my impression is that their charter rates are actually not that high -- that when spot rates were really strong, they sacrificed short-term gains for long-term stability. perhaps a reason why SSW contracts have held up as well as they have so far, knock on wood. Ship costs X, requiring rate of return Y, so they contract it out at Y plus a little bit, without being greedy about it. someone please correct me if I'm mistaken.

"The old business model is broken IMO"

IMO it's a big advantage for shipping lines to lock in a certain amount of supply at a fixed, known rate so they can make commitments to their own customers and not have to worry about spot markets. I'm sure they need both long-term charters and spot ships to manage their business, there's probably plenty of room for SSW to focus on what they do best.