MOL’s Performance Hampered by Port Congestion

Due to the lingering effects of labor issues on the U.S. West Coast, both Asia – U.S. West Coast and Transatlantic services’ performance deteriorated further in January – March 2015, Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) said in its On-Time Arrival Performance results.

The company decided to introduce the performance review for its major trade lanes as an effort of upgrading the quality of its services.

The scope of trade lanes included in the review covers:

• East-West Trade: Asia-U.S. West Coast, Asia-U.S. East Coast, Transatlantic, Asia-Europe, Asia-Mediterranean
• North-South Trade: Asia-East Coast South America, Asia-Mexico/West Coast South America, Europe-Africa
  
• Intra Asia Trade: Intra Asia

MOL’s performance of Asia – U.S. East Coast services improved due to various schedule recovery programs, including additional relief vessels and port omissions.

Overall Asia – Europe and Asia – Mediterranean services performance did not improve in January – March 2015 due to ongoing port congestion at Shanghai, Hong Kong, Europe Ports, and Port Said, plus low productivity in Singapore.

The on-time performance of MOL’s Asia – ECSA service (CSW) improved from 92% in October – December 2014 to 100% in January – March 2015.

Although South African ports (Cape Town and Ngqura) were still generally facing strong wind conditions in January – March 2015, delays were avoided by securing appropriate berth windows and making schedule adjustments, MOL said.

The change of coastal schedule in response to Keelung’s port closure during the Chinese New Year period negatively affected the on-time performance of vessels operated by MOL on the Asia-WCSA service (CWL). However, overall performance of the service improved from 87% to 93% due to improvement upon Asia port congestion issue.

The Europe – West Africa service (ARN) schedule was negatively impacted by delays in Abidjan due to congestion, which also impacted the SB arrival in Tincan.

On the Europe – South Africa service (SRX), departures from Cape Town were affected by adverse weather conditions (severe wind) delaying departures 2 – 4 days.

In January – March 2015, Japan-Hong Kong/Straits (CHS/HS3) on-time performance improved due to alleviation of port congestion, the liner said.

MOL’s Japan-Thailand (CBE/CBW) on-time performance improved significantly due to the removal of the Manila call from the rotation, which was also impacted by congestion woes.