RELIABILITY of container schedules continues to be poor, despite marginal improvements on last month’s figures, data from Sea Intelligence revealed.

Global schedule reliability stood at just 51.5% in October 2024, a 0.9 percentage point improvement on September’s figures, but still down more than 10% on October 2023 and the worst reliability figures since 2021.

For vessels that are late, the length of delay continues to be high, clocking in at 5.72 days. Though this is again a marginal improvement on September’s figure (5.86 days), it’s still the highest length of delay for October since 2021.

In terms of carrier specifics, 12 of the 13 top carriers continue to report a double-digit decrease in reliability for 2024. Maersk was the most reliable carrier in October 2024 with 57.9%, followed by the Mediterranean Shipping Co (52%).

Much has been made of the potential for front-loading of goods into the US to beat tariffs that look ever more likely to come into force in 2025. This has been put forward as a contributing factor for 2024’s wretched reliability record, but as Lloyd’s List reported, Asia-US west coast rates do not back that assessment up.

Comments from CMA CGM executive vice-president Christine Cabau Woehrel, reported in Lloyd’s List, suggested that increased vessel size and calls from bigger boxships were clogging up normally efficient Asian ports.

“We need to adapt to this new normal, because it’s not easy for ports worldwide to immediately expand yard space,” said Woehrel.

“We need new processes between terminals and shipping lines, and stronger collaboration on anticipating ship arrivals, productivity, and yard preparation to create new working modes together.”

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