Vessel scheduling hits record delays as demand surges
24/12/2020
In what is no surprise to anyone in the industry, the latest Global Liner Performance Report released by Sea-Intelligence highlights just how significantly vessel scheduling has been impacted throughout 2020. In Q2 many carriers blanked numerous sailings to maintain schedule reliability, but as the market rebounded and demand increased – the delays have only gotten worse.
The delays experienced this year have hit record highs, with the Asia – US trade in particular being impacted heavily, and it’s expected to get worse before it gets better.
However, it’s not all the carriers fault, and Sea Intelligence Consulting Lars Jensen wrote in an online post “The reality is that many ports suffer from catastrophic indigestion due to the sudden boom in demand owing to the pandemic effect. Such port congestion leads to massive waiting times for simply getting a slot at a berth. It would not be reasonable to purely blame the carriers for this dramatic drop in performance,”
This article from Freight Waves outlines the findings in the Global Liner Performance Report.
If you have any questions regarding your supply chain and the impact of the scheduling delays – please contact your local SILA representative.