Asian Port Congestion Drives Sharp Deterioration in Liner Schedule Reliability
Global container schedule reliability suffered its steepest monthly decline since early 2021 as mounting port congestion across Asia dragged on-time performance down to 56.4%.
Global container liner on-time performance deteriorated significantly in July 2026, recording its steepest single-month drop in several years as supply chain bottlenecks intensified across key maritime gateways.
According to analysis from maritime consultancy Sea-Intelligence, worldwide schedule reliability fell to 56.4% during the month. This represents a month-on-month decrease of 6.1 percentage points, marking the most severe monthly drop tracked since January 2021.
Alongside the falling share of punctual arrivals, the extent of delays for off-schedule vessels expanded further. The average delay for late vessel arrivals rose by 0.59 days month-on-month to reach 6.06 days.
The sharp downturn in vessel arrival punctuality and the lengthening turnaround times were driven primarily by compounding congestion across ports in Asia, which continues to disrupt carrier rotations.
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