Global News Global liner performance unchanged in October, but USWC ticked higher

Ocean carrier schedule reliability remained below pre-pandemic levels in October, with average delays creeping up from September. The major trans-Pacific trades continued to bifurcate in on-time performance, with Asia-US West Coast container services seeing improvement while East Coast services logged worsening performance.

Sea-Intelligence Maritime Analysis’ Global Liner Performance report for October showed that all weekly services globally were within one day of their expected arrival date 64.4% of the time, unchanged from September. While that is a marked improvement from the average 42.3% on-time performance for all of 2022, it is still below the 78% average for pre-pandemic 2019.

Moreover, vessels that were late got even later during October, with late vessels arriving 4.9 days behind schedule on average compared with 4.6 days in September. Ships that were late were an average of 4.1 days behind schedule during all of 2019, Sea-Intelligence data showed.

Even though container volumes have largely returned to normal historical levels, ocean carriers still have not been able to return to performance levels seen prior to the pandemic, Lars Jensen, CEO of consultancy Vespucci Maritime, wrote on LinkedIn.

“On-time performance is unchanged compared to the previous month, leaving the market in a state still roughly 10 percentage points below the pre-pandemic normality,” Jensen, also a Journal of Commerce analyst, said. “The past five months show no indication of a trend back to normality.” East, West coasts diverge The trans-Pacific trade lane saw mixed performance in October. Asia-US West Coast container services saw a month-to-month jump in on-time performance to 53.4%, up from 47.8% in September and the highest reliability reading for the trade lane since August 2020, Sea-Intelligence data showed.

The average number of days delayed for a late vessel to the US West Coast ticked lower from September’s 4.5 days to 4.1 days in October.

Among liner operators, carriers in the Ocean Alliance saw the best schedule reliability to the US West Coast by far, recording 70.2% on-time performance in October. THE Alliance members landed within one day of their berthing windows 36.1% of the time, while the 2M Alliance was at 34.8%.

The trans-Pacific East Coast lane, though, saw a second month of deteriorating schedule reliability, with Sea-Intelligence data showing ocean carriers hit their scheduled arrival within one day 36.5% of the time in October, the lowest reading for 2023. Late vessels were an average 6.1 days behind scheduled berthing, highest since November 2022.

THE Alliance saw the biggest drop in schedule reliability on the trade land as its on-time performance went from 26.9% in September to 17.2% in October. While it was unclear what led to the sharp drop, THE Alliance likely dealt with heavier volumes from shippers looking to move containers ahead of the November suspension of a major Asia-US East Coast container service.

2M member Maersk noted in customer advisory that while more of its vessels are arriving on time, it has seen berthing delays of between two and four days at some US ports, including Savannah and Houston.

“There are still some waiting times in Savannah and Houston,” Maersk said. “We will continue to operate extra loaders with service to the East Coast throughout the remainder of the year. Additionally, we have scheduled additional departures in January to accommodate [customers’] evolving needs.”