Earnings Labs

DHT Holdings, Inc. (DHT)

Q3 2025 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 30, 2025

$18.17

-0.55%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+1.37%

1 Week

+0.99%

1 Month

-1.98%

vs S&P

-2.23%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q3 2025 DHT Holdings, Inc. Earnings 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, Laila Halverson, CFO. Please go ahead.

Laila Halvorsen

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome, and thank you for joining DHT Holdings third quarter 2025 earnings call. I'm joined by DHT's President and CEO, Svein Moxnes Harfjeld. As usual, we will go through financials and some highlights before we open up for your questions. The link to the slide deck can be found on our website, dhtankers.com. Before we get started with today's call, I would like to make the following remarks. A replay of this conference call will be available on our website, dhtankers.com, until November 6. In addition, our earnings press release will be available on our website and on the SEC EDGAR system as an exhibit to our Form 6-K. As a reminder, on this conference call, we will discuss matters that are forward-looking in nature. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations about future events as detailed in our financial report. Actual results may differ materially from the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements. We urge you to read our periodic reports available on our website and on the SEC EDGAR system, including the risk factors in these reports for more information regarding risks that we face. As usual, we will start the presentation with some financial highlights. In the third quarter of 2025, we achieved revenues on TCE basis of $79.1 million and adjusted EBITDA of $57.7 million. Net income came in at $44.8 million, equal to $0.28 per share. After adjusting for the $15.7 million gain on sale of vessel related to the sale of DHT Peony and the noncash fair value loss related to interest rate derivatives of $0.4 million, the company had a net profit for the quarter of $29.5 million, equal to $0.18 per share. Vessel operating expenses for the quarter were $18.4 million and…

Svein Moxnes Harfjeld

Analyst

Thank you, Laila. As you all have likely noticed, the VLCC market is demonstrating significant strength. This strength should positively impact our earnings for the latter part of the fourth quarter. The current freight market strength is driven by growing demand for seaborne transportation of crude oil in combination with increasingly aging and fragmented structure of the fleet. Importantly, for VLCCs, the workhorse of the crude oil transportation markets, they are regaining their market share, though it's most competitive freight offering and efficiency. Geopolitics, trade and tariff dynamics, sanctions and conflicts are adding to the picture, creating disruptions and focus on security of supply as the global fleet is reducing its efficiency and productivity. The U.S.-China meeting in Kuala Lumpur agreed for a 1-year postponement on many issues, including the port fees. OPEC's decision to reduce spare capacity by reversing production cuts and bringing more crude oil to the market seems to be well absorbed, partly supported by the Chinese demand for both consumption and stockpiling. Research suggests Chinese stockpiling to not only be short term and optimistic, but the longer-term need to fill its increased storage capacity and meet defined requirements for strategic storage. Further, it suggests the need to boost its oil security with concerns of interruption in supply from sanctions and potential regional political conflicts playing a part. Lastly, a diversification in foreign reserves by buying oil and gold is said to be a consideration. Goldman Sachs reports that the world's biggest oil companies are expected to press ahead with plans to accelerate production growth when they report earnings. Analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg suggests planned output growth between 3.9% and 4.7% to be in the cards. We have, as per usual, been traveling to spend time with our customers, and these reports mirror some of the key takeaways from our most recent trip. Several of our customers expect to expand their footprints and are presenting opportunities with demand for our services and more ships. We are grateful for this encouraging support, which leaves us highly constructive on our franchise and future. As always, we are looking into opportunities to develop DHT with continuous improvements in our service offerings and possible expansion. We have what we believe to be a resilient strategy with a focus on solid customer relations, offering safe and reliable services, maintaining a competitive cost structure with robust breakeven levels, a strong balance sheet and a clear capital allocation policy. The whole DSC team continues to work hard and operate with leading governance standards and a high level of integrity. And with that, we open up for questions. Operator?

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We will now take the first question coming from the line of Frode Morkedal from Clarksons Securities.

Frode Morkedal

Analyst

So on the port fees, that's interesting, suspended for a year. So I guess the question I had is like, is this a good thing for the market because I guess a lot of people had estimated some type of inefficiencies because of it, especially on the Chinese port fees, right? So maybe if things go back to normal, what's the impact on the market and maybe on your own positions?

