News / Good start for Gemini, liner schedule reliability data reveals

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New data from liner analysts at Sea-Intelligence Consulting has confirmed early schedule reliability figures for the Gemini Cooperation were above its targeted 90% threshold.

However, Sea-Intelligence schedule reliability data also shows that the first month of operations at MSC’s now standalone east-west network and that of the recently formed Premier Alliance showed significantly higher levels of reliability at origin ports.

In contrast, shippers with cargo on the last few 2M and THE Alliance services, which are in the process of being phased out over the next couple of months, saw service punctuality decline significantly.

Globally, the 2M carriers saw schedule reliability decline to 44.2% in January, and THE Alliance to 45.3%, while the Ocean Alliance carriers managed to increase their reliability marginally, to 54.1%.

According to Sea-Intelligence, Gemini Cooperation recorded 94% schedule reliability in origin ports in February, followed by MSC, at 79.6% and the Premier Alliance, at 60.4%.

The Ocean Alliance carriers recorded 54.1% schedule reliability across all trades, while the outgoing THE and 2M alliances scored 45.3% and 44.2%, respectively.

“It is important to stress that the new alliances are just in the beginning phase of their network roll-out; they will only be fully rolled out in July, and only then will it be possible to truly evaluate their performance,” commented Sea-Intelligence CEO Alan Murphy.

“It is nevertheless an interesting data point to see how they have performed on the initial origin arrivals,” he added.

In terms of tradelanes across all carriers, the Europe-South America route was the most reliable for shippers, with Sea-Intelligence recording schedule reliability of 80.7%, which was a 10.7 percentage points up on the month before. India-Europe trade reliability was the worst, at 38.2%, just below the westbound transatlantic trade, at 38.3%.

Meanwhile, for the largest east-west trades, there was a variety of performances from carriers and alliances, implying that factors influencing reliability were more carrier-specific than structural trade issues.

On the transpacific eastbound trades, shippers with cargo going to the American west coast saw a decline of 2.4 percentage points, for it to finish the month with an overall schedule reliability of 44.6%. However, the Ocean Alliance carriers managed to achieve 54.5% schedule reliability, up 2.5 percentage points over the previous month, while the 2M’s reliability tanked by 12.4 percentage points, to just 23.8% of calls being on time.

Meanwhile, Sea-Intelligence noted that non-alliance carriers continued to outperform their larger peers, with the top three most reliable carriers being Wan Hai at 69.2%, followed by Swire and Zim, which both achieved 66.7%.

In contrast, the Asia-North America east coast trade saw overall reliability at 33.4%, with the 2M the most reliable VSA at 35.3%, while THE Alliance was the least reliable, at 27.5%.

European shippers saw similar service levels: reliability on the Asia-North Europe trade across all carriers increased to 41.1%, with the 2M leading the way at 53.6%, followed by the Ocean Alliance at 35.5% and THE Alliance at 28.1%.

On Asia-Mediterranean, industry reliability last month hit 43.5%, the 2M reaching 57.6%, followed by THE Alliance at 51.9% and the Ocean Alliance way behind, at 22.9%.

On the transatlantic westbound, industry reliability dropped to 38.3%, although this was clearly propped up by the performance by independent carriers on the trade.

Of the alliances, the 2M was the top performer, with a schedule reliability of 32.6%, followed by THE Alliance with 25.9%, and the Ocean Alliance at 14.7%.

In comparison, Independent Container Lines (ICL), which operates just one North Europe-North America string, deploying four vessels of around 3,000 teu, was the most reliable carrier on the tradelane in February, with a schedule reliability of 76.5%

MSC was second, at 39.6%.