GLOBAL ocean carrier schedule reliability has started to improve in March despite the Red Sea crisis, although still not on par with pre-crisis level.

The March figure shows improvement of 1.6 percentage points to 54.6 per cent compared to the previous month.

"As the round-Africa routings normalize, and the carriers' service networks stabilize, schedule reliability has started to improve," said Sea-Intelligence CEO Alan Murphy.

"That said, reliability is still not on par with pre-crisis. On a year-on-year level, schedule reliability in March 2024 was down by 7.9 percentage points."

The average delay for LATE vessel arrivals decreased by 0.52 days month on month to 5.03 days, improving marginally over the pre-crisis figure of November 2024, according to Sea-Intelligence Maritime Analysis.

Wan Hai was the most reliable top-13 carrier in March with schedule reliability of 59.7 per cent following by Hapag-Lloyd and ZIM with schedule reliability of 56.1 per cent each.

"There were another eight carriers above the 50 per cent mark. PIL was the least reliable carrier with schedule reliability of 49.0 per cent. Eleven of the top-thirteen were able to record a month-on-month improvement in schedule reliability in March, with the largest improvement of 11.1 percentage points recorded by Wan Hai," Mr Murphy pointed out.

CMA CGM recorded the largest decline of 1.8 percentage points. On a Y/Y level, none of the thirteen carriers recorded an increase in schedule reliability, with PIL recording the largest decline of 18.1 percentage points.