After several years defined by disruption, windfall profits and extreme volatility, the container shipping industry is entering a more familiar, and more challenging, phase of the cycle. For investors, the next 24 months are shaping up as a period where fundamentals matter again: supply-demand balance, pricing power, cost discipline and balance sheet strength. This transition has important implications not only for freight markets, but also for the credit quality of the world’s largest shipping operators.

Taking the market’s pulse, assessing financial health, diagnosing excess stress: the language of finance often borrows from medicine. The comparison is not superficial. Both disciplines rely on structured observation, informed judgement, risk assessment, and calibrated intervention.

2026 started off well for European high yield: spreads have continued to tighten in an almost linear fashion since Liberation Day last year and have continued to do so this year. The next question becomes is there any value left?