Shippers say ocean freight contracts unenforceable
Ocean freight reliability has become a growing concern for shippers who find contract terms difficult to enforce.
According to Sea-Intelligence, the combined schedule reliability of the 13 largest container lines was 50.6% in September, a rise of 0.9 percentage points from August. Maersk led the field at 64.8%, while Wan Hai lagged at 26.7%.
Jaya Moorthi, vice-president of logistics for Schneider Electric, told reporters in Singapore that “The most reliable line was Maersk with 64.8% schedule reliability while Wan Hai was the lowest coming in at just 26.7% reliability for September. I begin to think that ocean freight reliability will not improve much anymore. It’s going to be 50%, 55%, 60% at best.”
Moorthi added that the past seven years have been marked by a new crisis each year, and he has not seen a carrier publicly commit to better performance.
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He emphasized that there are no contractual guarantees for transit times and that “I haven’t seen a BCO that actually enforces it.” He noted that “Ocean freight is becoming a very unenforceable contract over time.”
Vincent Chew, a container-shipping consultant with Drewry, agreed that performance metrics are hard to embed in contracts and advised shippers to focus on de-risking their supply chains.
Schneider Electric has also turned to multimodal routes, cutting a typical transit from 60 days to 42 days in some corridors, demonstrating that alternative modes can offset ocean delays.
Port congestion at major Chinese terminals and severe weather events have further strained service levels, highlighting the challenges shippers face in maintaining predictable delivery schedules.
