Global container schedule reliability eased slightly in January 2026, slipping 0.4 percentage points month-on-month (MoM) to 62.4 per cent, according to Sea-Intelligence’s latest Global Liner Performance report.
While the overall figure remains the highest since 2021, late vessel arrivals continued to face significant delays, averaging just over five days.
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In January 2026, global schedule reliability fell 0.4 percentage points month-on-month to 62.4 per cent, marking the highest monthly figure between 2021 and 2026.
Year-on-year (YoY), reliability rose 11.0 percentage points. Average delays for late vessel arrivals increased by 0.07 days MoM to 5.17 days, the highest since February 2025, but were 0.21 days lower than in January 2025.
Among the top 13 carriers, Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk were the joint-most reliable with 72.2 per cent schedule reliability.
Seven carriers recorded reliability between 60 and 70 per cent, while four fell in the 50-60 per cent range. PIL was the least reliable at 50.1 per cent. Seven carriers improved MoM, and 12 improved YoY.
In December/January 2026, the Gemini Cooperation posted 89.5 per cent reliability for all arrivals and 88.3 per cent for trade arrivals, followed by MSC with 68.7 per cent and 66.8 per cent, and Premier Alliance with 58.8 per cent and 59.4 per cent, respectively.
For established alliances, scores for all arrivals matched trade arrivals, with Ocean Alliance at 64.0 per cent.
Sea-Intelligence introduced a new “all arrivals” metric for the new alliances, covering both origin and destination calls on East/West trades, alongside the traditional “trade arrivals” measure, enabling comparisons with historical alliance performance.
For more information:
Sea-Intelligence – https://www.sea-intelligence.com/
