The Fedespedi Study Center has published the study "The shipping companies: an economic and financial analysis" relating to the year 2023, an excursus on the operating results and financial assets registered by major ocean carriers during the year when, in the face of stable volumes of containers transported by sea that have reached The level of 176.2 million TEUs (+0.6% on 2022), a collapse in turnover (up to -65.2% compared to exceptionally growing turnover, up to +400% in 2022). This year's edition examines the 2023 budgets of ten shipping companies and also contains a focus on the results of the first quarter 2024.

The study notes that in 2023 the stability of traffic around the world, has also had an impact on the level of demand and which confirmed a decreasing trend, with an average of freight level which stood at -50% compared to 2022.

With reference to delays in the scheduled arrival times of the container ships in ports, in 2023 the situation is progressively improved, with a clear decrease in them: according to the data provided by Sea Intelligence, if at the beginning of 2022 only 30.4% of ships were on time, this percentage rose in May 2023 at 66.8%.

As for 2024, the outbreak of the war in Gaza and the attacks by the Yemeni Houthis on ships in the transit, has led to the diversion of the routes that transited by the Suez Canal towards the Cape of Good Hope, with consequent strong recovery in freight rates, which in fact doubled over the period by a few weeks compared to the average values of December 2023. At this phenomenon has been added to the recovery of traffic in the First quarter of 2024 - 43.6 million TEUs in 2024 vs. 39.9 million of the same period of 2023 (+9.2%) - mainly attributable to to the growth of exports from the countries of the Far East.