Over the past year and a half, the stock prices of the 11 largest container shipping companies listed on the stock exchange have fallen by $135 billion as investors sold off shares amid falling freight rates
According to Alphaliner, today the market capitalization of just three container lines exceeds $10 billion, while in May 2022 there were seven
Among the carriers that did well during the pandemic and sky-high prices and whose capitalization first exceeded $10 billion in 2022 are Taiwan's Evergreen, Yang Ming and Wan Hai Lines, as well as South Korea's HMM.Then a sharp drop in the prices of these carriers' shares brought them back to the average level of capitalization — from $2 billion to $10 billion, where they re-entered the league of companies such as SITC Container Lines and Matson Lines.
ZIM Line's shares, for example, rose almost fourfold in four months after listing on the New York Stock Exchange in January 2021. Then they regressed to the level of average capitalization, and today they have generally declined to the level of low capitalization (as of October 17, it amounted to $1.15 billion).