But considering net income as a per cent of revenue, the current performance is way much above the industry average in pre-pandemic years.

According to Mr McCown's estimates, in the four years from 2016 through to 2019, the container shipping industry experienced a cumulative loss of $8.5 billion on revenues of $681.2 billion for a negative 1.3 per cent margin on net income to revenue.

To put this into context, the net income as a per cent of revenue was 20.9 per cent in Q1 2023, despite the media hype for record profit decline during the period. If compared with other transport companies that historically would be at the top of container shipping, the margin was 2.5 times higher than their level.

For instance, the combined net income of well-regarded companies in the transport sector such as UPS, FedEx, Union Pacific and JB Hunt in this year's first quarter was $4.5 billion, barely one third of the earnings of the liner shipping.

"While I anticipate the sector margins will continue to decline as the 2023 quarters unfold, my estimates still have them staying above 10 per cent throughout the year," commented Mr McCown.

Meanwhile, although there has been immense attention to the reduced demand in container shipping, the worldwide loaded TEU volume of 39,975,913 in the first quarter was down just 4.1 per cent compared to the fourth quarter last year.