{
  "id": 5383386,
  "title": "New data shows on-time container shipping suffers biggest drop in 5 years",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/new-data-shows-on-time-container-shipping-suffers-biggest-drop-in-5",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-03T18:12:19.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "FreightWaves",
    "slug": "freightwaves",
    "url": "https://www.freightwaves.com/news/new-data-shows-on-time-container-shipping-suffers-biggest-drop-in-5-years"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Severe weather disturbances in Asia have caused a significant decline in global container shipping's on-time performance, according to a new report from Sea Intelligence. The report reveals that global container vessel schedule reliability dropped to 56.4% in July 2026, a 6.1% decrease from June, marking the sharpest single-month decline since January 2021. At the same time, the average delay for late vessel arrivals increased to 6.06 days, up more than a half-day month-over-month. The decline in on-time vessel arrivals was primarily driven by congestion in major Asian ports. All 14 of the region's busiest ports experienced a decrease in schedule reliability. Yantian saw the most significant drop, with reliability falling by 23.5 percentage points to 48.3%. Hong Kong and Ningbo also experienced substantial declines, with reliabilities dropping by 20.4 and 20.1 percentage points, respectively. Shanghai's schedule reliability was described as \"particularly alarming,\" as only 21% of container vessels arrived on time in July, following a steep decline of 19.2 percentage points. The situation in other Asia hubs was also concerning, with Singapore's on-time reliability dropping to 43.2% from a 5.7 percentage point decrease in June, and Busan's reliability falling to 40.9%. The report warns that with more than half of incoming vessels delayed in the region's busiest ports, the backlog will cascade through the maritime network, potentially triggering a new wave of delays for critical headhaul trade lanes in the coming months.",
  "summary": "Global container shipping’s on-time performance saw its sharpest single‑month decline since January 2021. The post New data shows on-time container shipping suffers biggest drop in 5 years appeared first on FreightWaves .",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}