StealthGas Inc. Stock

Thank you. Please be advised that today's conference has been recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our speaker today, Harry Vafias. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Second Quarter of 2026 Earnings and Conference Call. This is Harry Vafias, the CEO. And joining me today is, as usual, our Chairman, Michael Jolliffe, and Konstantinos Sistovaris from Investor Relations. Before we commence our presentation, I would like to remind you that we will be discussing forward-looking statements, which reflect current views with respect to future events and financial performance, subject to material risks and uncertainties. So if you could all take a moment to read our disclaimer on slide 2. The risks are further disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Let's proceed on slide 3 for an overview of the quarter and our strategy implementation. While the market for the second quarter was relatively stable for the smaller ships and strengthening for the larger ones, our company managed to achieve revenues of $42.9 million, similar to the previous quarter but somewhat reduced from the record of $47 million achieved last year. The company continued to generate superior returns with profits of $17.3 million for the quarter, improving on the $15.9 million achieved in the previous quarter.

Thus far in '26, the performance has been very strong, reporting earnings per share of $0.46 for the second quarter and $0.89 for the first half, underlining the fact that the company stock is very attractive on a price to earnings multiple. Our focus has been on delivering on our strategic principles. In terms of our commercial strategy, that means keeping visible revenue stream and reducing our exposure to the volatile spot market. Currently, 45% of the fleet calendar days are covered by the time charters, and total secured future revenues are $90 million.

The company has also made prudent use of its capital by mostly paying down its debt, over $350 million of debt prepaid over the last few years, and being one of the few public shipping companies having achieved zero leverage, allocating funds for a share repurchase program and having spent about $21 million in buybacks since 2023. But as the share price has appreciated, we did not buy back any shares during the second quarter.

It is also part of our strategy to sell older tonnage while the market is high in order to crystallize returns and improve the averages of the fleet. 13 vessel sales, excluding joint venture vessels, since the start of '23, but have amounted to approximately $170 million. We have reduced the overall fleet from approximately 40 vessels at the start of 2023, down to approximately 25 vessels. With the latest exits, the Echo Wizard and just this week the delivery of the Echo Royalty, to sell older and smaller tonnage, although the market for LPG vessels is not very liquid in that respect.

This has also allowed us to raise cash and improve the liquidity of the company. As of June 30th, the cash position was $168 million. Since then, through our operational cash flow and especially the money received after the successful conclusion of the Echo Wizard insurance case of over $77 million, so current liquidity has grown to over $250 million. With our cash shooting at an all-time high, with no outstanding issues and the markets being firm, we are in a favorable position to deploy some of the liquidity.

We have always been patient and conservative in deploying funds. Our board is reviewing all the options with a focus on the long-term benefit of the company and its shareholders. On slide 4, we see our fleet employment as of September. Activity was relatively consistent over the past few months. We did conclude four new period charters of three months or longer. One of those was for two years, one for one year, and the other two were for six-month extensions. That leaves four ships operating in the spot market, including two of the handy sizes as we enter the next quarter. Winter months, we expect to find more opportunities to secure more time charters. Overall, we continue to maintain high period coverage, albeit lower than in the past.

As of September, for the remainder of '26, we have secured 60% of the fleet days, bringing in about $50 million in revenues for the remainder of the year. For 2027, we have secured about $30 million in revenues. One-year forward coverage stands at 45%. The total revenues secured for all future periods up to 2029 are about $90 million. This is slightly below where we would like, but with the market being historically high and the uncertainty surrounding the geopolitical situation, some charters are hesitant to commit to longer-term business at historically high day rates. In terms of dry docking, five ships were scheduled during this year. So far, four of these were completed during the first half, and one vessel remains to be dry docked in the remainder of the year, looking at the geographical allocation of the fleet.

On slide 5, our company mainly focuses on regional trade and local distribution of gas, while the larger ships mostly engage in intercontinental voyages like loading in the U.S., discharge in Europe. We continue to position the majority of our fleet two-thirds west of Sweden, particularly in Europe and the Med, where rates can be about 30% higher than in the East and with a more active spot market. The one smaller ship we had in the Far East, we decided to relocate west during the summer as it faced increased off-hires and is now trading in North-West Europe. East of Suez, we only have one of our vessels remaining, the larger vessel that was stranded for some time inside the Persian Gulf. Early in the summer, when there seemed to be a lull in hostilities, that vessel managed to safely exit the Hormuz Strait. The ceasefire unfortunately proved to be brief, and now the passage is dangerous again as both sides target vessels going through. Yet as we hear in the news, there are still corridors being used and some vessels still manage to make this passage.

I am now giving you over to Mr. Sistovaris for the financial performance.

Thank you, Harry. Starting with slide 6, where we have a snapshot of the income statement for the second quarter against the same period of 2025. The second quarter was a very profitable quarter that would rank amongst the four best quarters on record, both in terms of revenue generation and overall profitability. However, when compared to last year, the reduced number of operational vessels in the fleet, as well as an increase in idle time for the three of the smaller vessels operating in the spot market, showed a reduction in revenues to the level of $42.9 million, which was the same as the previous quarter, the first quarter of 2026. Voyage expenses were higher at $7.2 million, mainly as a result of increased bunker expenses and some additional insurance premiums related to the Persian Gulf. That would give a time charter equivalent rate of $15,709 per vessel per day. Operating expenses were flat at $12.8 million for the quarter, albeit with a smaller fleet as there were cost pressures, particularly related to crew expenses. That being said, with an average of operating expenses around $5,310 per vessel per day, the company continues to run amongst the most efficient shipping operators in terms of cost structure.

This quarter, only one vessel was dry docked towards the end of the quarter, so we may have some spillover next quarter. Another item that influenced the results this quarter positively was a small gain of $1.3 million from the S&P activity. We also note that we benefited by an increase in financial gains of $1 million as we saw both a reduction in interest costs and an increase in interest income compared to last year, as the company no longer pays any loan interest following the debt extinguishment and has considerably increased its cash balances. Net income for the second quarter was $17.3 million, 15% below the $20.4 million achieved last year. Earnings per share for the quarter were $0.46, on an adjusted and non-adjusted basis. The company continues to operate on a very high profit margin of 40%, meaning for every dollar of revenue is converted to $0.40 of profit.

Looking at the balance sheet at the next slide, 7, as of June 30th, 2026, the most important point to consider is the fast growth in the company's cash position. In the space of six months, the company grew its liquidity consisting of cash and short-term investments by 70% from $99 million to $168.3 million. This $70 million increase in the liquidity position was achieved through the sale of two small vessels and a $40 million improvement in operational cash flow. Vessels held for sale as of June 30th was $10 million, with the proceeds expected to boost the cash position in Q3. The book value of the 24 vessels in the fleet was $473 million, reduced by 3.7%. Current assets were steady at $81.5 million, with a large part, the $64 million, being the book value and related expenses of the medium gas carrier, as this was resolved in the next quarter. And the company received all the proceeds and more based on the market values, and this will be moved to the cash in the next quarter. On the liability side, we want to show again that debt remains zero debt and the total liabilities of the company are a mere $28 million. All current, mainly trade payables from its operations and deferred income from monthly hires.

