MOL’s on-time arrival percentages mostly drop in 1Q

   The liner carrier MOL said last week its vessel on-time arrival rates rose on the Asia-U.S. West Coast lane from the last quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.
   However, on-time rates deteriorated on the other four lanes it measures.
   MOL’s Asia-U.S. West Coast on-time percentage rose during the quarter from 88 percent to 95 percent. But on all-water services to the U.S. East Coast, the on-time percentage fell from 81 percent to 76 percent. On the transatlantic, it fell from 67 percent to 63 percent.
   On the Asia-Europe lane, it fell from 78 percent to 69 percent to Northern Europe, and from 40 to 25 percent to the Mediterranean. MOL’s performance in the first quarter was worse in all five lanes than in the third quarter of 2012.
   “Asia-USEC services still suffered delays due to continuous weather interruptions in both Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean since last quarter,” the carrier said. “In addition to weather factors, port congestions in Shanghai, Pusan and Balboa impacted our vessel schedules in March 2013. Similar to Asia-USEC and Asia-USWC services, Transatlantic services still suffered heavy delays because the poor weather in Atlantic Ocean.
   “Strikes in Le Havre and Ashdod, port congestion and closured in Shanghai/Ningbo and port congestion in Hong Kong/Jeddah severely affected the schedule integrity of Asia to Europe/Mediterranean vessels which caused heavy delays to EUR/MED services,” the carrier said. – Eric Johnson