The impact of global crises on accounting practices and financial resilience in maritime companies

Abstract

Over the past three years, shipping, which serves as an essential facilitator of global trade and energy security, has come under unprecedented stress due to the pandemic of COVID–19, the blockage of the Suez Canal and the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Each of these crises has pressured in their turn the financial, operational, and accounting resilience of shipping firms. This thesis addresses the differential impact of such global economic shocks on the financial performance of maritime firms and their crisis mitigation strategies, focusing on liquefied natural gas (LNG) and container shipping in the years 2019–2022. It employs a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) econometric analysis to measure the impact of sector-specific dynamics in freight rates relevant to their global crises on the financial state of the firms involved, while a firm-level financial ratio analysis assesses measures of profitability (ROA, ROE, margins), leverage (debt/equity ratios, equity ratio), liquidity and efficiency from a balanced sample of publicly-listed firms in LNG and shipping. The empirical conclusions show that LNG shipping exhibited structural, contract-determined resilience; supported by long term charter coverage and a strategically important role in global energy adjustment, while container shipping firms showed remarkable but cyclical profitability, resulting from temporary log-jam in logistics and post-pandemic demand. The findings lead to the conclusion that there is a resilience-cyclicality trade-off for the two sectors, and that resilience in maritime finance is dependent upon crises, rather than being intrinsic to them. The work contributes to both academic literature and management practice, by exploring the extent to which the patterns of econometric behavior in freight is related to the financial structure at the firm level, emphasizing the importance of charter strategy, financial liquidity policy, and accounting conservatism for endurance and strategic placement in a space of global volatility.Στόχος της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η διερεύνηση της επίδρασης των μεγάλων παγκόσμιων κρίσεων της περιόδου 2020–2022 στη χρηματοοικονομική απόδοση, τις λογιστικές πρακτικές και τη χρηματοοικονομική ανθεκτικότητα ναυτιλιακών εταιρειών, με συγκριτική ανάλυση μεταξύ εταιρειών μεταφοράς LNG και εταιρειών μεταφοράς εμπορευματοκιβωτίων. Η μελέτη βασίζεται σε μεθοδολογία Difference-in-Differences και ανάλυση χρηματοοικονομικών δεικτών, αναδεικνύοντας τις διαφοροποιήσεις στους μηχανισμούς ανθεκτικότητας των δύο κλάδων.