Global schedule reliability of liner shipping companies dropped to the lowest recorded level since Sea-Intelligence introduced the score in 2011.
In February 2020 the schedule reliability was down by a further 3.4 percentage points month on month hitting 65.1%.
The reliability of container shipping has been considerably impacted by the lockdown measures related to the coronavirus pandemic as well as other restrictive actions causing delays in cargo operations.
Furthermore, ad hoc decisions on blanking of sailings by major shipping alliances amid sharp demand downturn are making it even harder to maintain sailing schedules.
Schedule reliability in February 2020 was lower by 8.5 percentage points compared to the 73.6% recorded last year, Sea-Intelligence said.
“In terms of the average delays for LATE vessel arrivals, 2020 so far has seen the highest delays outside of the US West Coast labour dispute in early 2015,” Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence, said.
Based on the consultancy’s data, Hamburg Süd was the most reliable top-15 carrier in February 2020 with schedule reliability of 74.7%, followed by Maersk Line with 73.0%, and Wan Hai with 72.2%. Nine other carriers recorded February 2020 schedule reliability of 60% to 70%.
There were only 3 carriers that had February 2020 schedule reliability of less than 60%, PIL with 59.2%, OOCL with 58.9%, and Yang Ming with the lowest February 2020 schedule reliability of 56.8%.
ZIM was the only top-15 deep-sea carrier to record a month-on-month improvement in schedule reliability, of 2.0 percentage points.