SEA CARRIER PUNCTUALITY: PERFORMANCE DECLINING DESPITE NEW ALLIANCES

New shipping alliances are shaking up the maritime industry and impacting on transit time reliability. These consolidations have a direct impact on the management of global supply chains, with notable effects on transit times. In 2024, despite efforts to improve reliability, delays were 30% higher than in 2022. Let’s take a look at the situation.

THE IMPACT OF ALLIANCES ON DELIVERY TIMES

According to the latest data, only 52.7% of major alliance vessels are on schedule in 2024, compared with 66.3% in 2023, with an average delay of 4.2 days per vessel (versus 3.5 days in 2022). The THE Alliance group, including Yang Ming and HMM, recorded an 18% rise in container volume, but also an increase in delays, from 3.5 to 4 days on average.

Transpacific routes were particularly affected. 2M (Maersk and MSC) and Ocean Alliance (CMA CGM, COSCO, Evergreen) are now experiencing average delays of 5 days, compared with 3 in 2022. This phenomenon is exacerbated by weather and geopolitical conditions, including conflicts in the Red Sea.

STRATEGIES TO LIMIT DELAYS

Some alliances are trying to compensate for these delays. For example, 2M has reduced the number of cancelled sailings by 10%, while increasing the capacity of its ships on the Asia-Europe route by 13%. These adjustments reduced delays on this route by 6.5%. However, routes such as those between Asia and the Middle East saw delays increase by 7 days due to port congestion.

For its part, Ocean Alliance is investing in larger vessels and strategic ports to improve load fluidity, although these efforts also remain limited by port saturation.

In addition, some companies are beginning to favor less busy ports of call to avoid port congestion. This strategy has helped reduce delivery times on certain secondary routes, but remains difficult to generalize on Asia-Europe or transpacific routes.

Although the new alliances will help rationalize costs and increase capacity, the question remains: will they be able to anticipate and adapt to guarantee an ever more efficient supply chain?