I have just read through the earning release from Dryships for the 2nd quarter of 2010. I think Dryships management did a terrible job of managing the company through the boom and bust cycle of the shipping industry, but the company is starting to show some positive results.

Of note is the TCE for the company’s dry bulk fleet. The daily per ship earnings (TCE) for the 2nd quarter was $32,659 compared to $29,752 a year earlier. It has been a while since I have seen a meaningful increase in TCE. The Dryships fleet is primarily Panamax class vessels, so these are pretty strong rates.

Revenues were up and expenses were down for the quarter. Good signs. The company took a big hit on write-offs for interest rate swaps and interest expense was up 10% from a year earlier. These are indications of the previously mentioned management issues.

DRYS is way to speculative for my taste, but it is good to see some positive numbers coming from the dry bulk sector.

Teekay Offshore GP LLC, the general partner of Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. (Teekay Offshore or the Partnership) NYSE: TOO, has declared a cash distribution of $0.475 per unit for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, an increase of $0.025 per unit, or 5.6 percent, from the previous quarter.  The cash distribution is payable on May 14, 2010 to all unitholders of record on May 7, 2010.

Teekay GP LLC, the general partner of Teekay LNG Partners L.P. (Teekay LNG or the Partnership) TGP, has declared a cash distribution of $0.60 per unit for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, an increase of $0.03 per unit, or 5.3 percent, from the previous quarter. The cash distribution is payable on May 14, 2010 to all unitholders of record on May 7, 2010.

K-Sea Transportation KSP decided to conserve cash and is currently not paying a dividend. I have removed the stock from my dividend paying list.

Horizon Lines [[HRZ]] reduced the regular payout from 11¢ per share to 6¢.

It is probably not a coincidence that these two stocks are among the worst performing shipping stocks so far this year with K-Sea the worst, down over 20%.

Capital Product Partners LP CPLP paid a monster 41¢ dividend (4% of the stock value)  in February for the 4th quarter of 2009 but announced the target distribution rate of 90¢ per share (22.5¢ per quarter) for 2010. This still leave a better than 10% distribution rate if management can follow through.

There are currently 19 shipping stocks with an active dividend payment policy. The payouts declared or paid in the first 3 months of 2010 equate to an annual yield of just over 7%.

The Board of Frontline Ltd. (the “Company” or “Frontline”) announces that it has agreed to acquire the VLCC “Front Vista” (the “Vessel”) from Ship Finance International Limited at a purchase price of USD 58.5 mill.

Frontline has furthermore agreed to sell the Vessel and the Buyer will settle the purchase price through the payment of instalments over a 10 year period. The Buyer has secured a 10 year time charter with a State owned oil company at a gross rate of USD 43,500 per day during the entire charter period.

The transaction reflects the Company’s goal of securing long term coverage for parts of its fleet.

I am not certain who is collecting the $43k per day: Frontline or the buyer? Hope Ship Finance made out OK as I own stock in SFL.

OK, just got the email from Ship Finance, here is a exerpt:

Ship Finance will receive net proceeds of approximately $22.1 million after prepayment of associated debt. The sale is expected to result in a book gain on sale of assets of approximately $1.8 million.