Container costs jump again as Houthi's won't stop/Cap ex shift rather than growth in the pie, and other notable earnings stuff/Other

Container shipping costs continue to jump as the World Container Index price for the Shanghai to Rotterdam trip rose another $271 w/o/w to $5,270, up 216% year to date. Yes, it is well below the $15,000 ish spike peak of 2021 but compares with about $2,000 at the beginning of 2020. The route to LA was up $113 w/o/w to $5,390 and is up 60% over the past 4 weeks to also the highest since September 2022. 

The CEO of Hapag Lloyd was interviewed yesterday on Bloomberg TV by Katie Greifeld and he said this to a question of whether they can start sailing in the Red Sea again, "Unfortunately not yet" and talked about what happened yesterday where the Houthi's launched attacks on six ships in three different areas. He mentioned that because of what is going on capacity is tight and is also talking about strong demand. That demand strength, mentioned here by him a few weeks ago when they reported earnings, was uncertain as to why though. Was it a pull forward of inventory and some restocking? Was it the desire to carry more inventory because of what is going on? Or was it a natural improvement in organic demand? He also did say that while spot rates have spiked, contract rates haven't moved that much compared to last year. 

Shanghai to Rotterdam

Shifting to the earnings calls as there were a lot.