Profits from leasing ships and containers provide a fillip for one sector in shipping

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There have been few sectors of the liner shipping business that have done well over the past few years, but businesses leasing both containerships and containers themselves have continued to return healthy profits, while in contrast, their customers – the carriers – have continually teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.

This week, Canadian containership owner Seaspan reported its third-quarter results, which – coming into the public domain at the same time as some of its major clients were recording deep losses ...