Comment / Conf call redux: Pure play+ Hapag-Lloyd surprised, cautious and...

ID 44030609 © Yolfran | Dreamstime.com

Wind the clock back a few weeks, if you can remember which phase of insanity the shipping market was passing through*, and only a madman would have predicted that come the first quarter earnings season analysts would be asking themselves why management teams weren’t raising their full-year profit forecasts.

(*Hint: it was the one where shipping lines were staring down the barrel of the metaphorical gun in the shape of massive overcapacity and loss-making freight rates; before their crews found themselves ...