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ContainerSignal Daily: Asia port reliability slumps in August

By Toni Tan · · 11 min read

Container schedule reliability across Asia fell to 32.3% in August 2026, with the average delay for late vessel arrivals stretching to 7.28 days, according to Sea-Intelligence as reported by PortNews. China recorded the lowest country-level reliability at 23.9%, with Shanghai at 12.2% and Ningbo at 16.9%. Globally, Sea-Intelligence’s August Global Liner Performance report put schedule reliability at 49.9%, the lowest since September 2022, with average late-arrival delays of 6.81 days. The delays are consuming usable capacity: Sea-Intelligence calculates they absorb about 8.5% of the global containership fleet, roughly 3m TEU, and Splash 247 reports a return to the low-congestion conditions of June 2025 could take seven to 10 months, leaving Asian ports strained deep into 2027.

The mechanism is a queueing problem rather than a shortage of ships. Repeated typhoons hit Chinese gateways through July and August, and each missed berth window pushes a vessel out of sequence, so late calls cascade into the following voyage. Sea-Intelligence compares the current absorption with an average of 2.2% between 2011 and 2019, The Loadstar reports, and says congestion is unlikely to be fully resolved before the cargo build toward Chinese New Year on 6 February 2027.

Today’s Signals

Freight Rates

Intra-Asia pricing is the clearest read on the congestion. Drewry’s Intra-Asia Container Index rose 2% to US$1,518 per 40ft container in the week to 1 October, its sixth consecutive all-time high, Drewry reports, as typhoon disruption and port congestion tightened capacity and carriers used blank sailings and port omissions to limit space. Shanghai to Ho Chi Minh City and Shanghai to Manila both rose 7%, to US$1,377 and US$1,062 per 40ft container, while rates into the transhipment hubs of Singapore and Tanjung Pelepas each rose 4%, to US$2,073 and US$2,056 per 40ft container. Those are lane-specific prints rather than a global move; our guide to container freight rate indexes explains how regional indexes of this kind differ from the WCI and FBX.

Carrier Updates

Hapag-Lloyd’s route to acquiring ZIM has stalled again. Israel’s Government Companies Authority has ended its review of the original proposal structure and told the parties that any resubmission would restart the process from the beginning, The Loadstar reports, requiring approval from ZIM, FIMI and Hapag-Lloyd before the regulator will consider it. ZIM has been told a resubmission must be made by 6 October, and missing that date would restart the full government review, putting the February 2027 target to close the deal at risk.

Ocean Network Express will fold its Hong Kong-based East Asia headquarters into a new Asia Pacific unit based in Singapore from 1 April 2027, Splash 247 reports. The combined operation will cover 15 markets, with Louis Tang named regional head, while ONE’s African businesses move under its Dubai head office and London retains Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa. ONE operates more than 280 ships with capacity exceeding 2.2m TEU.

Ports

Chennai Container Terminal, operated by DP World at Chennai Port, handled 89,743 TEU in September 2026 across 36 vessels, its highest monthly volume in a decade, India Shipping News reports.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone handled 280 MMT of cargo in the April to September half of FY27, up 15% from 243.5 MMT a year earlier, Maritime Gateway reports, citing the company’s operational update. September cargo was 46 MMT, up 11% year on year, led by container volumes up 15%.

At the Port of Rijeka, ICTSI’s Adriatic Gate Container Terminal passed four million TEU handled since ICTSI took over operations fifteen years ago, Container News reports, following a EUR 35 million investment programme completed in late 2025 that added two super post-Panamax quay cranes and two hybrid rubber-tired gantry cranes.

Trade Routes

China has closed its 2026 container shipping season to Europe via the Northern Sea Route, with services set to resume in summer 2027, TASS reports, citing China Central Television and customs data from Ningbo. Eight voyages were completed this year carrying nearly 8,000 TEU of cargo worth 5.33 billion yuan (US$79.5 million), mostly energy storage systems, batteries and electric vehicles. The Arctic routing takes about 18 to 20 days, roughly half the Suez Canal transit time.

