Global shipping schedule reliability bounced to near pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter with noticeable improvements across all metrics of schedule reliability and average delay on a global, carrier, carrier alliance, and trade lane level.
Sea Intelligence said in a new report that on a global level, schedule reliability increased to 58.3%, which was a 3.4 percentage point (PP) increase Q/Q and a 24.9 PP improvement Y/Y.
Similarly, the average delay for ALL vessel arrivals improved to 1.70 days, dropping by -2.88 days Y/Y, while the average delay for LATE vessel arrivals improved to 5.23 days, a notable -2.43 day improvement Y/Y.
"This continues a trend that we saw for most of 2022 as well, with the metrics now closer to the pre-pandemic levels than to the below-par service levels of the pandemic-impacted years," Sea Intelligence said.
Source: Sea-Intelligence
In its report, Sea Intelligence noted that as for the top-14 shipping lines, all of them recorded double-digit Y/Y improvements, with four of them recording improvements of over 30 PP.
It said that Maersk was the most reliable carrier in Q1 with schedule reliability of 63.6%, with MSC the only other carrier with a schedule reliability higher than 60%.
"11 of the 12 remaining shipping lines were within 50%-60%, with Yang Ming the only exception with schedule reliability of 49.9%," Sea Intelligence added.
Meanwhile, it noted that the three carrier alliances also recorded sharp Y/Y improvements in schedule reliability, although only 2M and Ocean Alliance outperformed the industry on the East/West alliance trades, that too by under 2 PP.
THE Alliance on the other hand underperformed the industry by a significant -12.1 PP.
"All of the six major East/West trades recorded double-digit Y/Y improvements in schedule reliability, although all of them underperformed compared to the global industry average," the report added.
In March alone, Sea-Intelligence earlier reported that global shipping schedule reliability bounced and showed another month-on-month increase, this time of 2.4 percentage points, reaching 62.6%, and bringing it almost in line with the 2020 figure for the same month.
