Peter T. Leach, Senior Editor | Aug 15, 2012 10:37AM EDT
Container ships arrived at their destination ports around the world 83 percent of the time in July, an increase of two percentage points from the 81 percent vessel schedule reliability achieved in June, according to the latest Global Liner Performance Report from Seaintel Maritime Analysis.
The timely delivery of containers to their ultimate destinations, which Seaintel tracks in partnership with INTTRA, also increased to 68 percent of the time in July, from 64 percent in June.
Maersk Line retained its number 1 position as the carrier with the best schedule reliability out of the top 10 carriers. Yang Ming moved into the number 2 spot, followed by Hamburg Sud, which also improved its schedule reliability in July.
Vessel schedule reliability improved in July on 16 of the 28 trade lanes that Seaintel covers, and container delivery performance improved on 19 of 28 trade lanes.
The majority of carriers improved their schedule reliability, causing the gap between the top and bottom performers to narrow. SeaIntel said this may make it more difficult for carriers to differentiate themselves on the basis of performance, as shippers may come to take schedule reliability for granted.
It also said the rapid upward performance trend during the individual weeks of July indicates that “we might very well see further increases in the timely delivery of containers in August.”
Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @petertleach.