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Star Bulk Carriers Corp (SBLK 0.12%)
Q3 2019 Earnings Call
Nov 21, 2019, 11:00 a.m. ET

Contents:

  • Prepared Remarks
  • Questions and Answers
  • Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Star Bulk Carriers Conference Call on Third Quarter 2019 Financial Results. We have with us Mr. Petros Pappas, Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Hamish Norton, President; Simos Spyrou and Mr.Christos Begleris, Co-Chief Financial Officers of the Company and Nicos Rescos, Chief Operating Officer of the company. [Operator Instructions] I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today.

And we now pass the floor to one of your speakers today, Mr. Spyrou. Please go ahead, sir.

Simos Spyrou -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, operator. I'm Simos Spyrou, Co-Chief Financial Officer of Star Bulk Carriers. And I would like to welcome you to the Star Bulk Carriers conference call regarding our financial results for the third quarter of 2019. Before we begin, I kindly ask you to take a moment to read the Safe Harbor statement on Slide number 2 of our presentation. Let us now turn to Slide number 3 of the presentation for a summary of our third quarter 2019 financial highlights.

In the three months ending September 30th, 2019, TCE revenues amounted to $131.3 million,1.6% higher than the $129.2 million for the same period in 2018. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter 2019 was $72.2 million versus $80.1 million in the third quarter 2018. Adjusted net income for the third quarter amounted to $17.3 million or $0.18 earning per share versus $30.5 million adjusted net income or $0.35 gain per share in Q3 2018. Our adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income figures include an adjustment of $8.5 million for the accelerated dry dock expenses brought forward from 2020 to 2019. Overall, we have decided to accelerate to 2019, the dry dock schedule for the vessels that had worked in 2020 in order to complete works concurrently with the scrubber installation and have [Indecipherable] addition 2020 maximizing our scrubber return. Our Time Charter Equivalent Rate during this quarter was $14,688 per vessel per day.

During the third quarter of 2019, our average daily operating expenses were $3,693 per vessel per day. In terms of fleet update, as of today, we have taken delivery of all our newbuilding vessels and have agreed to sell two of our older Supramax vessels, as part of our fleet renewal. The vessels are expected to be delivered to their new owners by the end of this month. This leaves Star Bulk with a fleet of 116 vessels going forward. Total cash as of today stands at $130 million, with net debt at $1.48 billion. Regular debt amortization including scrubber debt principal repayment for 2020 will be at $197 million with current projected interest expense at approximately $72.5 million next year.

In Slide 4, we discuss our new dividend policy. We are happy to be announcing a cash dividend for the quarter of $0.05 per share, as well as establishing a transparent dividend policy under which the Company will distribute dividends once our quarterly total cash balance exceeds the set thresholds presented in the slide. We aim to gradually increase the quarterly cash thresholds over the next eight quarters, reaching a final threshold of $2.1 million per vessel in Q3 2021. We believe the policy safeguards our strong balance sheet, while creating value by returning cash to our shareholders.

Please turn now to Slide 5, where we summarize our operational performance for the quarter. Operating expenses were at $3,693 per day per vessel for the quarter and $3,876 per day for the nine month periods of 2019. As many of our vessels are close to -- or have performed a dry dock recently, they usually spend less on opex. Investors should be looking at our nine month opex figure as a better guidance for the expected opex levels going forward. Net cash G&A expenses were reduced to $828 per day per vessel for the quarter and $931 per vessel per day for the nine month 2019 period. We expect that our daily vessel net cash G&A expenses going forward will be in the rates between $950 to $1,000 per day per vessel. The combination of our in-house management and the scale of the Group enable us to provide our services at very competitive costs, complemented by excellent ship management capabilities with Star Bulk consistently ranking among the top five managers evaluated by Rightship.

