US-listed Greek owner StealthGas has fixed out nine LPG carriers on period charter contracts owing to uncertainties caused by the ongoing global pandemic and new Covid-19 variants.
The company has secured chartering arrangements with undisclosed clients, lasting between two and twelve months, with total contracted revenues of approximately $66m.
Three LPG carriers, the Eco Galaxy, the Eco Invictus, and the Eco Blizzard (pictured), have been fixed for one year until December, November and October 2022, respectively.
Six-month employment has been secured for the Eco Dream until June and the Gas Elixir until March 2022, while the Eco Czar and the Eco Dominator have been chartered out for five months. StealthGas also concluded charter deals for the Gas Cerberus and the Gas Husky lasting three and two months, respectively.
“As the market improved from September onwards, we took the opportunity to fix almost all of our fleet on period charters and soundly position ourselves for the upcoming quarters.
“Regardless of the LPG market improvement evident these past couple of months, the biggest global concern is still the COVID-19 pandemic. New variants might potentially heavily impact the market in the short term, and that’s why we have chosen to be defensive with low leverage and having only a few ships operating in the spot market,” Michael Jolliffe, board chairman of StealthGas, said.
The company noted that for the next year it has about 39% of fleet days secured under period contracts.
