Hong Kong: Chinese ports including Hong Kong were cited in a report yesterday as a contributing factor for falling containership schedule reliability.
Global schedule reliability declined slightly from July to August according to SeaIntel’s latest Global Liner Performance report for September 2014, covering vessel arrivals up to and including August 2014. Global schedule reliability declined to 71.1%.
COO and Partner in Danish box consultants SeaIntel, Alan Murphy, said: “We do not expect to see any increases in global schedule reliability until the congestion issues have been solved in the ports in North America and on the North European mainland. Additionally, we have already seen a number of other incidents during September that are likely to have a negative impact on global schedule reliability, such as congestion in Hong Kong, Qingdao and Shanghai, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and vessels quarantined in Los Angeles due to Asian Gypsy Moth infections”.
Liners and terminal operators in Hong Kong, acknowledging the growing threat of congestion, have recently appealed to the local government to create a port zone in the former British colony to help create extra space at its container terminals. [02/10/14]
