John C. Wobensmith, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The execution of our scrubber programme marks an important step for Genco in what was the busiest drydocking period in Company history. The completion of this initiative has enabled us to comply with IMO 2020 regulations in a manner that meaningfully reduces sulphur emissions and strengthens our future prospects. Specifically, given the timely nature of our scrubber retrofits on our Capesize vessels, we have been able to capture the differentials between compliant and high sulphur fuel so far in the early stages of compliance, significantly de-risking the initial investment. With no scheduled drydockings for our Capesize vessels for the balance of 2020, we plan to maximise fleet-wide utilisation for these vessels while re-implementing our active chartering approach. As such, we strategically repositioned select Capesize vessels after the completion of their scrubber installations towards the Atlantic Basin during the end of 2019 to better capture market fundamentals. With a sizeable fleet and strong balance sheet, including an estimated $162 million of cash as of 31^st December, 2019, Genco remains poised to capitalise on favourable long-term dry bulk supply and demand fundamentals, while creating near-term shareholder value through our regular quarterly cash dividend policy of $0.175 per share.”

In addition to the scrubber installs on its Capesize fleet, the balance of Genco's vessels, including one Panamax, six Ultramax, 20 Supramax and 11 Handysize bulkers, is running on ultra-low sulfur compliant fuel.

Genco currently operates a fleet of 17 Capesize, one Panamax, six Ultramax, 20 Supramax and 11 Handysize vessels.

Genco Shipping fleet total carrying capacity is approximately 4,942,000dwt with an average age of 9.7 years.

Maritime Business World