Slide 6 highlights that Star Bulk is the lowest cost operator among our US listed dry bulk peers with operating expenses approximately 21% below the industry average, based on latest publicly available information. In Slide 7, we are providing an update on our scrubber retrofit program. As of today we have 88 scrubber towers installed across our fleet, 50 of which are already commissioned. We are working to have approximately 106 scrubber towers installed and 83 commissioned during the turn of the year. We believe that having the majority of our vessels scrubber fitted in advance of 2020 will create significant commercial and operational benefits for the Company, minimizing the payback period for our investment. Out of the remaining 31 vessels to be commissioned during 2020, 14 vessels will be in the shipyards at the turn of the year finalizing works and classification, another 14 vessels have existing time charters, that finish during the first quarter of 2020 or are part of the Delphin fleet that has been acquired earlier this year.

Slide 8 has an overview of the total capex payments for our scrubber program. Our total expected capex for the scrubber project is estimated at $209 million with approximately $150 million of secured debt financing in place. As of November 20th, the remaining capex is at $74.6 million, out of which $70.6 million will be from debt financing and only $4 million is the remaining equity capex. The graph in Slide 9 illustrates the current estimated scrubber tower installation schedule broken down by vessel segment and by quarter, based on expected future milestones. As of today we have installed 88 scrubber towers and commissioned 50.

Slide 10 summarizes our future dry docking schedule, estimated dry dock expenses and total off-hire days for the forthcoming quarters for dry docks as well as scrubber installations. This is based on current retrofit planning, vessel employment and yard capacity. We provide this slide to give guidance about our future expenses relating to our accelerated dry dock program. These figures incorporate our current understanding of present and future shipyard congestion. But shipyard congestion is significant and we cannot be certain that these figures will not increase. Slide 11 provides Star Bulk's employment coverage for the fourth quarter of 2019. We have fixed employment for approximately 68% of the days in Q4 2019, at TCE rates of $16,284 per day per vessel. I will now pass the floor to our CEO, Petros Pappas for a market update and his remarks.

Petros Pappas -- Chief Executive Officer

Thank you Simos. Please turn to Slide 12 for a brief update of supply. During the first 10 months of the year 35.2 million deadweight were delivered and 7 million deadweight were sent for demolition. For a net fleet growth of 27.9 million deadweight or 8.3%. During the same period, a total of 18 million deadweight has been reported by Clarksons as firm orders. The order book currently stands between 10% and 11% of the fleet, the lowest level since 2002. During the third quarter, scrubber retrofits accelerated and are estimated to have absorbed approximately 2% of the total fleet and especially on Capesizes upto 6% of the fleet. As of October approximately 9% of the dry bulk fleet is estimated to have been fitted with scrubbers. The average steaming speed of the dry bulk fleet currently stands at approximately 11.6 knots, an increase of 0.2 knots to the first half average. During 2020, the fleet is projected to expand at the pace of approximately 3.3%. However, after accounting for off-hires related to scrubber installations and then incentive to slow steam, effective supply is unlikely to expand by more than 2%.

Let's now turn to Slide 13 for a brief update of demand. Following a series of trade disruptions during the first half, the dry bulk market surged to multi-year highs during the third quarter. According to Clarksons dry bulk trade during 2019 will expand by 1.4% from 2.8% growth in 2018. Iron ore trade during 2019 will decline by 1.3% and 3.2% in tons and ton miles respectively. China crude steel and pig iron production has increased by 7% and 6.2% respectively. China iron ore imports have contracted by 1.5%, due to strong supply disruptions in Brazil and Australia at the start of the year and the combination has led to 20 million reduction of port's stockpiles. Brazil iron ore exports have contracted 12% or 40 million tons because of the Vale dam accident. The strong increase of iron ore prices during the start of 2019 hit steel margins across the globe and has led to a 1.8% decrease in crude steel production outside of China.

Looking into 2020, we expect the gradual recovery of Vale exports and a more competitive price environment for iron ore to support global steel production in iron ore trade. Coal trade 2019 is projected to increase by 1.2% in tons. But the decline by 0.8% in ton miles has shorter distances have been favored during the first half of 2019. China domestic coal production expanded by 5.4%, while thermal electricity generation expanded at a lesser 3.6%, a strong hydropower during the first half of the year since thermal coal requirements. This trend seems to be reversing during the last few months and may support coal trade in the medium term. Coal imports increased 10%, raising stocks ahead of winter and of the year import restrictions.

