Global container shipping schedule reliability remains stuck at around 60–65 per cent, well below the 70–80 per cent range recorded between 2011 and 2019, according to the latest Sea-Intelligence analysis.
At the same time, late vessel arrivals are now averaging 5–5.5 days, compared with 3–4 days before the pandemic.
The combination of more frequent delays and longer waiting times is leaving a growing share of global container capacity unavailable for cargo movements.
Between 2011 and 2019, an average of 2.2 per cent of global container shipping capacity was absorbed by vessel delays.
This has since risen to 5 per cent, meaning an additional 2.8 per cent of global deep-sea capacity is now effectively tied up compared with the pre-pandemic baseline.
Based on the current global fleet, the 5 per cent absorption rate equates to around 1.7 million TEUs of capacity effectively unavailable because of delays.
That would represent a fleet larger than the current capacity of several major container shipping lines and would rank as the eighth-largest carrier globally, just behind Evergreen.
READ: Carriers use blank sailings to curb market supply
The additional 2.8 per cent of capacity absorbed above the pre-pandemic baseline represents approximately 1 million TEUs.
That figure is close to the total capacity operated by HMM, currently the eighth-largest container shipping line, highlighting the scale of capacity effectively lost through persistent delays.
The data points to a structural shift in container shipping, with schedule disruption continuing to consume significantly more capacity than was typical before the pandemic.
For carriers, ports and terminals, the higher level of absorbed capacity also reduces the amount of available vessel space and complicates efforts to match supply with cargo demand.
For more information:
Sea-Intelligence – https://www.sea-intelligence.com/
