Seaintel Maritime News

Since the end of October 2015, SeaIntel Maritime Analysis showed that 115 vessels deployed on Asia-USEC and Asia-North Europe services have made the back-haul trip to Asia by sailing south of Africa instead of through the Suez and Panama Canals, their routing on the head-haul. Of the 115 voyages, three were vessels on Asia-North Europe, while the rest were deployed on Asia-USEC. We could also see that there were plans to switch more Asia-North Europe sailings to the south of Africa routing in the coming weeks. While the change of routing of some Asia-North Europe services (back-haul) to south of Africa is a blow to the Suez Canal, it will not become critical until we see more back-haul services being switched and/or the head-haul routing also is changed.

Container lines are adopting alternative routes to the Panama and Suez Canals to avoid charges say the Copenhagen-based SeaIntel Maritime Analysis.   SeaIntel state that since October 2015 115 vessels deployed on Asia-USEC and Asia-north Europe services made the trip back to Asia by sailing south of Africa rather than through the Suez and Panama canals.    The Suez Canal Authority state that the number of laden container vessels passing through the Suez Canal in 2015 dropped 2.8% from 2014.   The additional distance of rounding Africa is offset by faster average speeds, lower fuel prices and savings on charges.    However faster speeds and larger distances result in greater CO2 emissions.

APL was the most reliable carrier with a global on-time performance of 85.5% in May 2015, according to the latest Global Liner Performance Report by SeaIntel Maritime Analysis. The report, which ranks the performance of the top 20 carriers, says that there was a global improvement in container lines’ schedule reliability from April to May 2015. It noted that schedule reliability increased considerably in May to a global performance of 78.3% compared to 72.8% in the previous month. “APL has been working hard to improve the reliability of our product. Our performance improvement is a gratifying result for APL's dedicated team of onshore and seafaring professionals who work tirelessly each day to earn the trust of our customers,” said Nathaniel Seeds, Chief Operations Officer of APL.

It is impossible to view the global container shipping business without looking at it through the prism of vessel capacity being added to the market. What happens over the next two years will be a direct result of the glut of newbuildings that are flooding into service and wrecking freight rates. Just consider these numbers. During the first four months of 2013, Alphaliner puts the new containership deliveries at 496,000 TEUs. According to data supplied by PR News Service ComPort, almost 250,000 TEUs of that will be comprised of vessels with a nominal capacity of 10,000 TEUs and up.

INTTRA, an active worldwide network for ocean shipping, and SeaIntel, container shipping market analysts, announce the availability of the initial publication of the industry’s only shipping reliability report that combines on-time performance with schedule reliability measures. “For the first time shippers can now analyze actual container delivery time versus vessel arrival time on a country-by-country level,” said Lars Jensen, CEO of SeaIntel Maritime. “This is a game changer in how shippers can evaluate carrier performance and make more informed decisions on how their freight is moved. “For the first time shippers can now analyze actual container delivery time versus vessel arrival time on a country-by-country level,” said Lars Jensen, CEO of SeaIntel Maritime.