In a very short time, the company has achieved one of the healthiest balance sheets in the shipping space. Shareholders' equity increased over the six-month period by $36.4 million to $726 million, a percent increase. Moving on to slide 8 where we reiterate how StealthGas achieved its strategic goal of deleverage. The company in the past always relied on moderate leverage to finance its capital requirements. Since the beginning of 2023, in a little over two and a half years, as cash flow improved, it aggressively repaid about $350 million and became in July of 2025, over a year ago, for the first time a debt-free company. The elimination of bank debt enhanced dramatically the financial flexibility of the company when the time comes for expansion, while at the same time achieving significant savings in interest costs. With no debt amortization or interest payments, the cash flow break-even for the fleet is significantly reduced, enhancing the fleet competitiveness, while at the same time, and also due to S&P activity, liquidity has been improving every quarter and is at the highest point it has ever been. I will now hand you to our Chairman, Michael Jolliffe, for some insights on the market.

Good morning. At the forefront, of course, is the conflict with Iran and the closure of the straits. One third of LPG supply came from the Middle East, and the majority going through the Straits of Hormuz. As a result of the conflict in the Persian Gulf, global exports of LPG in the first half of 2026 fell by 8%. This is certainly a large number and would have led to significant downward pressure in rates, were it not for the increase in ton miles. Instead, rates for VLGCs hit new records and continue to remain at very high levels as more product was sourced from the U.S. It was reported that U.S. LPG exports hit a record of 2.9 million barrels per day in May, while EIA data show that propane exports were up by 9% in the second quarter. Many vessels previously trading in the Middle East have been repositioned to the U.S. and many of these once loaded, return to the Far East, taking the longer route via the Cape of Good Hope, a 45-day journey, adding significant ton miles to the equation. We also read reports lately of increasing Panama Canal fees and possible restrictions in the number of vessels passing through there due to low water levels result of drought caused by El Nino. This ramp-up of U.S. exports is an ongoing theme, as exports from the U.S. have been rising consistently for many years, and the U.S. currently accounts for 55% of the world's LPG supply. As previously discussed, the expansion of terminals in the U.S. will continue with projects running into early 2030, and the more recent news on that front was that Energy Transfer announced in June another project to increase export capacity from Nederland. On the other side of the Atlantic, Europe remained well supplied with U.S. product. As more propane cargoes entered the continent, the propane-naphtha differential induced petrochemical producers to favor the former, keeping the market active. In addition, two crackers in Terneuzen and Geismar came back online after a long absence supporting petrochemical demand.

On the other hand, residential demand weakened as a result of lack of heating needs during the summer. The maybe premature exportation of the conflict resolution seen in backward dated future prices also discouraged stock building. So while Europe remained well supplied, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz has not changed. Asian countries imported 46% of their LPG supply from that area before the conflict began. Now we only see a handful of LPG vessels daring to cross the straits, while efforts to bypass the straits and export through Oman or the Red Sea produce some additional volumes not enough to cover Asian customers. Recently, the Houthis have started targeting Saudi vessels while in the Red Sea and in. If this escalates, it could become another block choke point. As a result of the geopolitical turmoil, demand in Asia last year registered large drops.

India, the second largest importer of LPG, saw a demand fall by 20%. But the establishment of new trading routes is going to have a longer lasting effect once the conflict ends. Last month it was reported in the Indian press that there are plans to diversify the sources of LPG and start importing at least 25% from the U.S. supply contracts with U.S. exporters. To remind you that it was about a year ago during the trade disputes that India had just announced they would increase their LNG imports from the U.S. from nearly zero to 10%. Similar to the situation in India, China, the world's largest importer of LPG, saw imports fall by 29% in the second quarter. The temporary reopening of the straits during July saw a temporary surge in imports, but demand remains weak as a result of continuous low utilization rates from PDH plants and higher propene prices, and that has an effect on local trading for smaller vessels. The conflict in Iran has shown how important it is to have resilient supply chains and the need for strategic reserves.

For the time being, it seems the conflict has entered a stalemate. The beneficiaries at this point are the U.S. exporters and shipping, but if the situation persists in the longer term, it could lead to demand destruction, and longer-term investments could be abandoned, be it production facilities in the Middle East like the Qatari projects, PDH plants in China. After this brief overview of the product market, let us move to how our shipping market has performed over this period. Moving to slide 10 to update you on the commercial side. The spot market in Q2 followed the typical seasonal trend of softening compared to Q1, although rates have still remained at firm levels compared to the historical average. TC rates remain relatively flat as the balance between tonnage supply and demand has remained relatively balanced with limited movement of vessels in and out. There were a handful of new orders for vessels, enough to keep the supply steady at a low. We are not worried about the order book as for quite some time now it has been restrained. The existing fleet has a large number of older vessels that will eventually need to be scrapped.

Roughly a third of the fleet is over 20 years of age, but with the firm market we continue to see only a few vessels being decommissioned. The handy size owners enjoyed a firming spot market in Q2 as the effects of the U.S.-Iran war and the Hormuz closure trickled down from the larger sizes. LPG trading on the handies became more active as the MGCs disappeared from the position lists. On the time-charter side, rates are holding at historically very firm levels. Again, there were no new orders for this size of vessel, and the current order book, sitting close to 10% over the next few years, remains very healthy. The MGC spot market got a significant boost in Q2 as the VLGCs shot up to all-time highs following the closure of Hormuz and the significant increase in U.S. loadings to compensate for the AG shortfalls. This led to significant increase in the requirements for transatlantic voyages on the MGCs, swap rates jumping to levels never seen before, times through Q2, and are currently sitting at historically very firm levels. The firming market helped absorb the incoming new buildings, as we are now in a period where the vessels previously ordered are starting to enter the fleet.

Unlike the VLGC market, where once more we saw a larger number of orders being placed over the last three months, the MGC order book with no new orders has started coming down. Yet the order book sits around 40% of the existing fleet, and while in the short-term conflicts have increased ton miles, it could prove detrimental to rates in the future if demand does not keep pace, despite the optimism. To conclude today's presentation, the second quarter was challenging to navigate due to the developing geopolitical turbulence. Through our strong operating platform and solid business, we once more reported superior returns for our shareholders. For the first six months of this year, we already recorded earnings per share of $0.89. We are confident the profitability will remain elevated in the second half of the year. After having successfully resolved all major outstanding issues, our attention turns to the optimal utilization of our growing liquidity that has reached an all-time high of over $250 million currently.

Our intention is to invest in renewing the fleet. We have placed StealthGas in the very fortunate position of having a fully flexible balance sheet with zero debt and a growing cash pile operating in a niche market with solid fundamentals. We have now reached the end of our presentation. We would like to thank you for joining us at our conference call today. We look forward to having you with us again at our next conference call for our third quarter results. Thank you.

