Schedule reliability fell almost four percentage points from 75.6% in June to 71.6%.

July’s schedule reliability is based on a record number of vessel calls, with as many as 10,966 arrivals recorded.

In terms of individual carriers, Maersk Line, Hamburg Süd and Hanjin were again the three most reliable among the top 20 carriers in July, as in June, posting performance levels of 85.2%, 79.3% and 75.4%, respectively.

The report also shows that Hyundai Merchant Marine, MOL, NYK, all operating under the G6 Alliance, ranked in the bottom three of the world’s top 20 shipping lines.

The global decline in performance was evident nearly across the board, United Arab Shipping Co becoming the only top 20 carrier to improve its vessels’ schedule reliability.

The fast growing Dubai-based shipping line improved its monthly performance by 0.9 percentage points.

Schedule reliability also fell on all three of the major trade lanes, according to the SeaIntel report, with performance on the transpacific eastbound, Asia-Mediterranean and Asia-north Europe routes declining by 1, 4 and 6 percentage points.

The decline in vessel reliability between Asian and north European ports in July means that reliability on this route is as much as 20 percentage points down as the same period a year ago, said the consultants.

SeaIntel chief operating officer Alan Murphy said carriers had been hit hard by congestion in Rotterdam and Hamburg in Europe and by service disruption at several ports on the west coast of the US, including Long Beach, Los Angeles and Vancouver.

“The congestion has had a negative impact on schedule reliability and container delivery in July, as vessel turnaround times have increased with delays spreading to inland distribution of containers,” Mr Murphy said.

The post Shipping Line Congestion Still a Problem appeared first on K&L Freight.

Maersk Line is one of the few in the industry to have produced respectable second quarter results, helped by unexpectedly good volumes in the Asia-Europe trades, which helped to stabilise average freight rates.

But Maersk Line’s net operating profit of $547m and annualised return on invested capital of 10.8% was far more a reflection of cost-cutting initiatives than higher revenue, with Mr Skou revealing that Maersk’s strategy excludes any assumption of a long-term freight rate recovery.

“When it comes to pricing, we do not subscribe to the view that freight rates will get better in the industry — all the evidence points to declining rates,” Mr Skou said in a telephone interview.

Price drop

On average over the past 10 years, prices have been falling by between 2% and 4% a year, a trend that, in Maersk’s opinion, is unlikely to be reversed.

Freight rates may go up in the short term for particular reasons such as inventory replenishment, as occurred in the second quarter, which pushed up utilisation levels, but such rallies are likely to be temporary.

The post Sea freight rates to fall long term appeared first on K&L Freight.