Liner reliability downturn on the three main trades

After a run of six consecutive months of improvement, container service reliability across the three main East-West trades declined in July, falling by 4.0% from June to 73.3%, according to Drewry Supply Chain Advisors’ Carrier Performance Insight.

The latest overall monthly performance was the result of lower reliability scores on the Asia-Europe and Transpacific trades, although service punctuality for the far smaller Transatlantic route was raised to a new data series high.

The Asia-Europe trade slipped by 4.1%, but that was still enough to be the second best in the data series at 78.2%.

Services in the Transpacific fell further back by 6.1% to 62.5%, while the Transatlantic experienced a rise of 5.6% to a new on-time performance record of 79.6%.

Despite the set-back in July, reliability remains well above the level it was at the same point in 2014 when the East-West trades’ on-time average ratio was only 59.0%.

For the first time, Drewry reports that a carrier other than Maersk Line topped the monthly rankings as MOL had the best on-time performance in July of 80.1%. MOL’s reliability ratio was actually slightly lower than for June but it was sufficient to push Maersk down into second place as the Danish carrier fell back by 5.0% to 79.8%.

There was more evidence of bunching between carriers as all bar the worst four carriers were within about 12 points of the leaders.

The least reliable carriers in July were Wan Hai (57.0%) and PIL (56.6%).

Source: Drewry Maritime Research