Boxship reliability is continuing to deteriorate, according to the latest Global Liner Performance report published by Sea-Intelligence. After a month-on-month decline in punctuality in December (-5% compared to November), the overall reliability of liner services in January this year fell by a further 5.1% compared to the previous month, to 51.6%.
Average ship arrival delays also worsened, mainly due to diversions from Suez and the re-routing of traffic to the Cape of Good Hope. Greater sailing times along the east-west routes between Europe, the US and the Far East have clearly impacted the capacity to respect schedules. In January, there was an average delay of 6.01 days per scheduled sailing (+0.59 days compared to the month before).
Among the world’s top 13 container carriers, CMA CGM was the most punctual in January, with 54.7% schedule reliability. Four other carriers had a reliability above 50% (Wan Hai, Evergreen, OOCL and COSCO). The other eight carriers recorded a schedule reliability between 40% and 50% (GDP, ONE, MSC, ZIM, Maersk, Hapag Lloyd, HMM and Yang Ming, which was the least reliable, with an average punctuality of 42.2%).
In January, the gap between the most reliable and the least punctual carrier was the lowest since February 2023.
Due to the current crisis scenario in the Red Sea, only 9 of the top 13 carriers under review recorded a monthly improvement in punctuality, and only 7 recorded an annual improvement.
Translation by Giles Foster
