Capesize bulk carriers produced more handsome returns than any other ship type in 2010, Clarkson Research Services says.

In assessing the good, the bad and the ugly of this year, the broker's research guru Martin Stopford places capes at the top of the tree in terms of cash generation, ahead of VLCCs.

Dividing the average earnings of each ship class by their operating costs, Stopford's sums show capesizes score 3.9 against the 2.5 industry average.

While the capesize figure is well below the peak rank of 12 in 2007, the ships still generated cash flow of around $20,000 daily, he says.

VLCCs (3.5), suezmaxes (3.4) and handymaxes (3.2) all turned in a "pretty reasonable" performance, while panamax bulkers at 2.9 were still well above recession level, Stopford explains.

By contrast, aframax tankers, with a score of 2.5, were classed as fairly bad and containerships (1.5 to 1.2 depending on size) were considered very ugly.

Bottom of the pile was products tankers, which only just crept above the breakeven level.