Industry-wide container ship reliability has made gradual improvements in recent months, but Asia-Europe carrier performance is the least reliable of the three main global sea trades, according to the latest performance rankings by shipping consultancy Drewry.
The new online version of Drewry’s Carrier Performance Insight also showed that in individual carrier reliability, Denmark-based Maersk Line and German box carrier Hamburg Sud were the two most reliable container shipping lines in the three months to October 2014.
Maersk Line and Hamburg Sud topped the list with overall on-time performances of 80.4% and 78.5%, respectively. The next best performer was Cosco at 69.9%, with its CKYHE Alliance partners, Evergreen, “K” Line, Hanjin Shipping, and Yang Ming not too far behind in that order.
Drewry’s new online version of its Carrier Performance Insight provides carrier performance benchmarking on a port-to-port, trade lane, service and industry-wide basis, and is updated every month.
Industry-wide container ship reliability improved in the three-month period to October. The latest data show that aggregate on-time performance for the Asia-Europe, trans-Pacific, and trans-Atlantic trades improved to 64% in October, up from 63% in September and 55% in August.
“It is a positive to see reliability improving, but the industry’s on-time performance is still unacceptably low for many shippers,” said Simon Heaney, senior manager of supply chain research at Drewry.
Despite the steady monthly improvement, the rolling three-month performance (August-October) was lower than for the previous three months at 60.6% versus 61.1%. The average deviation between the scheduled day of arrival (ETA) and actual day of arrival (ATA) remained at 1.1 day for the same period.
The Asia-Europe trade was the least reliable during August-October with only 58% of ships arriving on time, compared to 62% in the trans-Pacific and 77% in the trans-Atlantic.
Looking ahead, the recent drop in fuel prices could have some positive influence on reliability. Heaney elaborated: “Lower fuel costs won’t immediately see containerships running at their design speeds. But at the very least carriers should now be more willing to speed up if they fall behind schedule.”
Hapag-Lloyd slates rate hikes for North America-Asia trades
Meanwhile, Hapag-Lloyd announced an increase in its service rates effective January 15, 2015 for dry commodities from Canada and the U.S. to East Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, and the Middle East. The rate hikes will be US$80 per 20-foot container and $100 per 40-foot unit.
East Asia is comprised of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Macau, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Philippines, and the Russian Pacific Ports of Vladivostok and Vostochny.
Photo: Bruno Corpet
