Shares in container liner operators posted gains on Friday after a key freight rate indicator leapt 19% in two weeks and reached its highest point of the year.
Shares in Taiwan’s Yang Ming Marine Transport and Israel’s Zim led the day’s upward march as the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index hit 2,306.
That was a gain of 365 points since the last reading two weeks earlier, before the International Labour Day Holiday closed the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.
Yang Ming’s Taipei-listed stock surged to its highest level since July, adding nearly 10% in a day to close at TWD 60.60 ($1.87).
TradeWinds reported earlier on Friday that the world’s 10thlargest container operator revealed that its net profit grew to TWD 9.38bn in the first quarter, a gain on TWD 3.4bn a year earlier that was fuelled by disruption in the Red Sea.
New York-listed shares in Zim were not far behind, gaining 9.9% to hit $17.86 in mid-afternoon trading on Friday. The shares were poised to reach their highest closing price in more than a year. Zim is the world’s ninth-largest container ship operator, according to Alphaliner.
Clarksons Securities analysts led by Frode Morkedal noted that there were significant increases across all key trade routes.
“Despite liner companies’ modest guidance and expectations for easing rates, box rates have moved sharply upward,” they wrote in a note to clients.
The investment bank pointed to commentary by AP Moller-Maersk executives that recent rate gains have been driven by demand rather than ship supply factors, such as the Red Sea crisis.
“Having said that, there have been reports of increased port congestion, particularly in the Mediterranean, allowing liner companies to raise freight rates,” Morkedal and his team wrote.
“The strong demand could indicate earlier-than-usual peak season volumes as customers restock inventories. This looks very promising for liner companies, which may have again set too low earnings guidance for this year.”
In Taipei, shares of Evergreen Marine, the seventh-largest player, rocketed 9% to nearly TWD 194.
Shares at Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd, number five in the Alphaliner rankings, rose 4.1% to €166.60 ($179), while the stock price for the second-largest, AP Moller-Maersk, gained 2.9% to just over DKK 10,400 ($1,500).
