Maersk still the industry's most reliable container line

Wednesday, 18 August 2010

Maersk Line strengthened its position as the shipping industry’s most reliable container carrier during the second quarter, writes Damian Brett.

According to industry analyst and consultant Drewry’s second-quarter 2010 Schedule Reliability Insight report, 76.5% of the Danish carrier’s vessels arrived on schedule, or the day before – a 7.3% improvement on the first quarter of the year.

Next in line were: HMM, with an on-time rate of 64%, up 10% on the first quarter; APL, at 63.2%, up 7.7%; and CMA CGM, at 59.6%, an increase of 4%.

Maersk Line’s Head of Operations Execution, Asger Lauritsen, said: “Teamwork and our ability to see through hotspots, plus real-time monitoring of vessels, ports and cargo enables us to intervene the moment we see something going wrong.”

He also pointed out that vessel-share agreements and slot charters cost the line 10 percentage points. On its own-operated strings, Maersk was 37% above the industry average, at 89%.

Report Editor Simon Heaney told IFW Maersk had increased its reliability because “it took the matter seriously”. He said the carrier had set itself a target of achieving a 95% on-time rate over the next five years.

This would achieve an estimated net saving of US$250 million, and the line believed customers would increase their spend by 17% if it achieved this target.

Maersk Line was also striving to improve the performance of its partners by creating a project team to investigate how to boost reliability on shared vessels. One of its first steps was the inclusion of contractual performance commitments from partner carriers.

According to the report, the industry average on-time arrival rate was down 16% on the same period last year at 52%, but this was up 2% on the first quarter.

Meanwhile, carriers are announcinging rate increases on the grounds that they are required to maintain service reliability.

“Notices such as these do little to improve strained carrier-shipper relations,” the report says.

“Shippers are paying a heavy cost for the temporary supply-side limitations, and for carriers to use the promise of better reliability as the pretext for a rate hike is misleading in the extreme.”