This concludes this conference call. Thank you for participating. You may all now disconnect. Have a nice day.

This live transcript is auto-generated without human intervention or review.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the StealthGas Inc. Q1 2026 Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Please note that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your first speaker, Michael Jolliffe, Chairman of the Board. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter 2026 earnings conference call and webcast. I'm Michael Jolliffe, Chairman of the Board of Directors. And joining me on our call today, as usual, is our CEO, Harry Vafias and Konstantinos Sistovaris from Investor Relations.

Before we commence our presentation, I would like to remind you that we will be discussing forward-looking statements, which reflect current views with respect to future events and financial performance and are subject to material risks and uncertainties. So if you could all take a moment to read our disclaimer on Slide 2 of this presentation. Risks are further disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. So let's proceed with the presentation on Slide 3 for a brief overview of another successful quarter. Revenues were high at $42.8 million in quarter 1, 2026, 2% higher than the $42 million of quarter 1, 2025 and 9% higher than the previous quarter's $39.4 million.

Adjusted net income for the quarter was $15 million, lower compared to the $16 million achieved last year, but higher than the $13.3 million of the previous quarter. In terms of adjusted earnings per share, these were $0.40 for the quarter and underlying the fact that the company's stock is very attractive on price to earnings multiples. Since achieving our strategic goal of deleveraging the company completely last July and repaying over the previous 3 years, $350 million in debt, we continue to maintain a very flexible capital structure. We are one of the very few, if not the only public shipping company that has managed to achieve 0 bank debt. We also do have a share repurchase program in place and bought back $21.2 million worth of shares since 2023.

But as the share price has appreciated, we did not buy back any shares during the first quarter. This company also has a strategic objective of maintaining a visible revenue stream, opting for longer period charters when available. And so as of June, we have $100 million in contracted revenues with charters up to 2029 and 45% of the fleet calendar days 1 year forward are secured by period charters. In terms of sale and purchase activity, we continue to look for opportunities to sell some older tonnage and possibly replace them with newer tonnage. We entered in March into a contract to sell another one of the smaller ships, the Eco Royalty and expect to deliver her in September.

Two more vessels that we have previously agreed to sell, one was delivered in March to her buyers and the other one in May. Finally, let me mention again the Eco Wizard situation following last July's incident as the vessel remains impaired, both in a literal sense and in terms of accounting as advised previously. The company is in discussions with the insurers of the vessel, and I'm afraid I cannot disclose more at this time. Suffice it to say that discussions are progressing, and we expect within the current month or coming quarter to have resolved the situation.

So you should hear something on this fairly soon. Let us move on to Slide 4 for our fleet employment as at the end of May. Chartering activity was relatively consistent over the past few months. We did conclude 5 new period charters of 3 months or longer, same as last quarter, but this time, the durations were longer. One charter was for 2 years, was for 1 year and the remaining 3 for 6 months duration. As we enter the summer months and the geopolitical situation remains fluid, the spot exposure for our fleet has actually increased, and we currently have 5 of our operating vessels in the spot market. Our intention is to reduce the spot exposure.

Overall, we continue to maintain high period coverage. As of June, for the remainder of 2026, we have secured 55% of the fleet days on period charters, bringing in about $52 million in revenues for the remainder of the year. One-year forward coverage is at 45%. Total revenues secured for all future periods up to 2029 are around $100 million. In terms of dry dockings, 5 vessels were scheduled during 2026, an average number. Two of these dry dockings were for the first quarter, and we actually performed more earlier than schedule. So in total, during quarter 1 2026, we dry docked 3 vessels, hence, the increased dry dock expenses. Two vessels remain to be dry docked during 2026.

Looking at the geographical location of our fleet presented in Slide 5, our company mainly focuses on regional trades and local distribution of gas, while the larger vessels mostly engaging intercontinental voyages like loading in the U.S. to discharge in Europe. We continue to position the majority of our fleet, 2/3 west of Suez and particularly in Europe and the Med in order to take advantage of the higher rates and more liquid market. In the Far East, we only have one of our older vessels and for the time being, do not intend to reallocate more vessels there as the rates continue to be lower in the East. We also have 4 vessels trading in Africa, and we are building relationships there as we are optimistic that in Africa, demand for LPG will grow faster.

There are many LPG storage facilities under construction on the continent that will increase seaborne trading in the future. Insofar as the conflict in Iran is concerned, we have not seen any particular change in trading patterns for the smaller vessels. Most affected were the VLGCs that were used for the majority of Persian Gulf exports and to a lesser extent, MGCs and Handysizes, particularly for Iraqi exports. As we said last time, we have one MGC vessel inside the Pershian Gulf where it remains until today. The vessel had gone to load LPG in Saudi Arabia just before the conflict began. We are anxiously monitoring the situation, but have not attempted to exit as we do not consider the passage to be safe for the time being. The vessel is on time charter, so the freight for the time the vessel has stayed there has been paid.

We hope the situation is resolved swiftly. I will now turn the call over to Konstantinos Sistovaris for our financial performance. Thank you.

Thank you, Michael. Starting with Slide 6, where we have a snapshot of the income statement for the first quarter against the same period of 2025. While the fleet was almost similar at 28 vessels counting the vessels that entered and exited, the days the vessels were earning revenue was reduced by 8.5% and this was due to the timing of the dry dockings when vessels are off-hire and also the inclusion of one still nonoperational vessel, the Eco Wizard, until this case is resolved. Despite this reduction, revenues for the first quarter came in strong at $42.8 million, marking a 1.9% increase year-on-year as the vessels continue to operate in a firm market with especially the largest sizes reporting improved results.

Voyage expenses were higher by $1 million as they include some additional insurance premiums related to the conflict in the Middle East. Operating expenses were $13.8 million for the quarter and were contained only slightly higher than last year's. This quarter, we had a significant increase in dry docking costs, which depend on the timing the vessels are sent to the yard as 3 out of the 5 vessels that were due for drydocking this year were dry docked during the first quarter compared to only a single vessel last year. Another item that influenced the results this quarter positively was the gain of $2.5 million from the sale of 1 vessel. The agreement for the sale was done last year, but the delivery took place in March.

We also note a reduction in the interest cost by $1.4 million compared to last year as the company no longer pays any interest following the debt extinguishment. Net income for the first quarter was $15.9 million, marking a 12.9% increase. And earnings per share for the quarter were $0.43. On an adjusted basis, earnings were $15 million and $0.40 per share. So overall, the company maintained high profitability. It has been enjoying lately. And although this was not a record quarter, it classifies among the best 5 quarters in its history in terms of profits. Looking at the balance sheet in the next slide. As of March 31, 2026, the most important point to consider is the fast growth in the company's cash position that grew 32% from $99 million to $131.2 million in the space of 3 months through the sale of 1 vessel and $18 million in operational cash flow.

