Container carrier stock prices, boosted since December by the crisis in the Red Sea and the potential for more ton-mile demand, have corrected more rapidly than freight rates and most lines are now trading below pre-conflict levels.
At the start of this week, only one surveyed line, Evergreen Marine, was trading at a premium to its price before the Red Sea crisis.
Instead, poor financial earnings have replaced capacity re-routing as the main driver of stock prices with the release of generally weak Q4 earnings accelerating a downward trend that had already started in February.
Medium-tier carriers OOIL and ZIM saw 17% and 14% shaved off their share prices immediately after announcing financials. Prices for Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd are even further below, as the two carriers reported the widest and potentially lowest earnings forecasts for 2024.
Evergreen, the only stock to remain above the October reference, reported one of the highest operating margin for Q4 and was among the top three performers in 2023. In the case of COSCO, which has yet to release earnings, stock prices are back to pre-conflict levels.
Source: Alphaliner
