West India delays cost ‘Stars’

Wednesday, 26 March 2008

IN performance terms, this has not been one of the best of years in the North Europe-Arabia/West Asia trade, with a generally poor standard of schedule reliability that can partly be blamed on the hold-ups experienced with depressing frequency at European ports.

There have also been delays at the other end of the trade, with Nhava Sheva the main culprit. The port has been operating at maximum capacity, and ships have frequently had to wait for a berth – in some cases, up to three days or more.

The delay between arrival and berthing has been variable, and the berthing dates have not always been clear in the data gathered for this analysis. Consequently, the results for this port have had to be omitted, and no Star Performer for Western India selected for either schedule reliability or transit times, although some idea of comparative performance can be obtained for other ports called on the relevant operations.

These operations have generally been quite weak, although close examination of the data suggests that the MSC India/Pakistan service would have been a frontrunner for time-keeping. The recent realignment of this operation has also put it in pole position for transit times from the UK to Nhava Sheva, with a scheduled time from Felixstowe of just 17 days.

There were also several instances of schedule gaps in five of the six end-to-end services that call at Nhava Sheva, with some weeks passing without a sailing. The worst offender was CSAV Norasia, whose IMEX was below its full complement of six ships over the whole survey period, and was still one short at the time of writing – consequently, there was no IMEX sailing from Felixstowe on six of the 20 monitored weeks.

Of the other end-to-end operations, the EPIC grouping lost two weeks on one loop due to routine drydockings, while there was a single week’s gap in the schedules of the other EPIC loop, and of the ISES and MSC operations.

The IRISL ECL pendulum also missed a sailing on three weeks, as the service has only recently built up to full strength, although it was sometimes difficult to ascertain which week of the schedule was missed due to slippage.

The end-to-end services generally performed rather weakly, particularly when compared with the better wayport operations. Thus, going on results for the Arabian Peninsula (based on Jeddah, Khor Fakkan/Salalah and the Dubai ports), the Maersk ME1 was the highest ranking of those that could be monitored, with an overall average of 0.85 days late.

Nevertheless, Maersk’s combined results for the Arabian Peninsula (including the ME1, the AE9 at Jeddah, the AE10 at Salalah, and the AE2 for the five weeks since Salalah was added) was marginally ahead of the New World Alliance CEX. CMA CGM also performed well with the FAL1 at Khor Fakkan, but was pulled down by the FAL3 result at Jeddah.

EPIC’s Jebel Ali score looks awful, but is perhaps a misleading reflection of the operation as a whole, as the two maximums recorded – 11 and 13 days late – were on voyages where the ships called at Indian ports first. In addition, Khor Fakkan stood in for Jebel Ali on three sailings when vessels were running particularly late.

Results at Colombo were generally pretty good, the one exception being the ISES grouping, whose poor showing was due to five sailings being at variance with the pro forma calling pattern, the Colombo call being pushed back behind Nhava Sheva. If these five sailings were omitted, the ISES lines would have been challenging for top spot.

The battle for the Colombo honour ended up as a two-way fight between Evergreen’s CES and the Hanjin-run Loop2/AEX, with the latter edging it with an impressive average of just 0.20 days behind schedule.

While reviewing schedule reliability, mention should be made of the extension of round-voyage times by several lines on the main Far East route, which should theoretically improve time-keeping in the future. These include the CMA CGM FAL3 and New World Alliance CEX.

There is a downside here, in that the transit times of these operations have been extended slightly – the CEX gaining two days between Felixstowe and Salalah, and the FAL3 one from Southampton to Jeddah. In both cases, the revised scheduled times are the ones given in the table.

British shippers to West Asia and the Arabian Gulf are fortunate in that the vast majority of operations still make the diversion to the UK, and there are thus many potential candidates for fastest transit times.

As usual, the wayport services tend to provide the fastest transit times to their chosen ports of call, and there is some stiff competition to the Arabian Peninsula. Nevertheless, the Grand Alliance lines have managed to fight off all comers to retain their crown, with excellent times to both Jeddah and Jebel Ali.
To Colombo, Evergreen’s CES has taken over the good work of the WAE, providing the fastest times from the UK with some leeway over second-placed Maersk.