India and Southeast Asia are expected to be the main drivers of coal imports over the next years. Indian 2019 imports are to increase by 10%, Vietnam by 35% and Philippines by 12%. Grain and soybean trade during 2019 is projected to increase by 1.5% and 4.8% in tons and ton miles respectively, as Brazil corn exports increased by 130% or 20.5 million tons. While soybean exports contracted by 6.3% or 4.7 million tons, due to the depletion of stocks during 2018. China soybean imports have decreased by 8% due to the dispute with the US and to the 40% reduction of the peak population in an effort by China to contain the African swine fever outbreak.

Minor bulk trade during 2019 is projected to increase by 3.6% and 4.5% in tons and ton miles respectively. Clarksons estimate for 2020 is for 2.4% increase or around 50 million tons. Bauxite, nickel and manganese ore trade volumes are projected to increase to more than 250 million tons during 2019 from 215 million tons during 2018. The Indonesia export ban on nickel ore is expected to remove approximately 15 million tons from dry bulk trade during 2020. However, due to the small distances involved, we expect the negative effect on dry bulk trade to be minimal.

Finally, as a general comment, we expect inflationary pressures related to IMO 2020 to act favorably for the drybulk market. On the supply side, smaller sizes are likely to benefit the most from slow steaming incentives due to the lower scrubber penetration in Capes. On the demand side, however, we expect Capes to benefit the most from cargo cascade, as a switch to middle distillates will make a larger vessels more economical. As a result, we remain optimistic for 2020 as well as 2021 and expect that the combination of supply constraints and recovering iron ore export volumes is likely to surprise us to the upside. Without taking any more of your time, I will now pass the floor over to the operator to answer any questions you may have.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We will now take our first question.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Hi, it's Amit Mehrotra here from Deutsche Bank. Good morning, afternoon. I wanted to ask some specific questions on the numbers related to the new dividend policy. And I'm just trying to understand the walk from EBITDA to what's available for dividend next year. Simos you touched on it, but I just want to -- just for illustrative purposes, if the Company does $500 million of EBITDA next year in 2020, does that translate to $165 million of dividends under your definition because I think you said the $70 million -- a little over $70 million interest -- $177 million in debt amortization, maybe $19 million related to scrubber debt repayments and then there's $69 million of incremental cash flow to get your minimum liquidity requirements. So just taking all that into consideration. It seems like $500 million of EBITDA would translate the $165 million in dividends, that -- am I looking at it correctly, or am I missing something?

Simos Spyrou -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

We said, Amit, not $177 million -- $197 million of debt amortization.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

But that includes the, that includes the $19 million of scrubber debt, is that correct?

Simos Spyrou -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

Correct.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Yeah. So $177 million of regular way debt amortization, plus $19 million of scrubber debt repayment? Correct.

Simos Spyrou -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

Correct, correct.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Okay. So aside from that there are $69 million and $70 million related to cash build and interest expense, respectively. So other than that, are there any other moving parts that get your definition for dividends?

Simos Spyrou -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

No.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Okay.

Christos Begleris -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

So it just seems like under $500 million of EBITDA, the Company will pay a 16% dividend yield next year and I think even with that payments basically will delever the balance sheet next year, right, because you're paying $200 million of amortization -- that includes $200 million of amortization right debt repayment?

Simos Spyrou -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

Correct.

Christos Begleris -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

We're counting on the Mehrotra family to import, a lot of iron ore to Queens next year.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Okay. Could you -- can you. I think it's important, because the way you guys talk about dividends. Now we have to pay more close attention to the quarterly cadence of cash flows. And so one, I wanted you Christos or Simos to help us with the 22 -- is there any lumpiness in the cash calls in 2020 related to interest or debt repayment and then in the fourth quarter, I think you've got some capex related to the scrubber. So I don't think we should expect a big dividend in February, but I could be wrong if you could just help us with that?

Christos Begleris -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

No, Amit I don't think you're wrong. As you correctly said, we have updated in our presentation, the capex schedule for the following few quarters as well as dry-dock expenses for the fourth quarter and then, effectively, we don't have any dry docks for 2020. We don't have any maturities in 2020 that we will need to use our cash balance and therefore all thing -- all other things are being equal. Our cash flow should be on the expense side, relatively smooth and predictable.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Even the interest payments will be smooth over the quarters?

