Norwegian shipowner Stolt-Nielsen feels the market underestimated the advantages of its contract portfolio as third quarter profit surged past the consensus on Thursday.

Ebitda at the company, which also owns tank terminals, hit $144m in the three months to 31 August, against analysts' expectations of $100m.

Chief financial officer Jens Gruner-Hegge told TradeWinds: "I believe the market underestimated the benefit of the contract portfolio and the increases that we have managed to achieve on the commercial front for all our three logistics businesses."