Did COVID-19 Affect the Financial Performance and Risk of International Shipping Companies?

Abstract

This study focuses on the shipping sector and examines how it has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, the paper examines the extent to which stock price returns, corporate systematic risk, and key financial performance variables were affected, as well as how all these variables correlated with the spread of COVID-19. Moreover, the paper examines the correlation of these variables with key shipping indexes, such as the Baltic Dry Index and Baltic International Tanker Route, and bunker prices, and how this correlation changed. Our sample consists of shipping companies listed on US stock exchanges, and the study period is 2015–2021. The findings reveal that the shipping companies’ level of systematic risk increased after the pandemic. In addition, the beta coefficient of shipping companies is more affected by changes in bunker prices since the pandemic, and the average daily returns and bunker prices have a lower correlation after the pandemic.