Container line schedule reliability continue to track the levels seen in the previous months this year, according to Sea-Intelligence, but the level of delays seen in 2021 have been the “highest” across each month when compared to the previous years.

The maritime analyst said in its latest Global Liner Performance (GLP) report that global container line schedule reliability declined by -0.2 percentage points in May to 38.8%. On a year-on-year measure, schedule reliability was also down a massive -36.0 percentage points — although Sea Intelligence noted that the average delay for late vessel arrivals on the other hand had been improving since March 2021.

In May 2021, however, it said that the average delay increased slightly by 0.05 days to 5.86 days.

“Schedule reliability has been largely consistent these past few months, albeit at a much lower level than the industry stakeholders would have preferred,” said Alan Murphy, CEO of Sea-Intelligence. 

In April, container line schedule reliability was recorded at 39.2% and in March, it was at 40.4%. 

Maersk most reliable liner in May 2021

Meanwhile, the maritime analyst named Maersk Line as the most reliable top-14 carrier in May 2021, with schedule reliability of 46.2%, followed by Hamburg Süd. Both liners were also the most reliable in March. 

Sea-Intelligence noted that for the month, three more carriers had schedule reliability higher than 40%, with six carriers between 30%-40%, and four under 30%.

It said for May, Evergreen had the lowest schedule reliability at 25.1%. Six carriers also recorded a month-on-month improvement in May 2021, although the largest improvement recorded by MSC was of just 2.3 percentage points, it added.

“The largest M/M decrease was of -14.4 percentage points recorded by Wan Hai, the only carrier to record a double-digit M/M decline,” Murphy said.

“None of the top-14 carriers recorded a Y/Y improvement in schedule reliability, with all carriers recording double-digit declines of over -33.0 percentage points,” he added.