OCEAN SCHEDULE RELIABILITY IMPROVES SLIGHTLY BUT REMAINS LOW
Maritime analyst Sea Intelligence published on 30 March the latest issue of the Global Liner Performance report, with schedule reliability figures up to February 2022. The report shows that schedule reliability slightly improved by 4 percentage points on month-to-month basis reaching 34%, the first significant improvement since March 2021. On a year-to-year basis, schedule reliability is marginally lower. The average delay for late vessel arrivals improved to 7.11 days but is still above 7 days since August 2021 and continue to be the highest across each month when compared with figures from last year.
However, these small improvements are hindered by a growing number of blank sailings: The Loadstar reported that ocean carriers are preparing to skip a certain number of port calls in Asia over the next few weeks. As an example, the port of Shanghai is experiencing “considerable congestion due to Covid lockdown” said MSC, resulting in “low or, at times, no availability of plugs for reefer containers.” Meanwhile, the Asia-North Europe trade saw the biggest slump in the spot market indices this week, as recorded by Xeneta’s XSI, with freight rates dropping by 10%, to $11,434 per 40ft.
Source: Sea-Intelligence, The Loadstar