Shipping line schedule reliability has fallen below 57%

Global container shipping line reliability suffered its sharpest monthly decline in more than five years in July, as worsening congestion at major Asian ports sent on-time performance plunging.

According to Sea-Intelligence, global schedule reliability fell 6.1 percentage points month on month, to 56.4% in July – the steepest single-month decline recorded since January 2021. The disruption was heavily concentrated on services heading into Asia, with major back-haul trades from North America and Europe particularly badly affected.

The Loadstar reported that following Typhoon Saudel, impacts of port congestion had worsened. Shanghai was among the worst affected, with just 21% of vessels arriving on schedule. Ningbo’s reliability fell to 34.6%, while Shekou stood at only 27.4%.

Sea-Intelligence warned that when the region’s three busiest ports have more than half their incoming vessels delayed, the resulting backlog could “cascade through the entire maritime network”. It added that this could also “trigger a new wave of delays for the critical head-haul trades in the months to follow.

Source: theloadstar.com