Global shipping line schedule reliability has dropped to 34.9% in January 2021. Outlined in Sea-Intelligence’s, Global Liner Performance (GLP) report, global schedule reliability has been the lowest in history since the company’s benchmark was determined in 2011.
Compared to January 2020, shipping schedule reliability is -33.5% lower and it is the sixth consecutive month that Sea-Intelligence has recorded a double-digit decline. A very similar declining trend is clear in average days for LATE vessel arrivals. In January 2021, the average delays for LATE vessels fell to 6.42 days.
The report covers 34 different trade lanes and 60+ shipping carriers to get an accurate and global outlook on the reliability of sea freight shipping for the year.
According to the report, in January 2021, Hamburg Sud was the most reliable carrier with a 46.5% schedule reliability.
By analysing figure 3, it is clear that there has been a significant drop in carrier reliability compared to January 2020.
With the widespread port congestion due to industrial action in Australia, empty container congestion due to containers not being able to be returned to Asia, and with carriers still not letting off capacity-wise. It is clear that many shippers might not see any improvement in reliability anytime soon.
As of recent, as the operational issues in Sydney’s Port Botany are improving. This has pushed the major shipping lines to drop their port congestion surcharges. Hamburg Sud and Maersk have removed their congestion surcharges effective of 15 March 2021.
Although there has been an improvement with port congestion and the surrounding surcharges, due to the increased demand of consumption, there is remaining empty container congestion which can majorly impact schedule reliability.