With schedule reliability edging up slightly – but still well below acceptable norms - some analysts have said that for shippers price is sometimes secondary to the predictability of getting product to market.
All the more reason for carriers to focus on schedule integrity – with the likes of Evergreen, at the bottom of the pile, registering just 13.4%.
There was a marginal improvement in reliability in October of 0.4 percentage points to 34.4%, maintaining the range of 34%-40% seen throughout the year, according to the latest Global Liner Performance report, compiled by maritime consultancy Sea-Intelligence, and covering the period up to and including October 2021.
“The only “positive”, if one should call it that, is that schedule reliability is not plummeting further,” said Sea-Intelligence CEO Alan Murphy.
On a y-o-y level, October 2021 was down -18.0 percentage points. The average delay for late vessel arrivals also improved marginally, dropping to 7.34 days, albeit still the highest figure for this month. “ This has been a theme throughout 2021,” said Murphy.
Maersk was once again top of the log, achieving 46.4% reliability, followed by Hamburg Süd at 38.1%. Another three carriers were within the 30%-40% range, with five recording 20%-30%.
Four were under 20%.
Ten recorded a m-o-m improvement, none a y-o-y improvement - with all but three carriers showing double-digit declines of over 20.0 percentage points.
This report covers the global highlights from the full report which is extensive.