News / Gemini Cooperation carriers steam ahead of rivals in reliability stakes

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Ocean carriers “need a big nudge” to get their global on-time performance (OTP) back to pre-pandemic levels, according to today’s data from maritime analysts at eeSea. 

Last month, global OTP was just 30%, and this was “slightly improved” from the 28% in March and February and 25% in January

Pre-pandemic norms were around 72% and, according to eeSea data, ocean liner schedule reliability has not managed to achieve more than 34% in well over a year.  

However, says eeSea, it seems unfair to look at average OTP, as the “undisputable number-one” on-time performer is arguably in a separate lane to its competition.  

Last month, the Gemini Alliance held its top spot on eeSea’s Schedule Reliability Scorecard, recording an 82% OTP, slightly down from Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd’s Q1 average of 87%. 

A long way behind are the Ocean and Premier alliances, both recording just 25%. 

MSC outside the Premier Alliance remained at 22% in April, following 28% in February and 19% in January, while the average for non-alliance carriers was 30% last month.  

However, said eeSea, the Gemini duo “seem to be losing steam in the quest for 90%”, the target set before the cooperation’s launch.

“They were stabilising around 83% over the past four weeks, but dropped to their lowest full week at 79% in week 17,” explained the analyst. It should be noted, however, that this lull is expected until H2 when the networks are fully bedded in.  

EeSea added: “Gemini clocked 287 port calls in week 17, and once the network is fully phased-in we expect 310+ calls a week. Hapag-Lloyd continues to lead within the Gemini, with an 88% YTD performance vs Maersk’s 82%.” 

Looking at the OTP of individual carrier services last month, Maersk was in top spot, with a 57% OTP, and has been on an upward trajectory since January, when its OTP was 37%. It “made a remarkable rise” in February, to 47% and continued in March to 52%, according to eeSea data. 

German carrier Hapag-Lloyd came in second last month with 42.8%, followed closely by Wan Hai on 42.1%. Both saw radical improvements in April. Their average OTP for Q1 was 26% and 23.1%, respectively.  

“This changes the scene radically from Q1 25 when Zim was in second and Cosco in third. Zim has dropped to fourth place, Cosco to fifth,” said eeSea. 

Source: eeSea

Despite the recent turbulence on the transpacific, Far East-North America eastbound services achieved their best performance last month since January 2024, with an OTP average of 37%.  

Far East-Europe westbound services, however, suffered a significant drop in OTP, to 28%, compared with 40% in March, largely due to North European port congestion. 

Africa services were at 23% and South America east coast services were at 18%. Conversely, South America west coast were the best performing services at 43%last month – “primarily because of the reefer exports”, explained eeSea. 

Oceania, Middle East and Europe North America services recorded 23%, 29%, and 35% OTP, respectively.