Two vessels were held for sale as of March 31, one already delivered in May and one expected to be delivered in September upon the termination of its charter with the proceeds of these sales expected to boost the cash position by about $26 million. The book value of the vessels in the fleet was $475 million, reduced by 3.4% as one vessel was moved to held for sale as well as the regular depreciation. Current assets were $79.7 million, close to the previous quarter and mostly include the book value and related expenses of the MGC vessel pending resolution with insurers. On the liability side, we want to show again that debt remains 0 and the total liabilities of the company are a mere $26 million, all current. In a very short time, the company has achieved one of the healthiest balance sheets in the shipping space. Shareholders' equity increased over the 3-month period by $17.2 million to $708 million, a 2.5% increase.

Moving on to Slide 8, what most of you may be familiar, but it's worth repeating for those listeners who are new. The company in the past always relied on debt to finance its operations and had a sizable amount of debt over $350 million, but always moderately leveraged. Through asset sales and operational cash flow, it embarked on a strategic goal of eliminating debt while at the same time, maintaining its liquidity. Particularly since the beginning of 2023, in a little over 2.5 years, it repaid about $350 million and became in July 2025 for the first time since its inception 20 years ago, a debt-free company with a fleet of 26 unencumbered vessels. Only the joint venture vessel is currently financed, but it's not consolidated in the results.

And during January and April of this year, also repaid most of its debt with $7 million remaining. With no debt amortizing or interest payments, the cash flow breakeven for the fleet is significantly reduced, enhancing its competitiveness. The elimination of debt also gives the company much more leverage and agility when the time comes for expansion and puts it in a significantly better negotiating position with its banking partners while achieving significant savings in interest costs in the meantime.

I will now hand you back to our CEO, Harry Vafias, for some insights on the market.

Let's continue on Slide 9. a world view on the LPG market. at the forefront of, of course, is the conflict with Iran and the closure of the straits. 1/3 of LPG supply came from the Middle East and the majority going through the Straits of Hormuz. At the moment, the straits are closed. We know as we have a vessel there and want to exit, but cannot do it. The immediate impact was a drop in the global LPG exports estimated at 3% for the first quarter. Of course, when we get the second quarter data, we expect to see a much more steeper drop. The effects of vessel repositioning took some time to appear in the LPG market, while tanker rates hit their highs in early March. VLGC rates reached their highs in late May.

For LPG, the alternative sources is U.S. so many vessels previously trading in the Middle East has been repositioned to the U.S. and currently, many of those once loaded returned to the Far East taking the longer route via the Cape of Good Hope, a 45-day journey adding significant ton miles to the equation. U.S. LPG companies are wrapping up their exports, and we saw a record amount of propane being exported for the last week of May, surpassing 2.6 million barrels, a 22% year-on-year increase. This is a very short time frame and quarterly increases are lower, but it goes to show that new records are broken and exports are ramping up. This is an ongoing theme as exports from the U.S. have been rising consistently for many years and the expansion of terminals in the U.S. with the most recent additions by Enterprise of the Houston Channel and Neches River expansions proved extremely well timed.

Even if the pace of export increases eventually moderates, the underlying investment thesis for the planned capacity additions is proving to be sound. So we expect LPG exports to continue growing and more plans for new additions. It's important that supply chains are operating in time of strains. In that respect, Europe proved to be less impacted as it was well supplied at the start of the conflict. LPG prices did increase impacting demand, but also naphtha prices rose even more. During May, the propane naphtha differential reached a yearly high of over $250 opening up a short window for increasing use of propane in the petrochemical sector.

But in generally, high temperatures in Europe are expected to weigh in the demand. It was a different story in the East. China rushed to secure supplies. It has just recently decreased its imports from the U.S. to 30% due to trade tensions and now unable to get Middle East supplies, the share of U.S. imports have jumped back to over 60%. India, the second largest importer was the most impacted nation. India depends on imports for 60% of its LPG consumption, mostly residential, of which 90% came from the Middle East. It has just this last November made a historic agreement with the U.S. to start importing U.S. LPG, but this diversification was not fast enough nor big enough.

The immediate effect from the crunch was a drop in demand, while the government put cars on industrial consumption and renewed subsidies on residential consumption. At the same time, local production in March increased by 30%. As more cargoes from the U.S. find their way in India, the situation should normalize. The conflict in Iran has shown how important is to have a resilient supply chains and the need for strategic reserves. We also need to keep in mind that the prolonged conflict could also eventually lead to demand destruction and longer-term investments could be abandoned, be it production facilities in the Middle East like the Qatari projects or PDH plants in China. We have not even reached a resolution yet. But even when this is done, it will take some time for the situation to normalize.

Ships will need time to reroute and installations that have been hit, particularly in Saudi Arabia will need to be repaired to be back to full operation. Countries will need to reconsider their supply agreements and their strategic reserves they hold and will need to replenish. But all this is clouded in uncertainty, and we're not in the business of making predictions. Let's move to how actually our shipping market has performed over this period. Slide 10. The market in Q1 was building on the strengthening seen in Q4, and we saw a reasonable tight tonnage availability in Europe through the quarter, resulting in rates remaining at firm levels.

The size of the European pressurized market has grown in recent years with more volumes and more vessels, and there is, in general, decent liquidity in the market compared to Southeast Asia, where we see significantly less liquidity. The 3.5 cubic meter ships and the larger pressurized ships have corrected a bit downwards from the peak as a few more vessels have positioned into this region. We expect the TC market to take somewhat of a breather over the summer as spot vessel availability increases. Ordering continue at a very slow pace, a handful of vessels mostly for [ 28 ] and [ 29 ] deliveries, some for the larger sizes of 11,000 cubic meters.

And we continue to believe that the order book remains very healthy, while the existing fleet has a large number of older ships that will eventually need to be scrapped. -- roughly 1/3 of the fleet over 20 years of age, but with a firm market, we continue to see only a few vessels being scrapped. For the handysizes, the events and inefficiencies seen in Q1 resulted in a firm freight environment overall. Rates were on a slightly firming trend Q1 and the same trend was continuing into Q2. Most of the TCs concluded that for LPG, very few of the petchem players are willing to commit on TC as the trading environment on the petchem fluctuates significantly both on price and cargo availability. There were no new orders for the size of vessels and the current order book sitting close to 10% over the next few years remains very healthy.

Similarly to Handys, the MGC market was also influenced by the commencement of the war in the Middle East. Until the war started, we were seeing a normal seasonal pattern with the firm market, but nothing extraordinary. After the war started, the market had become extremely tight and the rates for spot voyages have firmed a lot. At the time, the MGC spot market is around all-time high, very strong, supported by a VLGC spot market, which is also at all-time high. The firming market helped absorb the incoming new buildings as we are now in a period where the vessels already ordered are starting to enter the fleet. On the plus side, unlike what continues to happen with the VLGCs, the ordering for MGCs seems to have abated.

