It was not the debut they had in mind.

Fresh off the high of completing shipping's first New York initial public offering since 2015, Israeli containership liner Zim sold off badly in the first hour of trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), plunging 20%.

The weakness persisted into mid-afternoon. After trading 4.5m shares, Zim was at $11.55, a loss of 23% from the open.