Does NAT’s Hansson have some money up his sleeve?

It will be one of the most closely watched items on the remaining 2017 calendar for New York-listed shipowners.

Sometime in October, Nordic American Tankers (NAT) chairman and chief executive Herbjorn Hansson will tell investors what his company will pay to investors in a quarterly dividend.

With NAT struggling this year and third-quarter suezmax rates projected to fall under its cash break-even, a number of analysts are projecting that this is the moment that will break Hansson’s 80-quarter — or 20-year — streak of paying cash dividends.