FEW would have predicted at this time last year that container shipping stocks would be among the best performers of 2024 — but, as usual, shipping equities don’t follow the script.

Since the stock market pullback in August and early September, container shipping and dry bulk shares have outperformed the broader market, while tanker stocks have lagged.

Container shipping stocks

Israeli carrier Zim may only be the ninth-largest liner operator, but its stock is the most heavily traded equity among all container shipping names.

Recent price action implies that traders and investors are betting the expected dockworker strike at US east and Gulf coast ports, starting on October 1, will be positive for freight rates — and thus for Zim’s shares.

As with the Red Sea crisis, news of a disruption has led to buying of shipping shares, but the strike story is more nuanced than the Red Sea crisis.

Zim has most of its transpacific tonnage deployed on routes to east and Gulf coast ports via the Panama Canal. If there’s a strike, the rate upside for Zim would be offset to some degree by lower transpacific volumes as its ships get stuck in queues.

Zim’s adjusted share price (adjusted for dividends) was up 123% year to date as of Wednesday. Its adjusted price was up 45% from September 6.

According to Jefferies analyst Omar Nokta, container equities “have made noticeable gains, seemingly due to short covering as opposed to outright buying, as investors seek to derisk exposure ahead of a potential disruption-fuelled surge in freight rates”.

The other US-listed liner stock, niche carrier Matson, which operates in the China-US west coast trade, does not look particularly impressive in terms of year-to-date gains.

Its adjusted share price is up 28% since early January. A measure of the broader market, the SPDR exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500 index, is up 22%.

But in historical context, Matson’s equity is doing exceptionally well. On Wednesday, its shares hit a high of $143.66. That is 18% higher than its pandemic-era peak — and marks the highest price ever in Matson’s history as a public company.

Containership lessor Global Ship Lease is also outperforming SPDR this year, up 36% year to date.

Dry bulk stocks

Dry bulk stocks have enjoyed a sizeable jump from early September lows and have largely outpaced SPDR gains.

Capesize owner Seanergy Maritime is the top performer year to date, up 69%, with the caveat that this is a microcap stock that has been targeted by George Economou, a shipping magnate who taken up activist investing as a side gig.

The adjusted share price of John Fredriksen-controlled capesize owner Golden Ocean is up 46% year to date, with Safe Bulkers up 33% and Genco up 24%.

Star Bulk, the largest US-listed dry bulk owner, has been the big disappointment. Its share price has consistently lagged its peers in 2024. It is currently trailing SPDR, up only 18% year to date.

Tanker stocks

Tanker shipping has the largest investor base and is more heavily traded than other publicly listed segments. But the ebullience of the spring highs has dissipated as spot rates have disappointed. Tanker shares have continued to trend downward since May.

Product tanker owner Torm is still up 25% year to date, beating out SPDR by a few percentage points, yet the rest of the larger tanker players are lagging the broader market bellwether.

As of Wednesday, International Seaways, which owns crude and product tankers, was up 18% year to date on a dividend-adjusted basis.

Midsize-vessel owner Teekay Tankers was up only 14%, as was Fredriksen-controlled crude tanker giant Frontline.

Product tanker owner Scorpio Tankers and very large crude carrier owner DHT were up 13%.

The anomaly in the listed tanker space is suezmax owner Nordic American Tankers. Its adjusted share price is down 10% year to date.

NAT had been a darling of retail traders in the past, most recently during the Covid-era floating storage hype. But it now seems out of favour, with an ageing fleet and a debt facility from Texas’s Beal Bank maturing in February 2025.

NAT chief executive Herbjorn Hansson may not have set investors’ minds at ease about the pending debt maturing when, during a conference call on September 12, he said: “Andy Beal [the bank founder] told me — and maybe I shouldn’t say this on an open line — that he is quite a good poker player. I can tell you that as a much younger man, I was quite a good poker player as well.”

Multi-segment stocks

Several other larger listed owners have ships in multiple segments.

Navios Partners, created through a cobbling together of formerly separate sister companies, is in dry bulk, tankers and containership leasing.

CMB.Tech, created through the Saverys family’s takeover of Euronav, is in crude tankers, dry bulk, chemical shipping and offshore wind.

Leasing company SFL Corporation owns tankers, bulkers, containerships, car carriers and offshore units. Costamare leases out containerships and owns bulkers.

The big winner in the multi-segment space is Angeliki Frangou’s Navios Partners. After years languishing in the doldrums, its stock began rising at the end of 2023, due to insider buying by Frangou. This year, its adjusted share price is up 125%, on par with Zim’s gains.

Navios’ more recent use of stock buybacks appears to have gone over well with retail investors, with the company’s share-price appreciation far surpassing what is implied by shipping market trends, as well as the pricing of pure-play stocks in the containership leasing, tanker and drybulk segments in which it operates.

Among the other multi-segment players, Costamare’s adjusted stock price is up an impressive 50% year to date, while CMB.Tech is up 24%, in line with SPDR.

The laggard is Fredriksen-controlled SFL Corporation, now up only 7% year to date. Its stock was doing well until it chose to do a follow-on offering of common shares on July 23. Its share price is now down 16% from the closing price prior to that offering, and 10% below the offering price.