Shipping share performance continues to trounce broader stock market
THE STOCK market overall is off to a trepidatious start this year. The SPDR exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500 index was back down to where it started on Tuesday, up just 1% versus December 31.
Not so for ocean shipping stocks, which have continued to climb higher, adding to very strong gains in 2025.
In times of geopolitical turmoil, physical goods and commodities still have to flow around the world, and listed shipowners, like listed defence contractors, tend to thrive.
Professional services stocks are at risk from AI, software developers from Claude. But there is no AI that can move crude from the Middle East Gulf, iron ore from Brazil, or consumer goods across the Pacific. Shipping’s capital- and physical-asset-intensive models fits right into the “revenge of the old economy” thesis.
To measure stock moves, Lloyd’s List analysed the change in adjusted closing prices of 37 US- and European-listed shipping equities with market caps over $300m on both a year-to-date (YTD) and year-on-year (y/y) basis through Tuesday’s close.
Shipping stocks were categorised by segment, with average segment changes weighted by the current market caps of the component stocks.
These changes were then compared to moves of the SPDR ETF, a proxy for the broader stock market, as well as to Breakwave’s two shipping ETFs, the BDRY dry bulk ETF and the BWET crude tanker ETF.
Every shipping segment has outpaced SDPR on YTD basis, from container lines at the bottom of the spectrum, up 7%, to crude tanker owners at the top, up 26%.
BWET far surpassed crude tanker stocks, surging 82% YTD, while the BDRY ETF has gained 20%, exceeding the average increase for listed dry bulk owners of 17%.
Shipping stocks have also performed much better than SPDR on a y/y basis.
SPDR is up 17% y/y, while the lowest-performing shipping category — multi-segment owners — is up 26%. Stocks of bulker owners, crude tanker owners and boxship lessors have risen 61%, 61% and 65% y/y, respectively.
Breakwave’s shipping ETFs did even better. BDRY gained 93% y/y (off a low base at this time last year) and BWET has surged by 183%, propelled by the historic tanker rate boom.
Looking at the individual segments, crude tanker owners’ YTD performance is led by Frontline, up 32%. Okeanis Eco Tankers tops the y/y rankings, up 70%.
Okeanis’ stock has done so well that it has been able to conduct two follow-on offerings at a premium to net asset value, raising a combined $245m to cover the equity portion of four suezmax newbuild resale purchases. Despite the share offerings, its stock traded on Tuesday only 11 cents below its all-time high.
YTD gains for listed product tanker owners range from Hafnia Tankers at 16% to Scorpio Tankers at 28%.
On a one-year basis, the best performer has been Milan-based D'Amico International Shipping, up 73%. All but one product tanker stock — Ardmore Shipping — did better than SPDR. Ardmore was up only 12% y/y.
Dry bulk stocks are being buoyed by stronger-than-expected rates in the typically weak first quarter.
YTD gains are led by Pangaea Logistics, which operates smaller vessels, up 26%. One-year gains are led by Himalaya Shipping, up 133% y/y.
Multi-segment owners have also come out of the gate strongthis year, led by CMB.Tech, up 32% YTD.
Multi-segment stocks struggled at times in 2025. CMB.Tech’s y/y gain was on par with SPDR’s, and ship lessor SFL Corp was the worst performer of any larger-cap shipping equity, down 9% y/y. SFL’s stock price was weighed by an unemployed drill rig that caused a reduction in dividends.
In the gas shipping segment, very large gas carrier owners Dorian LPG and BW LPG have the best share performance. VLGC spot rates have been stronger in 1Q25 than in the previous two years.
Dorain’s share price is up 25% YTD and 39% y/y. Navigator Gas, which operates handysize liquefied petroleum gas carriers, was the only stock in this category to underperform SPDR on a y/y basis. Its adjusted share price rose 12% over the past year.
The container shipping segment faces significant headwinds as spot rates sink and the newbuilding deliveries continue. Increasing traffic via the Suez Canal casts a pall over the outlook.
Liner stocks may have the smallest gain YTD, but they have an impressive weighted y/y gain of 35%, largely due to the 2025 outperformance of Maersk, which heavily skewed the average due to its outsized market cap.
Containership lessor stocks, like liner stocks, are up just 7% YTD, but this is the best-performing segment on a y/y basis, up 65%.
Boxship lessors were able to bolster their charter backlogs at much higher rates than expected in 2025, leading to equity upside. The adjusted share price of Euroseas has risen 134% over the past year, with Global Ship Lease up 91%.
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