Container line schedule reliability improved month-on-month in February which Sea-Intelligence said in its new report is the "first significant M/M improvement" since 2020.

The improvement came after schedule reliability dropped to its lowest ever in January after another record low in December 2021.

In a statement, it said schedule reliability improved by 4.0 percentage points, reaching 34.4% in February, "the first significant M/M improvement" seen in schedule reliability since March 2020.

"In February 2022, the schedule reliability score was only marginally lower year-on-year," the maritime analyst said.

Meanwhile, Sea-Intel said the average delay for late vessel arrivals also improved month-on-month decreasing by  -0.77 days to 7.11 days in February 2022.

"That said, the delays have now been over 7 days since August 2021, and continue to be the highest across each month when compared historically, as the delay figure for February 2022 was 0.16 days higher year-on-year," it added.

Maersk's most reliable liner in February

Just like in the past months, Maersk was once again the most reliable top-14 carrier in February according to the Sea-Intel report with a schedule reliability of 47.8%, followed by Hamburg Süd with 42.4%.

It added that only MSC, CMA CGM, and ZIM had schedule reliability between 30%-40%, with 8 carriers recording schedule reliability of 20%-30%.

Sea-Intel noted that only Wan Hai had schedule reliability of under 20%, of 18.7%, making it the least reliable top-14 carrier in February.

"Only HMM recorded a month-on-month decline in schedule reliability, with Evergreen recording the largest improvement. On the other hand, eight carriers recorded a year-on-year decline in schedule reliability, with Wan Hai recording the largest decline," the maritime analyst added.