Container Reliability Hits New Record Low

In its latest Global Liner Performance report, Sea Intelligence says that up to December 2021, container shipping line schedule reliability dropped again, this time by -1.2 percentage points on a month-to-month basis to 32.0%; the lowest ever global schedule reliability since the maritime analysis company started the measurement in 2011.

On a year-to-year basis, schedule reliability was 12.5 percentage points lower, reports Sea-Intelligence. Despite the low schedule reliability in 2021, there has not been much fluctuation, with the global scores hovering between 32%-40% for the most part. The average delay for late vessel arrivals increased to 7.33 days, the fifth consecutive month with the delay figure above 7 days.

Among the world’s 14 largest container lines, Maersk had the highest reliability, with 46.2%. Maersk-owned Hamburg Süd came in second with 41%. MSC is third, followed by Hapag-Lloyd.

Five carriers had schedule reliability of under 20%, with Evergreen recording the lowest December 2021 schedule reliability figure of 14.3%. Asian container lines usually have low reliability rates as a large part of their business take place on the route to the USA via the Pacific Ocean which is the most strained route of all.