I pass it over to you to the question and answer session. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star one on their touch-tone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star two. We kindly ask to use handsets when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star one at this time. The first question is from Matteo Bonizzoni of Kepler. Please go ahead. Yes, thank you. Good afternoon. Yeah, just one question. It is related to the asset values trend. We have seen a reversal finally after some several quarters of slide in the asset values. You commented that this is also very much connected to the inflation of the raw materials and of the steel. We have recovered basically $0.03 in the last quarter compared to Q1, and the local value has also improved as a result. I just want to have a flavor about your expectation on the asset values evolution going forward. Basically, do you expect it to be over, or do you expect further improvement of the asset values, also driven by the potential recovery of the rates and the improvement of your reference market? Thanks. Carlos or me? No, I can go. Paolo can go. Yeah, no. On the asset values, I think that the increase in the steel prices will provide support going forward. Well, I think on both sides of the curve for both the younger and the older vessels, as we mentioned, but further appreciation as you correctly pointed out will depend on better markets, and on a recovery in freight rates, of course. There is an extremely strong correlation in that respect. We expect that to happen for the reasons we covered in the presentation. The big question is: We are seeing already more volumes. We are definitely seeing bigger, more refining throughput. A lot of this additional refining throughput is now being consumed domestically, so there isn't as much as we would hope for being transported by sea. The additional barrels, most likely will flow through the sea, will be exported. In particular in the U.S., for example, we have seen a very strong recovery in demand, and also in refining activity. A lot of that additional refining activity has been focused on serving the domestic market. The U.S. refineries are important suppliers to Central and South America, for example. If we don't see demand recovering in those regions, then the exports from the U.S. will also probably remain a bit subdued. That is why I was mentioning before that it is important that, for us, very important that the vaccination campaigns in the emerging economies, which is currently well behind that which we have seen in the U.S. and in Europe also accelerate. I hope I answered your question. Yeah. Cannot be more precise, unfortunately. Yeah. Thank you. The next question is from Daniele Alibrandi of Stifel. Please go ahead. Yes. Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. I have 2. The first one is: Can you please elaborate a little bit on the reason behind the outperformance relating to the market on the spot market, the spot rate that we saw in Q2, since a significant outperformance relating to the Clarksons from data also I typically look at, so if you can a little bit elaborate on this. Then, the second question on the exit rate that you've seen over the last month basically, if you can also give us a sense of what you are seeing. I know that Q3 is not very much a seasonal quarter, but it can help us to understand how things are going, given that you commented that probably the trough is behind us. Thanks. No, as far as the spot trend charter rate, we did on the first half has been also what Carlos said before, the result of positioning the vessel in the best way we could and the best way we try to understand the market. Of course, as I said, also a bit of luck in certain situation. We are working with three chartering offices, one in New York, one in London, and one in Singapore, and we are trying to get as much intelligence we can get on the field and try to position the ships as a consequence. It's not very easy to move ships from east to west. It is easier to move them from west to east because of vegetable oil cargos, and that they are moving from South America to the Far East. In this exact moment, it is better to stay west than to stay east, but every month is a different story. Where we are, I don't talk about the spot rate in the exact moment because they are not great numbers, I can tell you. What we are seeing is a number of traders who are taking position for six months, one year, three months, plus three months on various option. We see all this is happening because there is, from the trading oil industry, an expectation of increase of demand, and they are taking cover. The demand is there. To put it in numbers is quite difficult in this exact moment because the rate that I can tell you today, this afternoon, tomorrow would be already too old. It is a very volatile market, even in a depressed situation. The expectation is strong because we are seeing the participant on the demand side, that they are taking more and more cover, and this means only one thing, that they are seeing an improvement on the market, at least over the next six months. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from Massimo Bonisoli of Equita. Please go ahead. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. I have two questions. One is regarding the implication of the new package of Fit for 55 to stimulate sustainable maritime fuels and zero emission marine propulsions. What are the implications for your long-term strategy coming from this new kind of regulation in Europe, and if you're thinking to have a different source of fuels as well as this different source of engine for your next few vessels? The second question is on the cash flow generation. First half free cash flow generation was positive despite the weak realized price and negative income. What would be the level of realized prices that would bring your free cash flow to break even, more or less? I pick up the first question. What we are doing today, we are testing with one of our main clients, a trader called Trafigura, you certainly know him. Yeah. We are testing a biofuel of second generation on the actual ships, there's no need to change engines or change the ships on today's fleet. We are having very good and positive results on the exhaust gas and reduction of CO2 emissions. Probably, we will be moving more and more on bio-bunkers, biofuels for propulsion, and this should bring us over the first target, which is 2030, with the reduction of 40%. What is certainly happening, that all this is, in a way, also positive for us, because having a fleet of eco ships, which have been built all recently, this new implementation coming in will push more and more owners to scrap the old vessels. The supply side will have what for us is a positive factor, which it should reduce the fleet growth and certainly create a better balance between supply and demand. Yeah. Regarding the second question on the free cash flow, our financial, let's say, breakeven is actually not that far from our P&L breakeven today. They are both around $15,000 per day, just below $15,000 per day. Yeah. We are not that far from that figure. Our time charter coverage is at around that level, and of course, the spot fixtures aren't, but we are not that far. Very clear and interesting. Thank you very much. As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question is a follow-up from Matteo Bonizzoni of Kepler. Please go ahead. Thank you. Just one question. As regards the refinancing of your balloon in 2022, which is worth around $65 million, can you elaborate on the expected cost in terms of financing cost vis-à-vis the current one? Yeah. We started, as I mentioned already, we have ongoing conversations with banks to refinance these balloons. We are seeing banks seem to be quite keen, the ones we have contacted so far. I would say that the conditions we are going to be able to achieve should be slightly better, actually, than in our last refinancing, where we achieved a margin of 250 basis points. We should do at least as well or better, and I expect us to be able to do better than that. The usual terms that are today available on these type of loans, so five-year terms on 17-year profiles, age adjusted to zero. Okay, thank you. Gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time. Mr. d'Amico? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much for joining us in this conf call. At this point, I hope that we are going to deliver better news at the next quarter. Certainly, things are getting in one direction, I think, and as Carlos said, more people are getting vaccinated, and better will be for our market. We must just look really at that. Thank you very much, and talk to you at the next conf call. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over. You may disconnect your telephones. Thank you.