Fleet & Capacity

Newbuilding activity accelerated in September, with 73 boxships of more than 1m TEU contracted, Lloyd’s List reports, with Maersk, CMA CGM and MSC taking a significant share alongside tonnage providers. Lloyd’s List flags a possible return by Germany’s Offen Group, which would be its first boxship order since 2007.

Greek feeder specialist Contships Logistics has signed a letter of intent with Hubei Guangji Green Energy Shipbuilding for 10 firm 1,300 TEU ships plus two batches of 10 options, Splash 247 reports. If all options are exercised, the programme would exceed Contships’ existing fleet of 27 feeder vessels. The design is listed at 1,324 TEU with 340 reefer plugs; see how container ships are sized for what those capacity figures mean.

Regulation & Policy

CMA CGM has pushed back against Samsung Electronics America’s US$186m complaint at the US Federal Maritime Commission, telling Splash 247 it believes it acted in accordance with its contractual obligations and applicable regulations during the pandemic-era shipments at the centre of the dispute. Samsung alleges the carrier failed to complete inland transportation it had been paid to perform on store-door cargo between 2020 and 2023, leaving the electronics group to absorb demurrage, detention and rail storage. The complaint covers more than 121,000 individual charges and seeks at least US$148m in those costs, US$8.1m in added inland transport and US$30m in prejudgment interest. An initial decision by an administrative law judge is due by 1 September 2027, with a final FMC decision by 15 March 2028. Samsung has already settled related cases with OOCL and Wan Hai.

Quick Bites

  • Maersk completed the first US ship-to-ship commercial ethanol bunkering of a deep-sea container vessel on 28 September, fuelling the dual-fuel, alcohol-enabled Tangier Maersk with 100% US-produced corn ethanol at the Port of Mobile, Alabama, the carrier says.
  • Danaos will pay a combined US$6 per share on 22 October 2026, comprising a US$1 third-quarter dividend and a US$5 extraordinary special dividend, to shareholders of record on 13 October, Container News reports.
  • Around 100 dockworker delegates from Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand rallied at DP World’s Centerm terminal in Vancouver against port automation and artificial intelligence, FreightWaves reports. The British Columbia longshore agreement expires in March 2027.

What It Means

The defining feature of this market is the gap between nominal and usable capacity. The fleet keeps growing, yet Sea-Intelligence puts roughly 3m TEU of it out of service through delay, which is the same effect a broad blank sailing programme would produce; what is a blank sailing sets out how withdrawn or absorbed capacity lifts rates on the affected lane. Shippers should treat schedule reliability rather than headline transit time as the planning number, and build buffer into connections through congested hubs, where a missed berth window can push a container toward demurrage or detention; demurrage vs detention explains who charges what and when.

Against that near-term tightness, the supply side is loosening on a longer horizon. September’s order wave and Contships’ feeder plans add tonnage that lands mostly in 2029 and 2030, and any further return to Suez transits releases capacity tied up in Cape of Good Hope routings. That combination argues for firm intra-Asia and transatlantic pricing now, and a much softer capacity backdrop later; the two are not contradictory, they simply run on different clocks.

Sources

Background reading

The explainers behind today's stories, if you want the fundamentals first.

Asia-Europe rates fall even as the container network stays tight

Asia-Europe spot rates fell for a twelfth week while intra-Asia set another record and mid-size tonnage ran scarce. The two readings measure different layers.

Asia-Europe spot rates extend their fall as Transpacific gains stall

Drewry's World Container Index fell 1% to US$4,434 per 40ft in the week to 1 October, Asia-Europe's twelfth weekly decline, while Transpacific gains slowed.

Container freight rate indexes explained: WCI, FBX, SCFI and more

A reference guide to the main container freight rate indexes: what WCI, FBX, SCFI, NCFI and Xeneta XSI measure, how each is quoted, and how to cite a rate.

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