So right now we had $25 million of cash at the end of this quarter. We received $118 million plus the $10 million; on interest that’s $128 million [ph]. So around $160 million of cash and cash equivalents plus the $600 million; so that leaves us at $760 million; and interest expense on that gets us up into $800 million. So there’s not that much more cash that needs to go into the CCF, but that will begin to happen in 2026 from a timing perspective.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from a line of Ben Nolan with Stifel.
Ben Nolan: Thanks. So I’ve got a handful here. But first and foremost, I wanted to start a big deal to finally getting that tax refund. After all this time, I was curious if you guys are — Joel, modestly or moderately excited to get that?
Joel Wine: We are pleased to get it. It took a long time, Ben. I’d say — I mean, we also got the proper amount of interest income on that; it was for IRS rules of when we had filed for the refund and received all of that over two years. So it was nice actually also not to have any kind of back and forth on how much interest income was due. So, I would say we’re modestely pleased on both factors.
Ben Nolan: Here we go. So — but on — my real; I’ve got a handful. But my first question, I guess. And it came up a little bit earlier; there’s certainly segments to the transportation universe at the moment that are struggling, and there’s areas like you guys seem to be doing fine. But I am curious in this sort of environment where — again, there’s — not everything is good for everybody. Are you starting to see finally — maybe some more opportunities for inorganic activity, given that — maybe not everybody wants or can demand top dollar these days?
Joel Wine: It’s a great question, Ben. We’re seeing — I think more companies potentially put themselves and explore the market. After very slow M&A market and sellers really sitting on their hands for appropriate reasons as we’re in the end of COVID and had a very difficult transportation environment last year; some sellers are looking to test the market now, so we’ve seen an uptick in that. But there’s also continues to be pretty high expectations for multiple; so it’s tough to get those two things together. You know, the way you’ve heard us say many times; the way we look at it though is, we don’t — we just want assets that fit our profile from a fit perspective. And so I wouldn’t say there’s been a dramatic increase or even a very significant change in increase of the number of assets becoming for sale that fit our profile.
In other words, the things that we’re looking at is not greater number now, because we’re trying to maintain the discipline of what we actually look at.
Ben Nolan: Got it. Okay, and then switching gears to China. You know, obviously, it’s great to see more volume or more price, or in particular, more price. I’m curious though, Matt, if you talk a little bit to the competitive landscape, the — I know, passenger airlines that are going back and forth from China is still it’s only like 20% of what it was pre-COVID. So would seem as though there would be plenty of demand for that expedited service but port infrastructure is operating generally in the way that it should. Are you starting to see any other of your competitors kind of trying to test or mimic the kind of servers that you guys have?
Matt Cox: Yeah, I think — and the way I’ve answered that is there is a developed secondary extradited market. And it’s — it — there are, I would say, three or four carriers that are not matching that will offer a discount to Matson’s pricing but above the generic ocean market. And so there are there are three or four, and those carriers have been in place, they continue in place; CMA [ph] is one that has been in the market for the last few years. We have the ZIM that was in the market, had left the market and in his back in the market, and then there’s a couple of others that that compete for the cargo that either can’t get onto our service or that are sensitive, they can take a longer transit on the margin. So not as good as Matson’s service but a little bit cheaper than our rates.
And so that market is — will be there, it has been there. It’s not just us, and then everyone else there; there are gradations [ph] that exist in this market that’s kind of developed over the last few years, especially going into the pandemic. And it reinforces our business strategy which is as long as we remain the fastest and second fastest and most reliable, we’re going to get the lion’s share of that market. And so I think this is just the development of this in between market which we see — you know, we watch it but we just continue to focus on our service dimensions and the rest will take care of itself is the way we’re thinking about that.
Ben Nolan: Right. Okay. And then lastly, for me. You guys, I think now I have a handful of your assets that have the cap, have the capacity to be able to use LNG is a bunker fuel. I am curious if you’re doing that, and if so, is it — are you finding it is a sort of a fuel advantage? And maybe another little way to enhance margins at all?
Matt Cox: So the answer then is, yes. We have a single vessel that has been delivered, we have two other vessels that are in the final stages, or intermediate stages of being converted. And then of course, you know that there’s our three new vessels when they arrive, we’ll all be LNG ready upon delivery. And so we have been taking bunkers, LNG bunkers, both in China and in Southern California. And they’re — the vessels are operating well on this alternative fuel. And we have other mechanisms that will allow us to continue to get fuel in places where we need it, that market is really expanding as a number of LNG vessels in the in the Pacific trade come into play. From a pricing role — from a performance standpoint, we see it of course as a cleaner burning fuel, but we’ve seen it performing well in our engines and able to maintain our speed and other characteristics that’s been positive.
LNG is, at the moment, a bit more expensive than bunker fuels. Although those will change from time to time, they were a bit lower beforehand, prices have been risen, but LNG prices will recently has come-off. So from a price standpoint, we have not seen a significant either penalty or cost advantage related to that. We also periodically we’ll use other types of fuels that are like hydrogenated vegetable oils and clean diesel and other products and we’ll experiment with those. Many of those are — we expect through our existing fuel surcharge mechanisms to be able to recover most or all of those higher costs. It’s just part of our routine amount of our business that I know, you know, well. So I don’t see it as at this point as a significant advantage nor a disadvantage in the market as we achieve our sort of, you know, climate emission reduction goals along with the rest of the participants in our industry for which this is a priority.
Ben Nolan: All right. Well, I appreciate it. Thanks.
Operator: That concludes today’s question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the call back to Matt Cox for closing remarks.
Matt Cox: Okay. Well, thanks for tuning in today. We look forward to catching up with everyone on our second quarter call. Aloha!
Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
