[110720.EN.BIZ] Fewer Late Vessels in May, But Degree of Delays Increasing: Sea-Intelligence

CONTAINER shipping consultancy Sea-Intelligence says container shipping schedule reliability improved by 5.1 percentage points month on month in May to 74.9 per cent, although below the May 2019 figure by 5.3 percentage points.

"This continues the upwards trend in schedule reliability meaning that the pandemic-induced blank sailings have not had a negative impact as expected," said Alan Murphy, CEO, Sea-Intelligence.

"We presented a possible explanation in April that this could simply be as a result of carriers instituting buffers in their schedules to maintain schedule integrity. However, a recent analysis published in our Sunday Spotlight showed this not to be true.

"The increase in schedule reliability could then simply be a case of fewer vessels being easier to manage per service string. In which case, a demand resurgence could see schedule reliability drop."

Mr Murphy noted that the average delay for late vessel arrivals has been consistently high throughout 2020, and has been on an upwards trend since March. Both April and May 2020 figures were the highest for the respective months.

In terms of the top-15 deep-sea carriers, Hamburg Sud was the most reliable in May 2020 with schedule reliability of 84.7 per cent, followed by Zim with 83.5 per cent. PIL recorded the lowest May 2020 schedule reliability of 68.1 per cent.

Of the 15 carriers, 13 recorded a month-on-month improvement in schedule reliability, with Zim recording a double-digit improvement. Zim was also the only top-15 carrier to record a year-on-year improvement in schedule reliability, with PIL and Wan Hai recording double-digit declines.

Source : HKSG.