The ongoing Covid-19 upheaval has created many winners in the shipping markets — but few bigger than handysize owners.

Usually praised for producing steady, if relatively low earnings compared with bigger, high-risk high-reward bulkers, handysizes have been providing freight earnings unseen in years.

“The market keeps surprising us all,” said an analyst at Athens-based bulker specialist Doric Shipbrokers.

“The [benchmark] 7TC average keeps breaking consecutive records and new heights,” Doric said in the week to 16 July, when six out of the seven representative fixtures its brokers reported exceeded the $30,000-per-day mark.