LONDON-HEADQUARTERED Global Ship Lease (GSL) has secured long-term forward charters for ten container ships
LONDON-HEADQUARTERED Global Ship Lease (GSL) has secured long-term forward charters for ten container ships. The company's executive chairman George Youroukos said the contracts will lift the value of the New York-listed company's forward cover to more than US$2.2 billion, spread over almost three years.
He said the company had secured extensive contract cover for a large portion of our fleet while 'the market remained very hot'.
The contracts for ten mid-sized vessels were signed in the third quarter and have been fixed for periods of five years for charters starting in late 2022, 2023, and 2024.
'As we have flagged in recent quarters, macro headwinds and negative economic sentiment have continued to assert pressure on consumer demand and thus in the container shipping industry, driving an ongoing normalization in the charter market, leading to downward pressure on charter rates and asset values from the historically high levels of the recent past,' Mr Youroukos said.
'GSL is well positioned to weather the challenges ahead and to capitalize on opportunities that may arise,' he said.
'Quantitatively, we have added nearly US$1 billion to our contracted revenue this year with $770 million added in the third quarter alone, giving over $2.2 billion of contracted revenue spread over just under 3 years.'
Mr Youroukos pointed out that GSL has a robust balance sheet with no debt maturities before 2026 and an overall low cost of debt despite the global high interest rate environment, with all of their floating interest rates fully hedged, capping the floating rate at 75 basis points with a weighted average cost of debt of 4.53 per cent.
'From this position of strength and prudence, we are focused on the long-term resilience of our business, looking to continue to generate sustainable value, preparing for decarbonization and further improving our competitiveness by investing in fuel performance optimization of our fleet in conjunction with our customers and supporting wider decarbonization initiatives.
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