Liner reliability falls in August

   On-time performance in August fell for each of the world’s biggest 20 liner carriers, according to the latest research by SeaIntel Maritime Analysis.
   Overall performance fell from 83 percent in July to 77 percent in August, SeaIntel said, with none of the top 20 improving month-on-month
   “This decline was also seen for the delivery of the individual containers, where global on-time performance declined from 68 percent in July to 64 percent in August based on data from INTTRA,” SeaIntel said. “It is in this context worth noting that the decline in on-time delivery was less severe than for schedule reliability, indicating that some of the gains seen in container delivery had been due to other factors than the timeliness of the vessels.”
   The top three performers in August were Maersk Line, Hamburg Süd and APL, though SeaIntel noted they achieved their high rankings by being among the carriers experiencing only relatively minor declines in schedule reliability in August.
   SeaIntel also pointed out that reliability differed across trade lanes.
   “The back haul trade from Europe to Asia as well as the transpacific trade saw significant performance reductions,” the report said. “However some trades, such as the head haul trade from Asia to the Mediterranean, actually saw improved performance in August. The sharp reduction is seen to be a consequence of poor weather conditions, port issues as well as the phasing-in of super slow-steaming on main back-haul trades.”
   The data underlying the analysis stems from SeaIntel Maritime Analysis’ database of more than 120,000 vessel arrivals, as well as INTTRA’s database of more than 800,000 container status messages daily.