NAT Takes Delivery of Suezmax, Earnings Capacity Up

Nordic American Tankers Limited ("NAT" or "the Company") announced that it today took delivery of a Suezmax vessel, the Nordic Sirius, built at a shipyard in Japan. NAT agreed to purchase four vessels as announced in our press release May 2, 2016. Nordic Sirius is the third of these four vessels. In the course of 30 days, NAT has taken delivery of three vessels. The fourth vessel is expected to be taken over by us within mid-July 2016.
 
Following the delivery of these four vessels, the Company will have a fleet of 30 Suezmax vessels, including two newbuildings from Korea, scheduled for delivery in August 2016 and January 2017. The NAT fleet of Suezmaxes has a substantial earnings capacity.  We have no plans to issue equity in connection with this expansion to 30 vessels, which amounts to a capital outlay of about $170m. The total price for the four vessels is $106m and the remaining commitments on the two newbuildings are $64m.
 
Commented the Chairman & CEO, Herbjørn Hansson, "We believe the increased fleet, our solid balance sheet and our consistent and transparent operating model, including quarterly dividend payments, give NAT a strong competitive position.
 
Recently a lot has been discussed about the effect of Brexit. We shall comment more extensively later, but would like to note at this time that we do not believe the effect of Brexit will impact NAT to any significant extent."