Red Sea impact: Schedule reliability drops to 51.6%
CMA CGM was the most reliable top-13 carrier in January with schedule reliability of 54.7%
Amidst the Red Sea crisis, global schedule reliability continued to decrease, and dropped by 5.1 percentage points M/M in January 2024 – the same M/M drop as in December 2023 – to 51.6 percent.
"This drop means that the January 2024 score was the lowest since September 2022. On a Y/Y level, schedule reliability in January 2024 was 0.8 percentage points lower than in January 2023 (Fig 1). Due to the round-of-Africa sailings, the average delay for LATE vessel arrivals deteriorated further, increasing by 0.59 days M/M to 6.01 days (Fig 2)," says the latest update from Sea-Intelligence.
CMA CGM most reliable carrier
CMA CGM was the most reliable top-13 carrier in January 2024 with schedule reliability of 54.7 percent followed by four more carriers that were above the 50 percent mark, the update added. (Fig 3).
The remaining carriers all had schedule reliability of 40-50 percent with Yang Ming the least reliable carrier with reliability of 42.2 percent.
Because of the current Red Sea crisis and due to significant delays on the round-of-Africa sailings, none of the top-13 carriers were able to record a M/M improvement in schedule reliability with only seven carriers recording a Y/Y improvement in January, the update added.
Drewry index down 5%
Drewry’s World Container Index (WCI) decreased by five percent to $3,493 per 40ft container during the week to February 29. The index has increased by 88 percent when compared with the same week last year.
"The latest Drewry WCI is 146 percent more than average 2019 (pre-pandemic) rates of $1,420. The average composite index for the year-to-date is $3,553 per 40ft container, which is $859 higher than the 10-year average rate of $2,694 (which was inflated by the exceptional 2020-22 Covid period)."
Freight rates on Shanghai to Rotterdam decreased seven percent to $3,944 per 40ft box. Rates on Los Angeles to Shanghai and New York to Rotterdam increased two percent each to $719 and $633, respectively.
Drewry expects slight decreases in spot rates from China over the next few weeks.
