The global schedule reliability for February 2023 showed a sharp increase of 7.7 percentage points month-on-month, reaching 60.2 per cent.
According to the latest Global Liner Performance (GLP) report, published by Sea-Intelligence, on a year-on-year level, the increase was even more significant, with a staggering 26 percentage points.
The GLP report measures schedule reliability across 34 different trade lanes and 60+ carriers, and the February 2023 report indicates that the average delay for LATE vessel arrivals also decreased.
The average delay dropped by 0.07 days month-on-month in February 2023 to 5.29 days, and it was down by 2.30 days year-on-year.
This puts the average delay for LATE vessel arrivals closer to the 2019 level than the highs recorded in 2021 and 2022, noted Alan Murphy, CEO, Sea-Intelligence.
In February 2023, Maersk was the most reliable carrier among the top 14, with a reliability score of 64.9 per cent, followed closely by MSC with 64.4 per cent. Hamburg Süd was the only other carrier that recorded a reliability score of over 60 per cent.
Sea-Intelligence noted that the remaining carriers all had schedule reliability scores between 50 per cent and 60 per cent, with ZIM recording the least reliable score of 52 per cent.
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However, all top 14 carriers recorded an increase in schedule reliability in February 2023 – with PIL, ZIM, and Wan Hai all recording double-digit improvements.
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The shift signals good news for the industry as a whole, and it represents a significant improvement in comparison to the lows recorded during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