Svein Moxnes Harfjeld

Analyst

So the jury, of course, is still out. But if I reflect on when the port fees were introduced, then the market typically took a time out, right? So you had a very quiet short period before people sort of got their heads around what was going on and then went on to continue fixing ships. Of course, some of that have maybe improved the sentiment a little bit, and you have some replacement jobs and all that with short notice that could drive up rates. But as sort of the later period now, you would note that most of sort of the biggest shipowners, they are responding to the questionnaires that were presented by the Chinese authorities. including disclaimers on information and stuff like that. And I think it appeared that there was a relatively modest part or minor part of the fleet that were actually exposed to this and that would create sort of a true cost disruption. So right now, of course, with the news again that this is being put on hold for a year, we will have a little time out, and then I think people will restart to fix ships again. So let's see how it plays out. But as we said on the prepared remarks here, we do believe that the strength in the market in general is because there is simply strong demand and fragmented and shrinking fleet. So -- but exactly how it translates into TC earnings is, of course, too early to say.

Frode Morkedal

Analyst

Yes. Clearly. I don't know if -- do you know if China still has this tariff on U.S. crude oil? I haven't seen any news on it.

Svein Moxnes Harfjeld

Analyst

Sorry, I didn't hear you.

Frode Morkedal

Analyst

China retaliated on having like a tariff on U.S. crude oil specifically, right? So you didn't -- the U.S. crude exports to China basically went away.

Svein Moxnes Harfjeld

Analyst

But U.S. crude oil export to China has been very, very modest, right? It's just a small portion of total exports. So -- and the big -- the 2 state-owned oil companies in China, they also use facilities outside China to store and transship oil and all of that. So -- but I guess this truth sort of includes everything, I would assume. So that's at least what the commercial secretary suggested after the meetings. So if there were any, I think that will probably be out of the equation as well. So I would guess so.

Frode Morkedal

Analyst

Yes. Interesting. I guess question with spot rates now clearly very high, how is the effect on the time charter side? Do you see levels improving or maybe duration is improving? Or is it still a bit too early?

Svein Moxnes Harfjeld

Analyst

I think you've seen increased interest and there are some shorter-term charters that have been done at sort of improved rates. But of course, with the delta on spot voyages and yesterday's time charter rates, it's very hard to put the right price on it. And if you consider some of these long voyages that the VLCCs tend to perform, U.S. Gulf Far East cargo is 120 days. I mean the premium in the spot market will have a big impact on the balance earnings of a time charter and what would be required. So it's very hard to find a midpoint that sort of works for both parties. So I think, again, here, we will have to see a little bit. I would expect that if the firm market continues at sort of current levels for a while, then people will have to man up, so to say, and the bid-ask that will have to come in and in particular, on the customer side that they will have to pay up if they really want time charters.

Frode Morkedal

Analyst

Yes, makes sense. And I guess I would expect that you would consider adding time charter coverage if that happens, right? As we have stated many times, we like in general to have some level of fixed income. We have a number of time charters coming off now in the next few months. So, there's an opportunity to reprice those charters, if you like, or maybe develop new charters with new customers for different ships. So if we can find a common ground on something that is meaningful, prefer a bit longer tender, we are open to that. And we are sort of in -- I wouldn't say negotiations that's overstating it, but in sort of preliminary discussions on what customers might be looking for in general. And -- but these things take quite a long time to develop. So one has to be patient.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from the line of Geoffrey Scott from Scott Asset Management.

Geoffrey Scott

Analyst

There's always been a reluctance from the more respectable charters to take ships that are over 15 years old. In 2009, 2010, 2011, there were a lot of deliveries of these in those 3 years. They're coming up to or have just passed 15 years. As prices go up for charters, -- do you see any reduced reluctance of the major charters to take ships over 15 years? And is there any possibility that they'll actually go past 20 years to 21, 22, 22.5 in the next couple of years?

Svein Moxnes Harfjeld

Analyst

There's always been a bit of a dynamic in -- when it comes to acceptance of the age or the perceived age limit of ships on the market. So in the stronger market when the customer has less choice, they seem to be a bit more pragmatic. I think as a recent, most customers accept ships up to 17, 18 years of age. We have 3 ships built in 2007. They are all on time charters to significant counterparties. But I think beyond 20, then at least for our sort of profile and what we do, the commercial opportunities are limited. There are other owners that can find some pockets and trades where they can use these ships, but it's somewhat limited, I would say. So our commercial life expectation of ships are up to age 20, although the quality of our ships could operate well beyond that if the market had opportunities. It's not really for us. But of course, the sanctioned trade have created a big market for older ships. I would think that, that market is somewhat satisfied now, and there are some people looking to even renewing that fleet by seeing if they can scrap ships that are 25 years or even older and then look to buy ships that are 17, 18, 19 years old to replace those ships that are 5, 6 years older. So it's a bit of a dynamic environment, and it's evolving rather than changing very abruptly, I would say.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back to Laila Halvorsen for closing remarks.

Svein Moxnes Harfjeld

Analyst

Okay. I'll step in for Laila and say thank you very much for attending the call and wishing you all a good day ahead. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Operator

Operator

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