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Transport Operators

Shipping Sector Primer

A 41-page primer plus Excel valuation model on listed shipowners: TCE, fleet NAV from vessel cash flows, the scrap floor, cash breakevens and charter cover.

15 Sections 41 Pages PDF + Excel

PDF Only

The full primer in PDF format

£25 / ~$32
  • ✓ 41-page sector primer
  • ✓ Worked valuations
  • ✓ Screening thresholds
Buy PDF - £25

Excel Model

Plug-and-play valuation template

£45 / ~$58
  • ✓ Pre-built valuation model
  • ✓ Sensitivity tables
  • ✓ Scenario toggles
Buy Model - £45
Best Value

PDF + Model

Everything you need in one package

£59 / ~$76 £70
  • ✓ 41-page sector primer
  • ✓ Valuation model (.xlsx)
  • ✓ Save £11 vs buying separately
Buy Bundle - £59
Complete Transport Operators Library

Three primers, three Excel models

Shipping, Airlines, and Railroads. Everything at ~25% off

£210 £159 / ~$205
Buy All - £159

Inside the primer

The 15-section contents, a worked valuation page, and the Excel dashboard.

The worked example built year by year: one tanker's charter and market revenue, running costs and drydocks discounted over its remaining life, then vessel value to fleet NAV for a spot tanker owner and a contracted lessor, ending at $10.61 and $5.10 a share.

Table of Contents

  1. 01 How Shipowners Make Money
  2. 02 Listed Shipping Company Types
  3. 03 The Freight Rate Cycle
  4. 04 Segments and Sub-Markets
  5. 05 Revenue Drivers: Generic TCE Build
  6. 06 Cost Structure: Breakeven Vocabulary
  7. 07 Valuation Frameworks
  8. 08 Worked Example: Fleet NAV Valuation Engine
  9. 09 Applied Case: Crude Tanker Economics
  10. 10 Applied Case: Bulk and Product Tankers
  11. 11 Applied Case: Operator, Charter Owner and FLNG
  12. 12 The Companies in This Primer
  13. 13 Key Metrics and Screening
  14. 14 Risks, Benchmarks and Case Study
  15. 15 Glossary and Cheat Sheet

41 pages · 15 sections · 2 worked examples

The Excel model

The model's sensitivity view: NAV per share for both owners across market charter rates and discount rates, each cell re-running the vessel DCF, with the centre cells reproducing the headlines.

Educational material for professional use. This primer and its model are not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security, and they are not personalised. Worked valuations use illustrative calibrations, not fair-value estimates for any company.

A shipowner rents out steel. Each vessel earns a daily charter rate for the years it has left and is then sold for scrap, so the company is worth what its fleet will earn over those years, plus the scrap, less its debt. That makes a fleet net asset value the right tool, and it makes an earnings multiple taken at the top of a freight spike the commonest way to overpay.

The primer builds the tools in order: how owners make money, the listed company types, the freight-rate cycle, then the revenue build from time-charter equivalent and the cost side with breakevens. Two worked examples run from first input to value, a spot-exposed tanker owner and a containership lessor whose charters lock in years of revenue, before applied cases across crude and product tankers, dry bulk, a liner operator and floating LNG. Screening closes with fleet age, charter cover, breakeven against earnings and leverage through the cycle.

Free guides on the site cover the individual pieces, so you can revise one idea without reopening the PDF: TCE explained, spot vs time charter, containership lessors vs liner operators, cash breakevens, NAV and vessel values, the scrap floor and orderbook to fleet ratio by segment. Research profiles for Frontline, Scorpio Tankers, Star Bulk, Danaos, ZIM and Golar LNG run the same screens on filed results. The companion Excel model spans eleven sheets, from the two fleet builds through the NAV bridge, TCE and breakeven and the downturn scenario to a live sensitivity grid, so entering your own fleet rebuilds the valuation from its first vessel up.

Sheets: Quick Start, Instructions, Assumptions, Tanker Owner, Contracted Lessor, Valuation Summary, Fleet NAV Bridge, TCE & Breakeven, Downturn Scenario, Sensitivity, Dashboard.

See this methodology applied to a real company:

Frontline (FRO) →