Over the past year and a half, the share value of the 11 largest publicly listed container shipping lines has dropped by $135 billion as investors dumped stock amid falling freight rates.
According to Alphaliner, today only three container lines have a market capitalization exceeding $10 billion, compared to seven in May 2022
Among the carriers that thrived during the pandemic and periods of soaring rates, seeing their market capitalization top $10 billion for the first time in 2022, are Taiwan's Evergreen, Yang Ming, and Wan Hai Lines, as well as South Korea's HMM.Subsequently, a sharp drop in share prices returned these carriers to mid-cap territory — between $2 billion and $10 billion — where they rejoined peers like SITC Container Lines and Matson Lines.
ZIM Line shares, for instance, nearly quadrupled in the four months following their New York Stock Exchange listing in January 2021. They then regressed to mid-cap levels, and today have plunged to small-cap status ($1.15 billion as of October 17).