Ship and container reliability improve

Ship-level and container-level Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) showed significant quarter-on-quarter increases in reliability in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to Drewry’s newest edition of its quarterly report,“Carrier Performance Insight”.

Containership reliability reached a new record high in the fourth quarter of 2012 with the percentage of on-time ship arrivals across all trades increasing to 79.9%, a rise of 6.4% on the third quarter performance.

The new ship reliability record eclipses the previous best of 75.7% set in the second quarter of 2012.

The latest on-time score also means that the on-time percentage stayed in the 70-80% range for the whole of 2012, whereas previously it had not gone above 69% in any quarter since Drewry started measuring ship reliability at the end of 2005.

Hanjin Shipping usurped Maersk Line as the most reliable major carrier (defined as having a minimum of 100 voyage counts in a quarter) with an all-trades on-time average of 90.2% in the fourth quarter.

As to be expect from related KPIs, just as there was a rise in ship-level reliability in the fourth quarter, container-level data showed similar gain with all four main container KPIs improving by at least 2% in the fourth quarter. Most significantly, the ‘On-Time Shipment of Cargo’ KPI, which measures the timeliness of a container being loaded on to the ship, improved by 6% to 75%.

Delays at the box loading stage of the supply chain will inevitably have a knock-on effect and while an overall improvement was seen in the fourth quarter it is highly probable that the average will come down in the first quarter as cancelled sailings play havoc with operations.

“While carriers deserve some plaudits for their improving reliability, a worrying trend for cancelled or blank voyages is emerging as carriers attempt to redress weak supply and demand fundamentals,” said Simon Heaney, research manager at Drewry.

Drewry is hearing of shippers building in specific clauses into contracts to alleviate the potential disruption of missed sailings by committing volumes against actual services rather than a carrier, as is standard practice.

Blank voyages are making life tougher for shippers, who already have to contend with the looming threat of strike action at US East and Gulf Coast ports.

“It is important for carrier-shipper relations that at the very least lines keep their customers informed well ahead of time, especially if they want to justify future general rate increases. It is difficult to make the case for rate hikes when the customer service is deteriorating,” said Heaney.

Blank sailings fall outside of the parameters of Drewry’s ship reliability measurement as to be included requires a completed voyage. Heaney said that Drewry will continue to monitor the situation and report its findings in the next issue of Carrier Performance Insight. < Korea Shipping Gazette >