Only 2 vessels were ordered. Still the remaining order book remains substantial at close to 40%. So much will depend on demand growth in the long term to keep pace with the fleet expansion. To conclude today's presentation, we announced today another highly profitable quarter with $16 million in net income. By zeroing the debt, we are now improving the cash flow considerably and continue to sell some of the older smaller vessels in our fleet. That means that we have grown our cash from $99 million to $131 million at the end of the quarter and to $155 million today. Our intention is to invest in renewing the fleet once the situation with the Eco Wizard is resolved.

We can neither predict nor much less influence what happens in the market, but we have steered this company in a very fortunate position with a fully flexible balance sheet with 0 debt and a growing cash pile to either weather any storm that may come or take advantage of new opportunities or simply enjoy the fruits of a very firm market. StealthGas is a solid company in a niche market with a bright outlook. We have now reached the end of our presentation.

I would like to thank you for joining us at our conference call and look forward to having you with us again at our next call for our Q2 results. Thank you very much.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the StealthGas Fourth Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call and Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Michael Jolliffe, Chairman of the Board of Directors. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Nadia. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call and webcast. This is Michael Jolliffe, Chairman of the Board of Directors. And joining me on our call today, as usual, is our CEO, Harry Vafias; and Konstantinos Sistovaris from our Investor Relations.

Before we commence our presentation, I would like to remind you that we will be discussing forward-looking statements, which reflect current views with respect to future events and financial performance and are subject to material risks and uncertainties. So if you could all take a moment to read our disclaimer on Slide 2 of this presentation, I shall be grateful. Risks are further disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

So let's proceed with the presentation on Slide 3. And since this is the year-end results, I will start by saying that 2025 was a very successful year for StealthGas despite all the geopolitical turbulence. The company maintained its high profitability, reporting adjusted net income of $65.6 million for the year, the second highest in its history. So we are very pleased that our strategy has worked, and we are able to achieve high profits consistently for the last 4 years. Now in terms of quarterly results, we did hit a bump in the fourth quarter as we did face some idle time on some larger vessels and one of those was out of action.

Revenues came in at a respectable $39.4 million in quarter 4, albeit 9% lower than last year. Adjusted net income for the quarter was $13.3 million, also lower compared to the $16.4 million achieved last year. In terms of earnings per share, these were $0.36 for the quarter and $1.77 for the year, underlying the fact that company's stock is very attractive on price to earnings multiple. During 2025, we also completed our strategic deleverage after repaying $86 million in bank debt, bringing the total repayments over the last 3 years to $350 million and achieving a very flexible capital structure.

We are one of the very few, if not the only quoted shipping company that has managed to achieve 0 bank debt. We also do have a share repurchase program in place and bought back shares worth $1.8 million earlier in 2025, bringing the total up to $21.2 million since we began in 2023. But as the share price appreciated lately, we did not buy back any shares during the fourth quarter. As far as our other objectives, we strive to maintain a visible revenue stream, opting for longer period charters when available and so have $104 million in contracted revenues and 48% of the fleet calendar days 1 year forward secured as of March 2026.

In terms of sale and purchase activity, we continue to look for opportunities to sell some older tonnage and possibly replace these ships with newer and bigger tonnage. So far, we have been more active on the selling front, having sold 4 vessels. The latest news on that front is that in December, we agreed to sell another one of our smaller vessels, the 2015-built Eco Universe with delivery most likely in April, and we expect to book a profit from that sale at that time. This month, we also expect to deliver to its buyers the Eco Invictus that we had previously agreed to sell.

Finally, there is the issue of the Eco Wizard following last July's incident. As previously announced, the vessel was moved to a dock in Latvia where it remains today. The fact that the vessel is not generating revenues for quite some time now has impacted our results. We had expected this to be a long process and the condition of the vessel is under assessment by technical teams to identify and quantify repairs and damages while at the same time, we are in discussions with the insurers of the vessel. Due to the delicate nature of the issue and the ongoing discussions, we will update you when we have more concrete information.

For the time being, subject to changes based on final resolution, we have impaired the book value of the vessel with no effect on the profit and loss account since the vessel is insured. Let us move on to Slide 4 for our fleet employment as of March. Chartering activity was relatively consistent over the past few months. We did conclude 5 new period charters of 3 months or longer, but the majority of these were shorter periods. Although we did recently conclude an unusually long period charter of 3 years with a major European petrochemical company. At the moment, we only have 2 of our active vessels trading in the spot market [indiscernible] intend to keep a low spot exposure.

Overall, we maintain high period coverage, albeit slightly lower than previously. As of March, for the remainder of 2026, we have secured 48% of the fleet days on period charters, so almost half, bringing in about $66 million in revenues for the remainder of the year. Total revenues secured for all future periods up to 2029 are around $104 million. In terms of dry dockings, we now expect to have 5 vessels dry dock during 2026, an average number. Two of these dry dockings fall in the first quarter of this year.

In terms of our fleet geography presented in Slide 5, our company mainly focuses on regional trade and local distribution of gas, while the larger vessels mostly engage in intercontinental voyages, often loading in the United States to discharge in Europe. The way we have positioned our fleet remains the same. While most of the major LPG importers and the higher percentage of the global fleet trades in Asia, we have only 3 vessels trading in that area. And actually, one is in the Red Sea, one in the Arabian Gulf and one in Australia. This is because rates East of Suez have for quite some time now been considerably lower than West of Suez. As a generalization, older vessels tend to congregate in the Far East, earning lower rates, whereas to trade in Europe where rates are higher, newer, better maintained vessels are needed.

As a result, more than 2/3 of our fleet trades in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean in order to capture that premium. The Suez Canal, the most important East-West axis has reopened for some time now following the deescalation of tensions. But so far, we have not seen a flurry of vessels changing their locations from east to west. But in view of Friday's development, this may change in the next few days if the Houthis start attacking ships again. Moreover, we are also following closely the situation with Iran, not just because we have a vessel in the Gulf, but also as the straits of Hormuz is a vital trade route, not just for oil, but also for LPG.

An escalation of the contract could severely affect trading if Iran decides to block navigation and attach passing vessels. What that would mean in terms of rates, it may not be possible to predict, but what past experiences have shown are that conflicts tend to lead to significant rate increases and shipping benefits. Tanker rates especially have been -- have seen considerable increases for the past few weeks before the conflict even began.

I will now turn the call over to Konstantinos Sistovaris for our financial performance. Thank you.

Thank you, Michael. Starting with Slide 6, where we have a snapshot of the income statement for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025 against the same period of 2024. I will start with the quarterly results. While there was a small increase in fleet days of 3%, operational utilization overall fell to 89% as a result of dry dockings and spot exposure that led to increased off-hire days, especially on a couple of the larger vessels, including the MGC that was out of action.

As a result, revenues for the fourth quarter came in at $39.4 million, marking a 9.4% decrease year-on-year. Operating expenses were $12.7 million for the quarter, well contained and lower than last year's. In terms of other expenses, there was also a reduction in G&A expenses, depreciation and particularly reduced interest costs by $1.4 million as the debt was extinguished.

