Constantin Baack
Chief Executive Officer
Good afternoon, and good morning, everyone. This is Constantin Baack, CEO of MPC Container Ships. I’m joined today by our CFO and Co-CEO, Moritz Fuhrmann. Thank you for taking the time to join our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Earlier today, we published our financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2026. The stock exchange announcement and the accompanying presentation are available in the Investor Relations section of our website.
Before we begin, please note that today’s discussion includes forward-looking statements and indicative figures. Actual results may differ materially due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in our business. Before turning to the presentation, I would like to briefly reflect on the first quarter of 2026. We are pleased to report a solid quarter in what continues to be an unusually complex environment. The opening months of 2026 have been shaped by escalating geopolitical tensions, most notably the closure of the Strait of Hormuz following the Iran conflict, rising energy prices and continued uncertainty around global trade policy. Against this backdrop, our business performed resiliently with high vessel utilization, solid earnings, generating good profits and continued strong chartering activity. On the commercial side, we concluded a number of attractive forward charter fixtures with top liner companies, further extending our coverage and building on our USD 2 billion revenue backlog.
On the fleet side, we agreed the sale of a ship, which Moritz will allude to in more detail and made good progress across our newbuilding program, both consistent with our strategy of high-grading the fleet while securing long-term employment on modern tonnage. On the balance sheet, we closed a
