In September, ocean carriers’ global schedule reliability declined by 1.2%, compared to August levels, falling to 51.4%, according to the latest Sea-Intelligence’s Global Liner Performance (GLP) report.
“While schedule reliability in 2024 has stabilised within the 50%-55% range, it’s been on a slight downward trend since the May peak,” noted the Danish maritime data analysis firm. “The low levels of volatility in schedule reliability in 2024 do give shippers a relatively good idea of what to expect M/M.”
Additionally, the average delay for late vessel arrivals increased by 0.21 days M/M to 5.67 days in September, which is the third-highest figure for the month, only surpassed by pandemic highs of 2021-2022.
Denmark’s shipping giant Maersk remained the most reliable top-13 carrier in September with schedule reliability of 55.5%. Only Maersk and French box line CMA CGM, which followed with schedule reliability of 50.9%, surpassed the 50% mark in September.
The remaining 11 carriers were all in the 40%-50% range, with Taiwan’s Wan Hai being considered the least reliable with 40.4% score.
Sea-Intelligence analysts noted that only four of the 13 largest carriers were able to record a M/M improvement, with Singapore-based liner operator PIL recording the largest increase of 4.5 percentage points, and South Korean major carrier HMM recording the largest decline of 7.8 percentage points.
On a Y/Y level, none of the top 13 box shipping companies saw an improvement in schedule reliability, with MSC and Wan Hai recording the largest decline of 21.5 percentage points each.