Global Schedule Reliability Drops to Record-Low 05/02/2021

A record-low of 44.6% global schedule reliability was recorded in December 2020, as identified in Sea-Intelligence’s latest Global Liner Performance (GLP) report.

This drop means that, for the fifth consecutive month, schedule reliability has been the lowest across all months since Sea-Intelligence’s benchmark was introduced back in 2011. It is also the fifth consecutive month in which there has been a double-digit Y/Y decline; for example, in comparison with December 2019, reliability for December 2020 was -31.7 percentage points lower.

Similarly, the average delay for LATE vessel arrivals has increased M/M across four months consecutively. In December, it reached 5.74 days.

This slump in schedule reliability coincided with carriers’ introduction of capacity on the major trade lanes. With continued widespread port congestion and no sign of carriers letting off in terms of capacity, even for Chinese New Year, there may not be an improvement in reliability until Q2 2021