zoomImage Courtesy: Wan Hai

Global schedule reliability dropped by 8.1 percentage points in the first quarter of 2018, compared to the previous quarter, reaching 66.4%, according to SeaIntel Maritime Analysis.

Taiwanese container carrier Wan Hai was the most reliable carrier in the first three months of 2018 with 80.6% schedule reliability. Evergreen and APL followed with 71.3% and 71.0% schedule reliability, respectively.

None of the Top17 carriers recorded a positive quarter-on-quarter change in schedule reliability, while APL, Wan Hai, and MSC were the only carriers to record positive year-on-year change in schedule reliability, of 3.0, 2.1, 0.5 percentage points, respectively.

On a trade level, none of the major East/West trades recorded a positive quarter-on-quarter change in schedule reliability, with only the Asia-Mediterranean (MED) and Asia-North Europe (NEUR) trades recorded positive year-on-year changes.

In the first quarter of the year, the Asia-North America West Coast (NAWC) trade lane recorded 55.3% schedule reliability, down 10.9 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. HMM was the most reliable carrier on this trade lane with 68.6% schedule reliability.

The Asia-North America East Coast (Asia-NAEC) trade lane saw schedule reliability drop a staggering 21.1 percentage points from the previous quarter. OOCL was the most reliable carrier on Asia-NAEC with 46.7% on time performance.

Schedule reliability for Asia-NEUR and Asia-MED improved by 3.0 and 8.1 percentage points year-on-year, respectively, reaching 70.1% and 70.8%, however, their schedule reliability dropped on a quarterly basis. FESCO was the most reliable carrier on both trade lanes with 95.2% and 100% schedule reliability, respectively.

Both Transatlantic trades recorded massive quarterly drops in schedule reliability, of 21.7 percentage points on Transatlantic Eastbound (TA EB), and 23.7 percentage points on Transatlantic Westbound (TA WB), reaching 58.3% and 49.3%, respectively. Marfret was the most reliable carrier on TA EB with 96.0%, while ICL was the most reliable on TA WB with 87.5%.