Ioannis Zafirakis really made an effort not to be the contrarian on a panel of leading dry bulk owners hosted by Deutsche Bank on Thursday.

The colourful Zafirakis is a mainstay of Greek owner Diana Shipping. He and the company have been known to express caution on the market when other public executives are full of giddy optimism.

And given a chance by Deutsche Bank equity analyst Amit Mehrotra to play the villain's role again and take a stand against prevailing positivity in a recovering...