Net income for the fourth quarter was $12.8 million compared to $14.2 million for the same quarter of last year, a 10% decrease. Earnings per share for the quarter were $0.34 and on an adjusted basis, $0.36. So overall, the company retains its high profitability as LPG charter rates continue to be at historical elevated levels. In terms of the yearly results, revenues came in at $173.2 million compared to $167.2 (sic) [ $167.3 ] million last year, a 3.5% increase as the majority of the vessels achieved high rates and also as a result of the slightly higher number of fleet days.

However, this was counterbalanced by a doubling of voyage expenses, an increase of $10.9 million, mostly consisting of port and bunker expenses, which is consistent with the doubling of spot market days for the fleet during the year. OpEx for the year also increased by $4.1 million, mostly due to the addition of the vessels that were bought from the joint venture and also due to a general increase in crew and technical costs. There were significant savings in interest costs for 2025 as these were reduced by $6.8 million as a result of the deleveraging.

Another point when comparing yearly results was that in 2025, there was a reduction in the earnings coming from the joint ventures of $10.5 million. As discussed during the second quarter results, this was basically a result from a profit that JV had during that period of 2024 when it sold one of its vessels at a huge profit and distributed the proceeds.

Looking at the balance sheet on the next slide. As of December 31, 2025, the company considerably improved its liquidity, holding cash of $99 million with no restricted cash after having repaid $86 million in debt over the 12 months and invested about $8 million for the share in the JV vessels, while at the same time, receiving $25 million net from the sale of 2 vessels earlier in the year. Two vessels were also held for sale as of December 31, both to be delivered within the next couple of months with the proceeds of these sales expected to boost the cash position by about $29 million.

The book value of the vessels in the fleet was $491 million, reduced by the sale of 4 vessels, 2 delivered and 2 held for sale at the end of the year and also the reduction from the value of the medium gas carrier pending the final treatment with no P&L effect so far due to the insurance. The investments in our joint venture with a book value of $23 million relate to a single medium gas carrier after having either sold off or bought back all the other joint venture participations that we had previously.

On the liability side, debt is now 0, and the total liabilities of the company are a mere $21 million, all current. In a very short time, the company has achieved one of the healthiest balance sheets in the shipping space. Shareholders' equity increased over the 12 months by $63.8 million to $690.3 million, a 10% increase.

Moving on to Slide 8, what most of you may be familiar, but it's worth repeating for those listeners who are new. The company has very swiftly and successfully executed a debt reduction strategy. Since the beginning of 2023, in a little over 2.5 years, the company using its operational cash flow as well as proceeds from vessel sales, repaid $350 million and became for the first time since its inception 20 years ago, a debt-free company with a fleet of 28 vessels, none of which is financed. Only the joint venture vessel is currently financed, but it's not consolidated in the results. And during January of this year, half the debt on that vessel was also paid off.

The elimination of debt gives the company much more leverage when the time comes for the expansion and puts it in a significantly better negotiating position with its banking partners while achieving significant savings in interest costs in the meantime. Also, it means that the cash flow breakeven for the fleet is significantly reduced, enhancing its competitiveness. At the moment, we estimate cash flow breakeven at $6,500 to $7,000 per vessel daily, which means that even if the market was to fall by 50% and all the vessel rates were readjusted, something unlikely to happen, the company would still be accumulating cash.

I will now hand you to our CEO, Mr. Harry Vafias, for some insights on the market.

Let's continue on Slide 9 to discuss the news on the LPG markets. Global LPG exports continue to register strong growth at 6% last year. U.S. exports of propane saw a resurgence in Q4 following a slight drop in Q3 as a result of trade tensions and registered close to 6% growth for last year. Driving the increase in exports, as discussed before, is the U.S. now accounting for about 47% of global exports. The major terminal expansion projects underway in the U.S. will allow for a substantial increase in LPG exports and resolve any bottleneck issues.

Within this year, Enterprise expects to have online 2 major projects in Neches River and the Houston Channel. And while LPG exports are generally production driven, the key will be to find buyers for the product as it may be challenging for demand to keep up with the increased supply as the recent U.S. inventory buildup in late 2025 shows. In the Middle East, there is also -- there are also expansion projects underway in Qatar and the UAE that will add 20 million tons by the end of the decade. However, developing at this moment is the situation in Iran as Iran, despite the sanctions, is a major LPG exporter with over 12 million tons last year and exports -- or exports from the Gulf in general if the conflict spreads may lead to a major trade disruption.

In the face of such uncertainty, rates usually spike violently. As far as other major players, there are good news coming out of India with significant growth in LPG imports of 12% for last year and a major increase in imports from the U.S. There's still a lot of room for U.S. volumes towards India to rise as they were almost nonexistent before the deal was made earlier last year. Of course, they will face competition from the Middle East countries as they're also vying for a piece of that pie with companies like Saudi Aramco recently exploring direct investment in India's petrochemical sector. Further east, we have the largest LPG importer in China that showed no growth in imports in 2025. The U.S.-China LPG trade has been a victim of the trade tension with the U.S. with the U.S. share of the Chinese imports falling from 60% to roughly 30% last year as China is trying to diversify its sources.

In the longer term, we continue to see Chinese demand being driven by the PDH plants and the share of imports allocated to PDH plants continues to grow, estimated now to be at 55%. However, breakeven margins are currently leading to lower operating utilization in those plants. There is a risk that the current climate may lead to a slowdown in commissioning. All in all, future capacity additions from the U.S. infrastructure projects, Middle East expansions and Asia demand growth create a positive outlook for sustained market expansion through to 2030.

On Slide 10, we're updating you on the commercial side. Contrary to the seasonal softening typically seen in Q3, the spot market strengthened through Q4 on the back of improved winter demand and tighter tonnage availability. The TC market continued to hold firm through Q4. 3,500 cubic meters and 5,000 cubic meter ships have remained around historically strong levels and 7,500 cubic meters and above have stabilized. Levels in the East of Suez remain substantially below the Western market, and we have no plans to increase our presence in the Asian pressurized market.

There are some new orders placed for '27 and '28 deliveries, mostly from Asian clients in Asian yards as well as a few '29 deliveries in Brazil. Overall, still the order book remains very healthy, while the existing fleet has a large number of older ships that need to go. Roughly 1/3 of the fleet is over 20 years of age, but as expected in a healthy market, scrapping remains limited.

For the Handysize ships, petchems continue to be a key driver for the market through Q4. LPG activity improved modestly compared to Q3. The TC market remains heavily influenced by the very small pool of owners. With a limited order book and a constructive medium-term outlook, we continue to expect TC levels to remain firm moving into 2026, albeit with some activity to global economic sensitivity to global economic developments.

The MGC spot market maintained the positive momentum seen in Q3 and strengthened even more during Q4, supported by continued activity in the VLGC segment and improved arbitrage economics. The improved spot environment encourage some charters to secure forward coverage, particularly for modern [indiscernible]. At the same time, the substantial order book scheduled for delivery over the next 2, 3 years remains a key medium-term consideration and market sustainability will depend on demand growth keeping pace with fleet expansion.

