While the freight rates of shipments continue to drop dramatically, the punctuality of container ships in world ports shows a marked improvement. The surveys of Sea-Intelligence, still relative in this case to last August, show that 46.2% of ships arrived on time in the month, a figure which shows an increase of 5.8 percentage points over July.At the same time, the average delay of the units that do not comply with the schedule is also in sharp decline and now stands at 5.86 days, or 0.57 less than in July. This is, highlights the analysis company, the first time since April 2021 in which this parameter drops below 6 days.

If the classification of the most punctual vectors still sees Maersk unchallenged in first place (53%), in the underlying positions and record new movements. In fact, Cma Cgm is now in second place (punctual in 46% of cases). Hamburg Sud, Msc, Cosco, Zim, Evergreen and Hmm follow in order, all ‘on time’ in 40% or more of the cases. In the interval between 30% and 40%, starting from the most precise, Hapag Lloyd, Oocl, One and Wan Hai, while the ranking is closed by Yang Ming (29.8%).
Of the 14 carriers present in the analysis, Sea-Intelligence finally notes, as many as 12 improved their performance to the previous one in August, all of which did so compared to the performance of a year earlier. Compared to August 2021, 11 carriers in particular recorded double-digit improvements and 3 even higher than 20 percentage points.

On the other hand, the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index, the index that since 2009 has been tracking and recording the trend of sea freight rates for the transport of containerized cargo by sea, has just reached a new all-time high. Last week it closed with a record high of 1,857.33 points, crumbling the previous peak of 2010. At the beginning of the year the same index stood at around 1,000 points.

At the moment, the rates for direct shipments to Northern Europe are cheaper, being equal to $ 1,508 per Teu container. On the other hand, freight rates from Asia to the ports of the US west coast ($ 3,887 for each 40’GP) and the east coast ($ 4,676) continue to travel at more than double levels. The most expensive of all, however, are the rates for shipments by sea from Asia to South America (Brazil for example) where a 20′ GP pays 4,294 dollars.

Zim celebrated in the third quarter of 2020 the highest profit ever obtained by the company in three months of operation: between July and September the Israeli carrier in fact recorded a profit of 144.4 million dollars, up by 2,814, 4% compared to the profit of 5 million for the same period in 2019. The revenues for the three months were equal to 1.012 billion dollars (+ 20.3%) and the average freight per container Teu embarked of 1.176 dollars (+16, 6%).
Ap Moller Maersk closed the third quarter of 2020 with revenues down -1.4% to $ 9.9 billion, while EBITDA rose 39% to reach $ 2.3 billion. Merit, they say from Copenhagen, of the agility with which the hold capacity is managed, the cost reduction, the attention to the offer for customers and the temporary increase in the demand for shipments “. The main driving force on the group’s activities was maritime transport which, despite a lower number (-3.6%) of containers transported in the quarter, saw the net result grow by 511 million dollars, which reached 1.8 billion. dollars. Ebitda also increased by 25.4%. An important contribution also came from the Logistics & services division.
Other quarterly reports will be made public in the coming days and will confirm the very positive months that shipping companies active in container transport are experiencing in 2020.