Taiwan’s Nobu Su – an unassuming-looking man who one rival describes as having an “enormous appetite for risk” – would have stood out in any era of shipping.

An adroit player of the volatile, relatively new paper market in freight futures, Mr Su has also turned TMT, his company, into a leading operator of real tankers and dry bulk ships. He has done so in just six years since taking over control of TMT – originally called Taiwan Maritime Transportation, now renamed Today Makes Tomorrow – on his father’s death in 2002.