HONG KONG, CHINA, Jan 22, 2010 (Marketwire via COMTEX News Network) — Seaspan Corporation (NYSE:SSW) announced today that the Company’s Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share for the three months ended December 31, 2009. The dividend will be paid on February 12, 2010 to all shareholders of record as of February 1, 2010.

Source: from the Seaspan press release

I listened to the Seaspan investor conference this morning and came away thinking that, as I have for some time, here is a well run company in a tough sector and tough times. I was surprised to see the stock take a drubbing this morning…now down sixty cents or over 8%. Am I not hearing something?

Good question. I took a look through the earnings press release and I see a couple of items that give one pause. A couple of their customers are going through some financial difficulties. Payments are still being made on the vessels but some restucturing is under way. The other item I see with both SSW and near twin Danaos, DAC, are the big new build order books coming into a container market that is 25% off where it was 18 months ago.

These companies seem well managed and continue to have contracts for all of the new build ships. As an investor, at this point you have to ask yourself if you believe that management can pull the company through the recession in one-piece. If yes, this stock will probably triple in the next couple of years. If no, their debt wll bury them. Owning container ship stocks in this economy is a bet on an economic recovery.

Here are the payors 11 through 15 on my list. The stocks are listed in this order: Company and stock symbol, dividend earned on $1000 invested on 1/1/2009 (divide by 5 to get an annualized percentage) and the share price change since the beginning of the year.

• Nordic American Tanker NAT, $52.50, -1.7%
• Ship Finance Ltd.SFL, $54.00, +10.8%
• Horizon Lines, Inc. $62.92, +44.7%
• Seaspan Corp., $64.40, -20.7%
• TORM AS TRMD, $66.68, +4.0%

This group is almost all tankers and containers. Horizon and Seaspan are in the container business. Nordic American and TORM are primarily tanker companies and Ship Finance is tankers, containers and offshore.

TORM has a policy of a single annual dividend though they have paid out mid-year distributions on occasion.

The divergence of the Y-T-D returns for the two container companies is interesting. Horizon primarily a domestic flagged company and is dependent on the health of the U.S. economy. A leading indicator? Seaspan has a lot of ships on order, but seem to have contracts in place for them as they are delivered.

I own personal positions in NAT and SFL.

Danaos Corp DAC has released their 1st quarter numbers and the press release is linked above. Reading the DAC report is like deja vu all over again. It looks a lot like fellow container shipper Seaspan Corp [[SSW]. Both appear to have good long term contracts for most if not all of their vessels to continue to provide steady cash flow and some level of profitability. Both have a large book of new build orders that they say are already contracted, but the still need to get financed and put in service.

Overall, however Seaspan seems to be in better shape financially and continue to pay a dividend (though reduced by 80%). Danaos is in noncompliance with their loan covenants due to collateral values.

Overall, the container market is grim these days with port numbers off 20% to 25% in most places. However, DAC and SSW both look like they are building for an economic recovery. I just hope they do not hit a big wave along the way.