Global container liners saw schedule reliability fall to 59 per cent in February 2026, as Sea‑Intelligence reported rising delays across major trade lanes and uneven performance among top carriers.
Sea‑Intelligence released issue 175 of its Global Liner Performance (GLP) report, detailing schedule reliability across 34 trade lanes and more than 60 carriers up to February 2026.
Highlights show global reliability fell 3.2 percentage points month-on-month (MoM) to 59.0 per cent, marking the lowest level since April 2025, though it remained 5.0 points higher than February 2025.
Average delays for late vessel arrivals also worsened, increasing M/M by 0.16 days to 5.49 days, the highest figure since February 2025, while year-on-year (Y/Y) delays were slightly lower by 0.04 days.
READ: Global container reliability dips to 62 per cent in January
Among the top 13 carriers, Hapag‑Lloyd led February reliability at 67.4 per cent, followed by five carriers in the 60–70 per cent range. Wan Hai was the least reliable at 47.9 per cent. Only three carriers saw MoM improvements, while 12 recorded YoY gains.
Analysis of alliances showed Gemini Cooperation achieving 79.1 per cent reliability across all arrivals and 80.2 per cent across trade arrivals in January and February 2026.
MSC posted 63.7 per cent for all arrivals and 60.9 per cent for trade arrivals, with Premier Alliance at 58.4 per cent and 56.6 per cent, respectively.
For the older alliances, all-arrival and trade-arrival scores were equal, with Ocean Alliance at 68.9 per cent.
The report also introduced a new metric for emerging alliances, accounting for all arrivals, including origin-region calls on East/West trades, alongside the traditional “trade arrivals” measure, allowing comparability with older alliance performance.
This dual reporting aims to provide a more accurate reflection of schedule reliability across the evolving global liner network.
For more information:
Hapag-Lloyd – https://www.hapag-lloyd.com/en/home.html
