December sees container shipping schedule reliability decline

According to analysts Sea-Intelligence, overall container line schedule reliability dropped in December 2025 by 1.2 percentage points to 62.8%.

This made interesting reading for the U-Freight Group, with our strong presence in the global container shipping arena, and we note that the figures from the analyst’s regular Global Liner Report are based on schedule reliability for over 60 carriers on 34 major trades.

The 62.8% schedule reliability figure for December 2025 was the second lowest since May 2025, however, year-on-year there was marked improvement with schedule reliability up 9 percentage points over December 2024.

Looking at the top 13 carriers, Sea-Intelligence said only four reported a month-on-month improvement in schedule reliability between November and December 2025. Consistent with the 9% improvement in overall year-on-year schedule reliability in December 2025, all top 13 carriers reported an increase in reliability year-on-year.

The analyst added that the most reliable container lines in December 2025 were Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd with 76.7% and 72.5% respectively, adding that “MSC and HMM were in the 60-70% range, while eight of the remaining nine carriers were in the 50-60% range.”

U-Freight continues to monitor developments in global container shipping lanes closely. We remain committed to supporting customers with reliable, flexible transport solutions across air, sea and multimodal services, helping navigate route changes and maintain resilience in international supply chains.

For expert advice or further information on our ocean freight services, please contact your local U-Freight office or visit the ocean freight section of this website.