Christos Begleris -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

Yes $72.5 million can be broken down evenly between the four quarters. And that's on the basis of the current LIBOR curve, right. The current sort of three month LIBOR curve.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Right. And then the other thing I had and I'll hop off. Soon, just to get off the queue. But when you guys pay down the $200 million of debt, next year, your interest expense goes down as well, right, so is that $60 million in 2021, is that how we should think about it -- it was on interest rates I guess, but?

Christos Begleris -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, that's that's correct. I mean interest will go down effectively in 2020. It goes down to approximately $66 million on the basis so far of today's LIBOR curve. And then in 2021, it would go down to $55 million. So it reduces by approximately $11 million per year.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Okay, that's helpful. And just last one for me, if I could offer Hamish or Petros just more conceptual. I think this is obviously, we think it's very positive in terms of the Company is a 100% of surplus cash flow to shareholders. But you have had instances in the past, where shipping companies have had a variable dividend policy and then walked away from that. So I just want to understand what your commitment is to this policy? Are there any checks and balances in case there is something that you think is more accretive that comes along that a year from now, we might be looking at walking away from this policy? Just talk about your commitment to the policy in the context of maybe some other more accretive opportunities in your mind coming along?

Petros Pappas -- Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Look we've designed this dividend policy in order to be able to follow it for the long term. And frankly, our hope is that by sticking to this dividend policy investors will be well rewarded and will value the Company appropriately. And if the company is valued appropriately, we will have a currency that will allow us to finance accretive opportunities without walking away from this dividend policy, hopefully ever. And we're pretty committed to sticking with this policy.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Okay. Yeah, that's clear. All right, congrats guys, this is great. Thank you very much.

Simos Spyrou -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

Thank you Amit.

Operator

We will now take our next question, go ahead.

Christopher Robertson -- Jefferies LLC. -- Analyst

Hi, this is Chris Robertson on with Jefferies.

Simos Spyrou -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

Hi, Chris.

Christopher Robertson -- Jefferies LLC. -- Analyst

Yeah so, just as it relates to the dividend policy, Hamish, what are your thoughts around then share repurchases or early debt repayments, does this kind of negate the need for any share repurchase program?

Hamish Norton -- President

Well certainly our focus will be on trying to do things that maximize this dividend at least with the share price where it is currently or hopefully higher. We would take another look at that if contrary to our expectations, the share price dropped significantly. But I think our focus is on maintaining or trying to increase the dividend and in terms of getting the debt down. Look, first of all, we are building up some cash. We're building up about $150,000 per ship per quarter, in order that we have a cash buffer in the Company that makes us comfortable. But if the were to trade significantly above net asset value, we would be fine with using the share to start to reduce the debt. And reducing the debt is significantly accretive to the dividend per share. Because of our significant principal amortization, basically debt service is over 16% of total debt. So every dollar of debt we reduce basically reduces debt service by over $0.16, which should significantly increase the dividend per share.Even if there might be a few more shares outstanding as a result. So let's see if we're able to do that.

Christopher Robertson -- Jefferies LLC. -- Analyst

Okay. Thanks, Hamish. That's pretty clear. I wanted to ask a question related to the scrubber installations versus the -- installations versus commission. So can you walk us through the process of what it takes for it to be commissioned and how long that takes?

Simos Spyrou -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

I think that's question for Nicos Rescos.

Nicos Rescos -- Chief Operating Officer

Hi, Chris. Well, as long as installation is completed at our shipyard, it typically takes us three to four days to commission a system. And by now it's almost on the same day that we get the ship certified. So compared to like six months ago, we have managed to optimize the process to a very short one of approximately three to four days from sailing from a shipyard.

Christopher Robertson -- Jefferies LLC. -- Analyst

Okay and then what's the kind of average time at the shipyards now, is it closer to 40 days or closer to 50 days?

