EuroDry loss widens as dry bulk rebound fizzles

EURODRY, the Nasdaq-listed owner of 12 bulk carriers that started as a spin-off from containership owner Euroseas, is taking the full brunt of today’s poor market in the hope of better times ahead.

“We have refrained from locking our vessels into longer-duration charters at non-profitable levels, deciding to face the market by pursuing short-term trip charters to potentially benefit from any reversal in trends,” said chief executive Aristides Pittas.

Although it had modestly increased, the orderbook as a percentage of the existing fleet remained low, said Pittas.

This offered “the possibility that a meaningful upturn in demand could quickly translate to better rates”.

However, the first quarter of this year had seen charter markets in the sector at a low ebb, “the lowest since the early days of the pandemic”, according to Pittas.

A partial rebound in April and May had been insufficient to return most vessels to profitability.

“In addition, it started fizzling out by the end of May and early June in the face of season trends, and the uncertainty created by the back-and-forths on the tariff front.”

EuroDry has two newbuilding ultramaxes on order and Pittas indicated the future of some of a quartet of older panamaxes in the fleet is being kept under review.

“As always, we continuously look for new opportunities to invest, mainly, in combination with the renewal of our fleet,” he said.

The recent $5m demolition sale of the company’s oldest vessel, the 25-year-old panamax Tasos (IMO: 9180906), resulted from a cost/benefit analysis, he added.