Dorian LPG Ltd. (NYSE:LPG) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Omar Nokta: Okay. Yeah. What do you think in terms of timing, it sounds like, I think, Theodore had mentioned in the second and third quarters, you expect to complete them. What’s the expected sort of off hire time for those ships?

Theodore Young: We’ve modeled for the time being 30 days, that’s what it’s worked out to historically. We’ve done a little bit better than that sort of 27, 28 days, but we’ve assumed 30 for our internal modeling purposes.

Omar Nokta: Okay. And that will happen anyway with the surveys that are due?

Theodore Young: It would, except it’s worth remembering, Omar, that when we normally do our special surveys, we actually are only in dock for 15 days. So it takes sort of an additional 2 weeks to install the scrubber. So we normally do not have 30-day regular drydockings.

Omar Nokta: Okay. Got it. And then maybe just one more. And I guess maybe a bit more bigger picture just on what we’re seeing in the market. You referenced this early in the commentary. And maybe, Tim, just what’s been going on, I guess, with the spot market here recently kind of came into the year a bit softer kind of a little lower looks like the first couple of weeks and then here a bit of the past week or so we’ve seen a big jump. Just wondering what’s driving that that uptrend here recently?

John Hadjipateras: Tim, do you want to try and make a stab at that?

Tim Hansen: Yeah, I think, it’s a combination of things that probably at the end of December we came from a very high point, and as we closed in on Christmas and the arbitrage closed in a little bit. I think people got quite keen to take the cargo that was there before the holidays and that made the rates fall. Then you had kind of two weeks of quietness before people got back in the seat and in that time, it’s really that you can say the broker setting the politics that kind of dictates the market without any much action. So the market probably felt more than it should have done from that perspective. But also at the same time, as we came back, we normally see the quiet of the Chinese New Year, but this year, due to the cold spells suddenly hitting Asia, we actually saw the Chinese coming back during the Chinese holidays, which normally they take a week or so to before they get back in their seats.

So the demand really picked up due to the cold spells in Asia, and we saw them even during the holidays, which we normally don’t see. So, of course, that demand open the up and kickback the action in the market. And, actually, when we then saw that there was actually not a length in the shipping market, which became apparent quite quickly. But as there was no demand, the previous week or activity at least and then that kind of make the market dropped quite quickly, and then it rebounded actually to probably where it should have been

Omar Nokta: Got it. Thank you. Thanks for that color. I appreciate the time guys. Congrats again on a follow-up quarter. And I’ll turn it over.

John Hadjipateras: Thank you very much, Omar.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is come from the line of Sean Morgan with Evercore. Please proceed with your questions.

Sean Morgan: Hi, team. I want to wish, John Lycouris, speedy recovery from his knee surgery.

John Hadjipateras: Thank you.

Sean Morgan: Yeah. And just kind of, I guess, sort of a macro question about the market? How do you sort of think about the current order book, one in five, I guess, versus the existing fleet, and that’s the delivery schedule in 2023 versus kind of some of the petchem build out in Asia and sort of the ability of the market to sort of absorb that new tonnage. How do you get comfortable with sort of the rate outlook in that context?