Containership reliability declined for the second month in a row in December, according to Drewry’s enhanced Carrier Performance Insight.
The latest data shows that the aggregate on-time performance for the Asia-Europe, Transpacific and Transatlantic trades dropped to 58% in December, down from 62% in November and 64% in October.
December’s on-time performance was the worst since August (55%) with the monthly decline the result of weaker reliability across all three trades.
Reliability in the Asia-Europe trade (7,475 voyages tracked) declined by 4.5 points month-on- month to 64.3%. In the Transpacific (3,826 voyages), the on-time performance dropped 3.3 points to a new low of 47.4%, while Transatlantic (570 voyages) reliability also slumped to a nadir of 46.3%, down by 12.6 points. Maersk Line was the most reliable carrier in the October-December period, recording a three- month average on-time performance of 80%, up 3 points on the previous quarter. In second place was Hamburg Sud with 75%, followed by COSCO on 70%.
The biggest improvement in the fourth quarter came from MOL, which gained 11 points to 60%, while MSC jumped by 9 points to 61%. The improvement at MSC suggests that it is striving to meet the standards of Maersk, its partner in the new “2M” vessel sharing agreement that started this month.