Nicos Rescos -- Chief Operating Officer

Well, it depends on whether we're talking about straight scrubber installations or we're talking about dry docks. We have so far concluded 50 scrubber installation calls at the shipyard and having had the effect of writing things, which is now proving quite valuable. Our average downtime at the shipyards is at 25.4 days over 50 ships. If we talk about dry docks, we have carried out 38 of the 46 planned for this year at an average of 44 days. And this is the process where the main milestone is repairs the vessel rather than the scrubber for our shipyard.

Christopher Robertson -- Jefferies LLC. -- Analyst

Okay. Finally question on kind of the market, what are your thoughts around Capes versus the smaller asset classes and why, might there be diverging expectations for the rest of the year in 2020?

Nicos Rescos -- Chief Operating Officer

Hi, Chris. We expect that at least til the end of this year as they're going -- as there going to be several more scrubber installations as well as Q1 next year, we expect that Capes where most of the installations are taking place will do much better compared to previous years, of course, because you know that always Q1 is a slower quarter than the rest of the quarters. So we think that because of that we will see better market for Capes. We also believe we will see more iron ore trades and that of course favors Capes. And finally, we believe that as fuel prices will get more expensive. This will get us into a cascade effect, where Capes will be more economical compared to smaller sizes in carrying cargos for those reasons, we believe that Capes are going to be doing better than the smaller vessels.

Christopher Robertson -- Jefferies LLC. -- Analyst

All right. I appreciate it. Thank you for taking my questions.

Nicos Rescos -- Chief Operating Officer

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We will now take our next question

Benjamin Nolan -- Stifel -- Analyst

Hey, guys this is Ben Nolan. Good news on the dividend policy really like it. But I was curious, certainly over the last few years and even over the summer. I mean, you guys are used your shares for vessel acquisitions and I think, successfully, and in particular as you draw closer -- hopefully closer to to NAV or above NAV your currency it should improve. Curious, though, what the target set looks like now. I mean, we've done quite a bit -- do you think maybe the low hanging fruit has been picked are there other situation similar to what you've done, you may be able to execute on?

Petros Pappas -- Chief Executive Officer

Well, we really don't know -- whether something is low-hanging fruit or not depends very much on the outlook of the shareholders of the target Company. And that outlook changes from day-to-day, and so we can be surprised. Basically, if we can do transactions for cash and shares that are accretive to our dividend and make good business sense otherwise. We remain happy to do things like that in such a way that it doesn't increase the leverage of Star Bulk. It doesn't harm the dividend and in fact, I think at this point, it would have to be accretive to the dividend and we'd be happy to do it and we may find such opportunities, we just don't know.

Benjamin Nolan -- Stifel -- Analyst

Okay. But the sample set isn't...

Petros Pappas -- Chief Executive Officer

We've been surprised in the past, positively. So that's why I'm saying, we don't know because frankly, we didn't know about the other opportunities that we had until they appeared.

Benjamin Nolan -- Stifel -- Analyst

Got you. Okay, well that's helpful. And then then just following up on the dividend question, just to make sure that I have it. So as it relates to sort of how you think about it, and I know that there was a [Indecipherable] in the release saying that you may prepay debt and that would take away a little bit or vessel acquisitions totally understand, but as it stands right now for the $197 million of amortization that's sort of all that you envisioned for 2020 paying down, there is no aspirations at the moment of prepaying additional debt for now, correct?

Christos Begleris -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

We're not planning to prepay anything with operating cash flow. And I think the point we were trying to make in the dividend disclosure was that if we sold securities, were sold ships that we might use those proceeds to prepay debt or to buy ships and would not therefore dividend those proceeds of security sales or ship sales out, but we weren't contemplating prepaying debt or buying ships with operating cash flow.

Benjamin Nolan -- Stifel -- Analyst

I understood. Very clear. That's very creative policy, I like it. Thanks for taking my questions.

Christos Begleris -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

Our pleasure. Thanks Ben.

Operator

We will now take our next question.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Hey, it's Amit here from Deutsche. Just a follow-up, thanks for taking it. Quick question on the minimum liquidity numbers you put out there. I know you -- you want to get to $2 million by the end or middle of 2021. It just seems like $2 million per vessel is just so much more than what your minimum liquidity covenants are, I don't know where they are but last time I checked, a few years ago, there were probably [Indecipherable] range. So if you could just, I understand there's obviously some conservatism in there, given the volatility of the market. But if you can just help to think about how you came up with that $2 million. Just given the gap between that number and the minimum liquidity covenant because that doesn't mean there is like a $100 million of extra cash on the balance sheet that arguably could go back as dividends, further dividends down the road?

