New York-listed Pangaea Logistics Solutions is continuing its run of profitable quarters with a first-quarter surplus more than three times what it earned a year ago. The niche-market bulker operator earned a net profit of $20.2m, dwarfing the $5.9m reported for the first three months of 2021. The surge extended to adjusted net income, which came in at $15.7m, or $0.35 per share. That compares to $3.8m, or $0.09 per share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue spiked to $191.8m from $125m in the first three months of 2021, a 53% increase that Pangaea attributed mainly to the increase in average time-charter equivalent rates. They jumped to $26,472 per day from $16,524.

“Improving dry bulk market fundamentals resulted in another strong quarter to start 2022 for Pangaea,” said chief executive Mark Filanowski, who has led Pangaea since predecessor and company founder Ed Coll died in December. “We were well-positioned entering the year after timely expansion of our fleet in 2021, and an early winter ice season seeing greater demand. We aim to extract as much value out of this market as possible and we remain opportunistic in our approach.”

The Newport, Rhode Island-based shipowner and operator prides itself on earnings premiums to the market as measured by the Baltic Exchange’s supramax and panamax indices. The company said its rates reflected a 17% upside to those benchmarks this time. Pangaea for the last three years led all public companies in such premiums as measured by Danish researchers Anders Liengaard’s and Soren Roschmann’s Vessels Performance Index.

The company is a leader in Arctic ice-class trades, hauls bauxite from Jamaica to the US Gulf and has also expanded into port and terminal operations. “With parts of our owned fleet dedicated to long term industrial contract business, our ships well balanced around the globe, and our chartered-in fleet on short term commitments, we feel we have never been in a stronger position as we turn our attention to our summer Arctic shipping ice season,” Filanowski said.

“We are also focused, more and more, on our ports and terminals businesses, especially in areas of tremendous growth. In Sabine, Texas, we are attracting new breakbulk business in green energy systems, and in Brayton Point, Massachusetts we are focusing on wind energy projects and contracts.”