Schedule reliability on South America’s East Coast drops to 34%

Schedule reliability on  East Coast South America fell by 12 percentage points in August to 34%, while average delays doubled to 5.4 days, according to an analysis by Xeneta.

The deterioration was partly linked to a three-day pilots’ strike at Argentine ports in early August. The disruption added 1.6 days to average berth-call delays at ports including Buenos Aires and prompted some carriers to divert cargo volumes to neighboring terminals, including Montevideo in Uruguay and Itajaí in Brazil.

According to Xeneta, the timing of the stoppage was particularly significant because it coincided with the final month of Argentina’s main export season and the period leading into Brazil’s peak export season.

Despite the decline in August, the East Coast of South America, or ECSA, remained only slightly behind the West Coast of South America, where schedule reliability stood at 37%, and continued to rank among the world’s three best-performing trade lanes.

“The key point is that average delays [on ECSA] have already doubled to 5.4 days, while on-time performance fell 12 percentage points to 34% in August,” Xeneta said.

The analysis added that there is “little room left to absorb further disruptions ahead of Brazil’s peak export season.”

Xeneta said draft restrictions at the Panama Canal pose less of a threat to ECSA because all but one service from Asia use the Cape of Good Hope route. It also noted that the Atlantic storm season, which typically peaks in September, had remained relatively quiet.

Global reliability falls for third straight month

Globally, container shipping schedule reliability declined for a third consecutive month in August.

The indicator fell four percentage points from July to 29%, its second-worst result in the past 12 months. That largely erased the recovery from February, when reliability had bottomed out at 27%.

Average global delays increased from 4.2 days in July to 5.1 days in August.

“When the severity of delays coincides with a higher frequency of late port calls, recovery becomes harder to achieve and sustain,” Xeneta said.

Among the most affected regions and trade lanes were Africa, where reliability fell 15 percentage points to 21%; ECSA, down 12 points; and the Far East-Europe trade, which dropped 10 points to just 6% on-time performance and recorded an average delay of 8.2 days.

Maersk leads carriers despite weaker performance

Ten of the 12 largest container shipping lines recorded weaker schedule reliability in August.

Maersk led the group at 51%, followed by Hapag-Lloyd at 46%, although their respective performances fell by six and seven percentage points from the previous month.

CMA CGM dropped seven points to 33%, while Cosco fell six points to 22%.

Source: MundoMaritimo

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