Global container shipping schedule reliability continues in free fall for the third consecutive month. Only 29% of container ships arrived on time, with performance on Far East-Europe lanes nearing pandemic figures.
The average delay rose from 4.2 days to 5.1 days in August, as reliability declined.
Late vessels and longer delays make a sustained recovery increasingly unlikely. The situation is further complicated by the upcoming peak season associated with China’s late-September and early-October holidays.
The Far East-Europe trade is the most affected lane in August, recording a paltry 6% on-time performance and average delay reaching 8.2 days. The Far East-Europe lane is the most affected by the Red Sea crisis, characterized by longer voyages around the Cape of Good Hope. Weather disruptions in China caused by four consecutive typhoons left more than 1.1 million TEUs of cargo at anchorage across Shanghai, Ningbo and Yantian.
Backlogs in China will ripple into downstream ports in Europe and North America due to late arrivals and disrupted vessel rotations. Mid-Autumn Festival and Golden Week holidays are expected to place further pressure on capacity and equipment availability in the prevailing weak reliability environment.