Concluding this presentation today, we believe that last year has been an excellent year for our company as demonstrated by the financial performance, generating $66 million of adjusted profits, one of the best results in our history despite this being the most volatile year I can remember in terms of geopolitics and despite having one of our MGC vessels out of action. We finished the year with $29 million in free cash that has grown currently to $110 million. We expect to have some more concrete information on that situation within the next couple of months.

The market, as we are in the winter season, holds firm, and we are optimistic for the short term. The situation in Iran may lead to higher short-term volatility, but we are in a strong position to take advantage of any situation as it develops or weather any storm. Over the last couple of years, we have achieved a lot, improving our profitability, strengthening our cash position, reaching our strategic goal of being completely debt-free and looking after our shareholders with share buybacks. StealthGas is a solid company in a niche market with a bright outlook.

We have now reached the end of our presentation. We'd like to thank you all for joining us at our call today and look forward to having you with us again for our Q1 quarter results in May. Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the StealthGas Third Quarter 2025 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Harry Vafias, CEO of StealthGas. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to our Q3 '25 earnings conference call. This is Harry Vafias, the CEO; and joining me today is Mr. Sistovaris from our Investor Relations. Before we commence our presentation, I'd like to remind you that we'll be discussing forward-looking statements, which reflect current views with respect to future events and financial performance and are subject to material risks and uncertainties. So if you could all take a moment to read our disclaimer on Slide 2 of this presentation. Risks are further disclosed in our filings with the SEC.

So let's proceed with Slide 3. I'll give you some highlights. In our LPG market, the third quarter is traditionally the weakest quarter due to the seasonality in demand. This was the case this year as well, and we did incur increased idle time on the spot vessels. Despite that, the revenues we produced were high, coming in at $44.5 million, 10% higher compared to $40.4 million of last year, but below the record of $47.2 million that was achieved in Q2. While we did grow our revenues, expenses also grew considerably during the third quarter. As a result, adjusted net income for Q3 was $14.4 million, only slightly above that of last year. In terms of earnings per share, on an adjusted basis, these were $0.39 for the quarter. While for the 9 months of '25, we have reported $1.42.

In terms of our strategic objective of deleveraging, we reached that goal during the third quarter, paying the last bank loan and after having repaid $86 million in total during '25 and $350 million in the last 3 years, we now have all our vessels in the fully owned fleet debt free. With regards to our share repurchase program, we have bought back shares worth $1.8 million in Q1 and Q2 of this year, bringing the total up to $21.2 million since we began in 2023, but we did not buy back any shares during the third quarter. As far as our objectives, we continue to be conservative by maintaining a visible revenue stream with $130 million in contracted revenues and 57% of the fleet calendar days 1 year forward secured as of November 2025.

In terms of sale and purchase activity, we continue to look for opportunities to sell some of the older tonnage and possibly replace with newer tonnage. The latest news on that front is that we recently agreed to sell the 2014-built Eco Invictus with delivery most likely in January or February '26, and we expect to book a profit from that sale at that time.

Finally, there is the issue of the Eco Wizard that we discussed last time that was proven quite difficult and time-consuming to resolve. The vessel underwent temporary repairs that were completed, and it's now a matter of having the vessel moved to a dry dock facility outside of Russia in order to perform more permanent repairs. However, during the current geopolitical situation, even the approval of payments by the EU authorities for works performed are a time-consuming process.

On Slide 4 is our fleet deployment as of November. Chartering activity was relatively more muted over the past few months. We did conclude though 5 new period charters, of which one was for a 1-year duration and the other 4 were between 3 and 7 months. Lately, as the market is firming, we are seeing some renewed interest in longer period charters. At the moment, we only have 2 of our active vessels trading in the spot market with one of these vessels being on subject for a period charter. Overall, we maintain high period coverage. As of November, 1-year forward coverage is slightly below 60%. Already for '26, we have secured 46% of the fleet base, securing $77 million in revenues for next year. Fixing one more vessel for a year and we have secured half of our revenues for next year.

Total revenue secured for all future periods up to 2027 were reduced to about $130 million. In terms of drydocking, we have the scheduled drydockings for 2 more vessels in Q4, 4 in total this year. And next year, we will have 6 vessels due for drydock.

In terms of fleet geography in Slide 5, our company mainly focuses on regional trade and local distribution of gas, while the larger ships go mostly intercontinental voyages often loading U.S. to discharge in Europe. Market dynamics that we have discussed in the past have led us to position the majority of the fleet West of Suez, 2/3 of the fleet trades in Northern Europe and Mediterranean, where our vessels get a premium, but there are also more costs involved, particularly related to environmental regulations, recently implemented like the EU ETS scheme for carbon emissions. We only have 3 vessels trading East of Suez, a low number considering that in the past, as much as half of our fleet was located there. And in fact, only one vessel trades in the Far East and is currently located in Australia.

So when the trade dispute between U.S. and China escalated in October, leading to a truce in November, we didn't expect any direct impact to our operations. That being said, we still need to acknowledge that Chinese demand for LPG has a major influence in markets. Further West, we have the de-escalation of tension in the West Suez with Houthis stopping their attacks for now on ships crossing this vital trade route. This may lead to more vessels moving east to west. One of our handy vessels trading in the Middle East was recently repositioned in Europe via the Suez, but generally, we don't expect any significant effect in trade routes.

I turn now the call to Mr. Konstantinos Sistovaris for our financial performance.

Thank you. Starting with Slide 6, where we have a snapshot of the income statement for the third quarter and the 9 months of 2025 against the same period of 2024. Due to sale and purchase transactions that took place over the period, there was an increase in fleet days of 7%. So driving the results was the addition of 2 vessels in the fleet and our MGC that was out of action but still incurring costs.

Revenues for the third quarter were at $44.5 million, marking a 10% increase year-on-year, mostly driven by the 2 additional vessels in the fleet, while the handysizes also performed well in terms of revenue generation. During the quarter, we also had more vessels operating in the spot market. That led to 2 things. Firstly, an increase in voyage expenses to $7.2 million, particularly port expenses and bunker expenses; and secondly, an increase off-hire days as there was more idle time incurred between voyages. Hence, we saw a reduction in the operational utilization to 90.3%. The TCE revenues for the quarter were $37.3 million, a seasonally low in par with last year's. Operating expenses were $15 million for the quarter on the high side, driven by the additional vessels as well as expenses incurred for repairs and an overall increase in costs, particularly crew across the board. Although we do pride ourselves on running these ships at cost levels below our peers, we have faced inflationary cost pressures this year. In terms of other expenses, we had reduced dry dock expenses, reduced G&A expenses and particularly reduced interest costs of just $0.2 million. During the quarter, we repaid the last loan on the books.

