Prime Freight’s summary of an October 2021 report by The Maritime Executive. Read the original for the full story.
Sea-Intelligence data reported in October 2021 showed that only about a third of container ships arrived on schedule in September, leaving global liner reliability near the bottom of its 2021 range.
Reliability across the 34 trades and more than 60 carriers the firm tracks rose by just 0.6 points to 34%, which was 22 points below a year earlier; all year it had stayed between 34% and 40%. Late vessels arrived an average of 7.27 days behind schedule, the worst figure on record for September. Among the 14 largest lines, Maersk led at 44.2% and six Asia-based carriers were below 20%. A year before, Maersk and Hamburg Süd had kept around two-thirds of their sailings on time.
Carriers were skipping the most congested ports to protect their networks. Maersk moved some large ships away from Felixstowe and fed UK cargo from the continent, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd switched calls from Savannah to other ports, and Maersk, MSC and Zim temporarily dropped Seattle from a shared service.
What it meant for shippers
With two ships in three running late and the average delay over a week, published arrival dates were a weak basis for planning. Adding buffer time, tracking the vessel rather than the schedule, and preparing for a change of discharge port were sensible precautions.