Benzinga | Mar 25, 2021 09:32AM EDT

Nordic American Tankers Comments ON Current Blocking Of Suez Canal

Dear Shareholders and Investors,

NAT is a Suezmax specialist -- each vessel of 150,000/160,000 tons can carry one million barrels of oil. Our fleet consists of 25 Suezmax tankers (including 2 newbuildings).

A Suezmax tanker is the largest tanker that can transit the Suez Canal.

The Suez Canal is now blocked by a large vessel. We cannot predict how long the current situation in the Suez Canal will last.

A closure of the Suez Canal, over a prolonged period of time, would require vessels to divert around Africa going from West to East and vice versa. This is a materially longer distance.

A longer voyage will lock up more shipping capacity, reducing the effective number of voyages the world fleet can perform over a period. This means reduced availability of shipping capacity, which in turn would imply higher freight rates.



Sincerely,

Herbjorn Hansson

Founder, Chairman & CEO

Nordic American Tankers Ltd.