Results from TORM plc’s Annual General Meeting on 14 April 2021 - Seite 2

Against
Withheld* 400,958,924
166,106
18,184 99.95

  94.26

 *    A vote withheld is not a vote in law and is not counted in the calculation of the proportion of votes ‘For’ or ‘Against’ a resolution. Other than for resolution 4, there were 532,862 ‘non-votes’ received from brokers. These have been counted in the total votes cast, but not in the votes ‘For’ or ‘Against’ a resolution.
  
  

Dear Shareholders

Welcome the Annual General Meeting.

In this highly unusual year, I am very pleased that TORM can report solid EBITDA of USD 272m for the year and on the back of the strong performance has returned USD 71m in dividends to shareholders. It further pleases me that TORM has continued to forge the path to a greener future by committing to ambitious CO₂ reduction targets.

As for the rest of the world, TORM has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020 and into 2021. Looking at the product tanker market, the pandemic caused a sharp decline in demand for oil products and led to stock build-up at an unprecedented scale. With limited inventory space ashore, a significant share of the global fleet of product tankers became tied up in floating storage, and freight rates temporarily jumped to all-time high levels. The market was further heated by prolonged oil output discussions between OPEC and Russia that led to a continued high level of oil supply. Continued efforts to contain the pandemic in the second half of the year stalled the otherwise recovering oil demand and kept trade flows at low levels which continued into 2021.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, TORM has fully maintained our operations at sea and ashore thanks to the One TORM platform, but especially due to an extraordinary and very professional effort from our crew members. While crew changes remain an issue due to travel bans and quarantine in several countries around the world, TORM has observed a very positive development since the end of the second quarter, and at the end of 2020, the percentage of crew with overdue employment is back down at normal pre-COVID-19 level.

As such, the year 2020 presented many operational and commercial challenges, and I am pleased to note that TORM’s integrated operational platform was a key factor for the Company to successfully navigate the extraordinary market for product tankers over the year.