Simos Spyrou -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

Well, I think what we -- what we were thinking was that the $2.1 million of debt service per vessel is more or less a year's worth of -- cash per vessel is more or less a year's worth of debt service and in 2016, that kind of cash balance was looking mighty thin and today, it looks like a lot, but it's a very volatile business.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Yeah. Okay that makes sense. And then..

Christos Begleris -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

And Amit your point was correct. The minimum cash balance per vessel as per loan facilities is up $0.5 million. Therefore, we are leaving a significant buffer.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Yeah. Got it, OK. And then the last question from me. I think the bigger question here is, is that, you know what is kind of the two, three, four year vision for the Company from a size perspective, from a capital structure perspective, it seems like the dividend is going to drive at least -- the vision for the dividend is to drive a rerating in the currency of the Company that can use that currency to deleverage the balance sheet. But I would say zero debt -- zero net debt is not necessarily the most efficient capital structure for any Company. Maybe it is for shipping, because it helps you with the currency relative to NAV, so maybe can you just help us kind of the...

Hamish Norton -- President

I think in shipping, basically there's very little advantage to having debt and if you look at -- just if you get very technical and look at the capital asset pricing model, the only benefit to debt is from the tax shield on the interest payments, but we don't get any tax shield from the interest payments, because we don't owe any income tax. So we pay the full interest, we don't get any deduction for interest and...

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

I would argue that the -- the weighted average cost of capital can go down as debt and we want to get [Indecipherable] academic here.

Hamish Norton -- President

But, I mean it doesn't, because what happens is as you add debt, the beta of the stock increases by enough that your weighted average cost of capital stays the same in fact, so actually our weighted average cost of capital should drop, if we have less debt because our stock will be larger and as the Company gets larger, the liquidity premium -- the size premium on the cost of capital drops and you know, basically my experience has been that companies in the shipping industry with no debt have traded at the highest multiples of NAV of any shipping companies and you've seen Knightsbridge tankers when it had no debt in the 90s; Nordic American Tankers shipping, when it had no debt in the 90s in 2000s; Diana Shipping for that brief period when it had no debt, did very, very, very well. And you know, if we had no debt, we would be able to pay dividends in essentially any market condition and the dividends could be quite large because again, because we have no tax. So -- I think shipping is you have to think a little bit out of the box because it's tax and financial situation are so different and we have so much operating leverage in this business, that we really don't need financial leverage, so that's our long-term vision. Let's hope we get there.

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Okay, all right, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] There are no further questions coming through at the moment. I'd like to hand back to speaker.

Petros Pappas -- Chief Executive Officer

Operator, our Chief Strategy Officer, Ms. Plakantonaki would like to say a few words about ESG.

Charis Plakantonaki -- Chief Strategy Officer

Thank you Petros. So we would like to report that during Q3 2019, we have published our first annual sustainability report, which is available on the Company's website and which provides transparency on our Company activities on ESG, including our targets and action plan on how to continuously improve on our sustainability performance. We would also like to report that Star Bulk has recently joined the global maritime firm and they're getting zero coalition, which is a global alliance within the maritime and other related industries committed to getting viable deep sea zero emission vessels powered by zero emission fuels into operation by 2030. We believe the collective action is the way forward to get us to the IMO's region on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and we are committed to working with the rest of the industry to contribute to this critical effort.

Petros Pappas -- Chief Executive Officer

Thank you Operator.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks].

Duration: 40 minutes

Call participants:

Simos Spyrou -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

Petros Pappas -- Chief Executive Officer

Christos Begleris -- Co-Chief Financial Officer

Hamish Norton -- President

Nicos Rescos -- Chief Operating Officer

Charis Plakantonaki -- Chief Strategy Officer

Amit Mehrotra -- Deutsche Bank -- Analyst

Christopher Robertson -- Jefferies LLC. -- Analyst

Benjamin Nolan -- Stifel -- Analyst

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