Navigator Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NVGS) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Omar Nokta: Hi. Thank you. Hi, Randy. Hi, team. Good morning. Thanks for the update. And obviously, as you have continued to highlight, it seems like the past few quarters, the business continues to thrive and EBITDA is pushing higher. I wanted to ask, the TCE rate you guys captured on the handy fleet this past quarter was at 27,000-plus number. Even with utilization, having come off towards 89%, which is historically still fairly decent. How can we think about, say, the very near term? I know it’s too short-term. But in general, about the — you’ve mentioned utilization for 3Q now being above 90%. What do you think of — what can you give us in terms of guidance on the rate? Can we expect the rate to also be climbing with utilization here in the near term?

Oeyvind Lindeman: Thanks, Omar. We’re very — the prepared remarks was really about, we typically have guided on utilization. And you might have picked up that the bottom in utilization during the summer months was higher than in previous years during the same period, and it also has shopped up. So we mentioned in the slide deck that July was close to 94%. So that’s a big jump from the total of Q2. So in that respect, rates should also move. But in the handysize segment, things take a little bit of time. Generally, in the summer months, the rate environment is a little bit soft. It’s less than this year. So I think this is why we’re being confident or talking about forward guidance on EBITDA, because it is likely, it will continue to rise because of our confidence in utilization.

And the rate level is also robust. I can’t give you more guidance on the specific rates that we are seeing right now, except what your colleagues are — what the different ship progress and so forth are putting out in the market. So, there’s a slide deck on that, and you can take a look, but it’s moving in the right direction.

Omar Nokta: Thanks. Thanks, Oeyvind. I appreciate that. And maybe just one follow-up in terms of the fleet renewal and your activity in the S&P market. I wanted to ask about your non-handy ships, in terms of, I know the small LPG carriers perhaps aren’t necessarily core to the main business, but what about the five 12,000 ethylene carriers? How are those since the merger? How are those transitioned into the fleet? Or do you view those as a meaningful piece of Navigator going forward? Or do you think those are monetizable?

Mads Peter Zacho: We’re very happy with our midsized vessels. We think they have built with a rapid technology. They are very efficient ships, and we think they have a bright future ahead within Navigator to serve the ethylene and ethane market. So it’s definitely core. And we do see, in general, that the infrastructure over long periods of time, it’s been operated globally, so that larger and larger ships. I mean, you see that in pretty much all segments. So we will think over time that there would be also gradually larger ships serving the markets that we’re currently well positioned in. So I think that we define on — for sure, our only four markets have been in the handysize, but also the midsize segment.

Omar Nokta: Okay. Got it. Thanks, Mads for that. That’s it from me. I’ll turn it over.

Randy Giveans: Thank you, Omar. Okay, I do not see any other hands. So I think that concludes our Q&A time. Thank you again for dialing in. We look forward to speaking soon and certainly seeing you in a few months. Have a great day.

Oeyvind Lindeman: Thank you.

Operator: Good-bye.

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