As a result, the reported net income for the third quarter was $13.3 million compared to $12.1 million for the same quarter of last year, a 10% increase. Earnings per share for the quarter were $0.36 and on an adjusted basis, $0.39. So the bottom line reflects the seasonal drop in activity that was pretty much expected during the third quarter. But overall, the company retains its high profitability as the LPG charter rates continue to be at historically elevated levels. Looking at the balance sheet, the next slide, as of September 30, the company continued to maintain strong liquidity with cash of $70 million and 0 restricted cash after having repaid $32 million in debt over that quarter and $86 million over the whole 9 months and also after having invested about $8 million for the share in the JV vessels in the previous quarter, while receiving $12.2 million net for the sale -- from the sale of one vessel earlier in the year.

Two vessels were held for sale as of September 30, one delivered already in the current quarter, the other next year. And the proceeds of these sales will boost the cash position by slightly over $25 million. Together with the operational cash flow, the company's cash is expected to hit the $100 million mark before the end of the year. On the liability side, debt is now 0, and the total liabilities of the company are mere $21 million. In a very short time, the company has achieved one of the strongest balance sheets in the public shipping space. Shareholders' equity increased over the 9 months by $50 million to $676.4 million, an 8% increase.

Moving to the next Slide 8 to recap what has been a very swift and successfully executed debt reduction strategy. Since the beginning of 2023, in a little over 2.5 years, the company using its operational cash flow as well as proceeds from vessel sales, repaid about $350 million and became for the first time since its inception, a debt-free company with a fleet of 28 vessels, none of which is financed. This gives the company much more leverage when it comes time for expansion while achieving significant savings in interest costs. It also means that the cash flow breakeven for the fleet is significantly reduced, enhancing its competitiveness. At the moment, we estimate a cash flow breakeven at $6,500 to $7,000 daily, which means that even if the market was to fall by 50% and all of the vessel rates readjusted, something unlikely to happen, the company would still be increasing its cash position.

I will now hand you back over to our CEO, Mr. Harry Vafias, for some insights on the market.

So let's continue with Slide 9 to discuss the news on the LPG markets. Global LPG exports continue to register a strong growth at 5% in the first 9 months, only slightly lower than previously. U.S. exports as a result of trade tensions were relatively flat over the quarter, but we have registered close -- but they have registered close to 6% growth in the 9 months of '25 compared to last year. Driving the increase in exports, as discussed before, is the U.S. now accounting for about 45% of exports. There are 4 major terminal expansion projects underway in the U.S. that will allow it to increase its LPG export capacity substantially and resolve any bottleneck issues. And in the Middle East, there are also expansion projects underway in Qatar and the UAE. In Europe, the floating of the market with competitive U.S. LPG is set to reach a new record of 8 million metric tons in '25 and almost reaching half of all imports in the continent. The low price of imported propane around $430 a ton is about $200 below last year, which means that it stays competitive compared to naphtha for the petrochemical end users, and that is what is supporting demand in the continent.

In order to support U.S. exports, growth LPG exporters need to find new customers for their product. One such instance was the announcement by India that it was planning to source 10% of its imports from the U.S. being close to 0 before. And just this week, and in a very short time, it was announced that the contract is already in place for the import -- for the importation of 2.2 million tons in '26. On the other hand, the U.S.-China LPG trade has been a victim of the trade tensions with June marking a steep drop in imports and the U.S. falling from accounting for more than 50% of Chinese import to the low teens. It's been a roller coaster with tariffs and counter tariffs and ethane permit revocations, then permitted again and port fees threatened briefly applied and then taken back. And nobody can predict how this will play out, but at least the most recent truth for one year seems to be over sufficient time for some to return to normalcy. Both countries rely on each other as far as LPG trade is concerned.

Among all these swings, Chinese LPG imports from all sources still managed to record a 1% growth in the first 8 months, albeit the lowest in the last few years and according to reports are expected to remain stable this year. In the longer term, we continue to see Chinese demand being driven by the PDH plants and that need LPG for propylene production. And while in the short term, weaker margins and steam cracker competition may lead to lower operating rates, plants continue being built that should underpin longer-term demand. [indiscernible] we expect just this year, bringing total capacity to 27 million tons. There is a risk, however, that the current climate may lead to a slowdown in commissioning. All in all, future capacity additions from the U.S. infrastructure projects, Middle East expansions and Asia demand growth create a positive outlook for sustained market expansion through 2030.

Moving to Slide 10. For pressurized ships, in line with the normal seasonality, we saw a softening on the spot market in Q3 and rates adjusted downwards as idle time became a more common factor for the owners. The TC market managed to stay quite firm through Q3, even though the spot market softened. 3,500 and 5,000 cubic meter vessels have remained at all-time high levels and 7,500 cubic meters and above saw a slight softening from the peak levels as more TC candidates became available. There weren't any new orders placed in '27 and '28 deliveries and the order book remains very healthy, while the existing fleet has a large number of older ships that need to go. But as expected in healthy markets, scrapping remains limited.

For the Handysizes, the petchem market had its challenges through the quarter with the tariff war going on between U.S.A. and China and all these uncertainties have followed. We saw some open positions incurring substantial idle time, which can happen from time to time in this segment when inquiries dry up. Rates, however, have a tendency of keeping up quite well even with minimal activity as you only have a small handful of owners with potentially open positions, relatively often only one owner. Considering the limited order book and promising outlook for the handy market, we expect TC rates to stay relatively firm. We had the opposite picture for the MGCs, -- the spot market improved compared to Q2, supported also by the firmer VLGC market and the TC market saw significantly more activity. This, we could attribute to improved sentiment as trade frictions fears subsided until October. The rates continue to hold firm as a temporary trade bill was accomplished between U.S. and China.

For MGCs, as we said before, there is -- there is a substantial order book to be delivered in the next 2, 3 years, about half the existing fleet. So the question now will be how well the market can sustain all these new tonnage coming in. On Slide 11, we are outlining some of the key variables that may affect our performance in the quarters ahead. Concluding this presentation today, we believe that so far, 2025 has been an excellent year for our company as demonstrated by the financial performance despite this being the most volatile year we can ever remember in terms of geopolitics. We did see the soft patch in the third quarter as we expected, due to the seasonal weakness and the incident with our MGC vessel. It seems that it will take some considerable time until we fully resolve the situation. The markets as we have entered the winter season is in firming mode, and we are optimistic for the short term. We also feel there is less opaqueness in terms of geopolitics and see a return to normalcy that should be good for sentiment and hope it's good for rates as well.

In the past periods, we have achieved a lot, improving our profitability, strengthening our cash position, reaching our strategic goal of being debt-free and looking after our shareholders with share buybacks. For longer term, the reports we read point to a continuous growth in demand for LPG, mainly driven by U.S. production, while from the shipping market perspective, the fleet expectations are for increasing demand and for our services from producers and consumers of LPG. StealthGas is a solid company in a niche market with a bright outlook, and there's a lot of potential here.

We have now reached the end of our presentation, and we would like to thank you for joining us at our call today and look forward to having you with us again at our conference call for our Q4 results in February '26, and we wish to all our American listeners a happy Thanksgiving.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.