New report: Just a third of container shipping on-time

August saw a sharp decline in global container shipping schedule reliability, with just 29% of vessels arriving on time. This marked the third consecutive month of reduced reliability, falling to its lowest point since the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. The average delay for vessels increased from 4.2 days to 5.1 days. The Far East–Europe trade was hit particularly hard, with on-time performance dropping by 10 percentage points to 6%, and average delay reaching 8.2 days.

This was the lowest level seen since the peak of the 2021 Covid-19 supply-chain disruption. The lane continues to struggle with operational effects such as longer diverted routings due to the Red Sea crisis, North European port congestion, and weather-related disruptions. Additionally, China's four consecutive typhoons in late August led to 1.1 million TEUs of cargo being held at anchorage in Ningbo, Shanghai, and Yantian.

This backlog is expected to affect downstream ports in Europe and North America in the coming weeks. Deterioration in schedule reliability was also observed in South America and Africa, with on-time performance dropping by 15 percentage points and 12 percentage points, respectively. The sharp decline in schedule reliability is expected to put pressure on capacity and increase freight rates heading into the fourth quarter.