Container ships have been sailing at full load since August, something not seen in a decade.

The ocean shipping business was also helped by high freight rates.

Onda low fuel costs all told that sore fourth quarter pretax earnings leap 85% to just over $2.7 billion.

That still fell short off analyst forecasts, however, and saw shares head sharply lower.

They tumbled as much as 8% in morning trade Wednesday.

Investors also noted the company's more cautious than expected outlook for trade masks.

Expected earnings range for the year starts as low as $8.5 billion compared with the over 10 billion that analysts had forecast.