International Seaways Inc

Our primary objectives are to (i) maintain safe and reliable vessel operations that improves energy efficiency and reduces our environmental footprint; (ii) actively manage the size, age and composition of our fleet over the course of market cycles to increase investment returns and available capital; (iii) maximize cash flows through management of vessel employment in the spot market through our participation in a number of commercial pools and selective time charters; (iv) defend and grow the market share and profits of our asset light Crude Tankers Lightering business; (v) execute a disciplined yet flexible capital allocation strategy that is aligned with the shipping industry cycles by maintaining a strong balance sheet in order to use cash flow generation for opportunistic fleet investment, further de-levering that reduces cash break evens and/or interest costs and increases return to shareholders; and (vi) enter into value-creating transactions. The key elements of our strategy are:

Generate strong cash flows through a blend of spot market and period market exposure

We believe we are well-positioned to generate strong cash flows by identifying and taking advantage of attractive chartering opportunities in the International Flag tanker market. We will continue to pursue an overall chartering strategy, with a substantial spot rate exposure that provides us with higher returns when the more volatile spot market is stronger.

We currently deploy the majority of our fleet on a spot rate basis to benefit from market volatility and what we believe are the traditionally higher returns the spot market offers compared with time charters. We believe this strategy continues to offer significant upside exposure to the spot market and an opportunity to capture enhanced profit margins at times when vessel demand exceeds supply. As of December 31, 2023, we participated in seven commercial pools as our principal means of participation in the spot market— Tankers International (“TI”), Penfield Tankers (“PENFIELD”), Panamax International (“PI”), Clean Products Tankers Alliance (“CPTA”), Norden Tanker Pool (“NTP”), Hafnia Tanker Pool (“HTP”) and Aframax International Pool (“AI”) — each selected for specific expertise in its respective market. Our continued participation in pools allows us to benefit from economies of scale and higher vessel utilization rates.

We plan to continue to complement our spot chartering strategy by selectively employing a portion of our vessels on time charters that provide consistent cash flows. As of December 31, 2023, we had three VLCCs, two Suezmaxes, one Aframax, and six MRs on time charters expiring between August 2024 and April 2030. We may seek to place other tonnage on time charters, for storage or transport, when we can do so at attractive rates.

Actively manage our fleet to maximize return on capital over market cycles.

We will continue to actively manage the size and composition of our fleet through opportunistic accretive acquisitions and dispositions as part of our effort to achieve above-market returns on capital for our vessel assets and renew our fleet. Using our commercial, financial and operational expertise, we will continue to execute our plan to opportunistically grow our fleet through the timely and selective acquisition of high-quality secondhand vessels, resales or newbuild contracts when we believe those acquisitions will result in attractive returns on invested capital and increased cash flow. We also intend to continue to engage in opportunistic dispositions where we can achieve attractive values for our vessels relative to their anticipated future earnings from operations as we assess the market cycle. Taken together, we believe these activities have and will continue to help us maintain a diverse, high-quality and modern fleet of crude oil and refined product vessels with an enhanced return on invested capital. We believe our diverse and versatile fleet, our experience and our long-standing relationships with participants in the crude and refined product shipping industry position us to identify and take advantage of attractive acquisition opportunities in any vessel class in the international market.

Maintain an appropriate and flexible financial profile.

We seek to maintain a strong balance sheet and prudent financial leverage with sufficient liquidity that positions us to take advantage of attractive strategic opportunities throughout the dynamic tanker cycles of the shipping sector. During 2023, we maintained what we believe to be reasonable financial leverage for the current point in the tanker cycle. As of December 31, 2023, we had total liquidity on a consolidated basis of $601.2 million, comprised of $186.8 million of cash and short-term investments and $414.4 million of remaining undrawn revolver capacity, as well as a Consolidated Net Debt to Assets Value and Consolidated Net Debt to Book Capital ratios of 17% and 23.8%, respectively.

Environmental, Social and Governance Initiatives

We are committed to fulfilling our mission of transporting energy safely and efficiently to customers around the world using well-maintained assets operated by dedicated crews in a diligent and environmentally sustainable manner. We recognize that greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions, which are largely caused by burning fossil fuels, contribute to the warming of the global climate system. Our industry, which is heavily dependent on the burning of fossil fuels, faces the dual challenge of reducing its carbon footprint by transitioning to the use of low-carbon fuels while extending the economic and social benefits of delivering energy to consumers across the globe. We welcome and support efforts, such as those led by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (“TCFD”), to increase transparency and to promote investors’ understanding of how we and our industry peers are addressing the climate change-related risks and opportunities particular to our industry. The Company’s governance, strategy, risk management and performance monitoring efforts in this area are evolving and will continue to do so over time:

Governance – Our Board of Directors (10 members as of December 31, 2023, including eight independent members), has experts in shipping and compliance and engages in regular discussions relating to environmental matters and the Company’s response to climate change-related risks and opportunities. The Company’s management team, led by the Chief Executive Officer, has the day-to-day responsibility to execute the action plans as approved by the Board of Directors.

*Strategy –*We are committed to Environmental, Social and Governance practices as a part of our core culture. To achieve our goals, we have taken actions which include:

Additionally, during 2023, we completed the construction of our three dual-fuel LNG VLCCs at Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering’s shipyard. We expect these tankers to be well suited to adhere to future environmental regulation throughout their life. Their significant environmental benefits, including substantially reducing our carbon footprint, are in keeping with our commitment to ESG-focused corporate citizenship.

Risk Management – Due to the nature of our business, environmental and climate change-related risks are included in key risks discussed at the Board of Directors level. What we believe to be the most significant of such risks are described in the “Item 1A – Risk Factors” section below.

Metrics and Targets* –*As a part of the actions described in the “Strategy” section above, we are working to meet the carbon efficiency targets included in our sustainability-linked loan and to establish other appropriate metrics by which to measure our performance and drive improvement.