Containership reliability was broadly unchanged in November, 2015 as the average on-time performance across all trades slipped by just 0.8% against October to 77.2%, according to Drewry Supply Chain Advisors’ Carrier Performance Insight.
Six of the ten trades covered recorded month-on-month on-time improvements in November, but worse performances in each of the three East-West trades and in the Asia-South America route – the only North-South trade to decline – dragged down the overall reliability performance.
The average deviation from the sailing schedule was 0.8 days.
Eight of the 19 top 20 carriers measured scored an average on-time performance of 80% or higher in November, 2015.
After sharing the top spot in October, Evergreen led with an overall on-time average of 85.3%, followed by Wan Hai with 84.1%.
Other carriers to get scores of at least 80% in the month included K Line (81.8%), Maersk Line (80.9%) and MOL (80.9%).
Simon Heaney, Senior Manager of Supply Chain Research at Drewry, said: “Reliability seems to have found a new and improved standard with the on-time performance settling in the 70-80% range in each of the last seven months, about 10-15 points better than the previous long-term average.
“Drewry believes that this new normal will last but that is probably close to the ceiling of what shippers can expect from carriers in the short-to-medium term as most of their attention will go on restoring profitability.
“The weaker financial environment probably won’t have much, if any, impact as during the industry’s nadir in 2009 on-time reliability actually improved by around 7 points to average 60% so there is little reason to expect any worsening in performance this time.”
The number of container ships sailing along the trans pacific route could boom following the arrival of the 17,859 TEU CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin on December 26, 2015.
