• As a leader in sea logistics, Kuehne+Nagel closely tracks and collects data on the movement of vessels, including actual arrivals and vessel delays.

• A summary of this analysis, based on neutral data, is published monthly in our Schedule Reliability Report, available on Sea News.

Executive Summary

Global schedule reliability softened slightly in December, finishing at 51.8%, yet the year still closed 7.3 percentage points above January and 4.5 points higher than December 2024.

Trade‑lane performance varied considerably across regions. December reliability ranged from 37.5% to 78.4%, with seven of 11 major trades closing the year above the 50% threshold.

North America ↔ North Europe delivered the strongest month‑on‑month improvement, while the Mediterranean/Black Sea ↔ North America corridor experienced the steepest decline. 

North America ↔ South America remained the most reliable trade lane overall and also recorded the largest year‑on‑year gain. 

Featured trade lane

The Asia ↔ South America corridor outperformed its 2024 results for most of the year, finishing at 59.2% after a volatile first half. 

In the Asia → South America direction, reliability surged to 80.6% in December, the highest level in four years, while in the opposite direction, performance remained more subdued, stabilising in the 40% range toward year‑end. 

Delay patterns reflected these differences: LATE vessels on Asia → South America increased to 4.3 days in December, while ALL vessels improved to 0.7 days. On the return leg, LATE vessel delays showed no improvement, whereas ALL vessel delays declined slightly to 1.8 days.

Global On-Time Performance

Global on‑time performance declined slightly in December, reaching 51.8%. Despite this month‑to‑month dip, the year closed 7.3 percentage points higher than January, reflecting steady overall progress.

Compared with December 2024, performance improved by 4.5 percentage points, indicating a modest but meaningful year‑over‑year gain.

Average delays remained stable. LATE vessels averaged 3.7 days, and ALL vessels averaged 1.6 days, marking a slight improvement versus December 2024.

This consistency suggests that operational disruptions were contained, even as broader market pressures persisted.

Reliability per Trade Lane

In December, on‑time performance across the major trades ranged from 37.5% to 78.4%.

Of the 11 primary trade lanes, seven closed the year with reliability levels above 50%, marking a relatively stable performance landscape.

The strongest month‑on‑month improvement was observed on the North America ↔ North Europe corridor, which rose to 57.8% reliability.

Conversely, the Mediterranean/Black Sea ↔ North America route faced the sharpest decline, dropping to 61.4%.

Maintaining its position at the top, the North America ↔ South America trade lane remained the best‑performing route with a reliability rate of 78.4%, followed closely by Mediterranean/Black Sea ↔ South America at 75.0%.

In addition, North America ↔ South America recorded the strongest year‑over‑year improvement, increasing by 33.1 percentage points.

Reliability on Asia↔South America

This month’s report focuses on the Asia ↔ South America trade, which outperformed its 2024 results for three quarters of the year.

Reliability on this corridor started at 51.8% in January and closed the year at 59.2% in December. Performance was volatile through August but showed consistent improvement in the final months of the year.

In December, LATE vessels were delayed by an average of 3.7 days, while ALL vessels averaged just 1.4 days, reflecting relatively stable operational conditions.

Below is a detailed breakdown of performance in each direction.

Asia→South America

Reliability in this direction ranged between 50.2% and 69.7% from January to November, before rising sharply to 80.6% in December, the highest level recorded in the past four years.

This represents a 10.9‑percentage‑point increase month‑on‑month and a 20.9‑percentage‑point improvement compared with December 2024.

In December, the average delay for LATE vessels increased to 4.3 days, ending the year with longer delays than observed in January.

In contrast, ALL vessels showed a significant improvement, with the average delay falling to 0.7 days. 

South America→Asia

Reliability on this leg ranged from 38.5% to 56.1% throughout the year. After dipping in April, performance briefly recovered in May but then declined again in July, with on‑time performance remaining in the 40% range through year‑end.

December delays were mixed. LATE vessels averaged 3.6 days, showing no improvement, while ALL vessels ended the year with a slight improvement, averaging 1.8 days

Methodology

Calculating the on-time performance

To calculate the on-time performance of a service, Kuehne+Nagel uses vessel schedules from carrier(s) offering that service. Only carrier schedules that match our quality criteria are used for the schedule reliability calculation.

As carriers update schedules constantly, they become more accurate the closer vessels get to a destination port. For this reason, we have implemented a "schedule freeze period" of 14 days prior to actual vessel arrival. In other words, we benchmark the actual arrival with what carriers last announced 14 days earlier. To identify the actual time of arrival, Kuehne+Nagel consumes AIS (Automatic Identification System) vessel data. All vessels which arrive within a +/- 24-hour window at the port of destination compared to the last announced arrival are considered to be on time. Port call omissions and blank sailings announced after the 14-day freeze are excluded from the calculation.

Assigning carrier services to multiple trade lanes

Many services operate on various trade lanes (e.g. a carrier service between Asia and North Europe also calls ports in the Middle East and or the Mediterranean), and therefore carrier services may be listed in multiple trade lanes.

Definition of trade lanes

There is no common standard for the definition of trade lanes. This means, depending on the source, you will find different trade lanes as well as different regions, countries and ports assigned to a trade lane. Kuehne+Nagel has defined its own way of mapping and has assigned ports to these trade lanes accordingly. On-time performances of vessels are captured in our reports on defined main trades, meaning trades moving large container volumes on vessels. Therefore, niche trades and services within one trade, called "Intra Trade" services (e.g. Intra-Asia, Intra-Europe), are currently out of scope.

A PDF version of this report can be found here.

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