🌊 Shipping Delays, Omissions & Typhoons: Why Vessel Reliability Is Crashing

1. Global Vessel Schedule Reliability Is Low

• Sea‑Intelligence reported global schedule reliability hovered between 50–55% throughout 2024 into early 2025, including 51.5% in January and an average delay of ~5.3 days for late vessels.
• In April 2025, reliability slipped to 48.1%, though average delays for all vessels stayed around 2.1 days, with late ships averaging 4.6 days behind.
• By June 2025, only 58.7% of vessels were arriving on-time—the lowest in two years, causing major strain on supply chains.

2. Why Vessel Delays Are So Persistent

• Typhoons and disruptive weather in Asia (e.g. In‑Fa and Super Typhoon Yagi) have forced port closures and reroutes, causing delays of 6–30 days and cancelling nearly 40–50% of port calls in regions like Hong Kong, Guangdong, Macau and Guangxi at the peak of storms.
• Port congestion in hubs like Shanghai, Ningbo, Singapore, Rotterdam, and Cape Town has seen vessels queuing offshore for days to over a week, leading to cascading backlog.
• Blank sailings and port omissions further reduce reliability. Carriers drop port calls if trade lane demand shifts or berth congestion complicates operations, disrupting transshipment schedules.

3. Typhoon Impact in East Asia: Real-World Examples

• In‑Fa (Aug 2023) in China triggered a 71% spike in average export delays, ramping up from prior months and creating a bullwhip effect through the supply chain—ports downstream in Europe and the Americas were hit weeks later.
• Typhoon Yagi (Hong Kong area) caused port closures and delays estimated at up to 18 days, with shipments diverted via Singapore and Malaysia to wait out closures.
• According to academic research, Chinese ports are struck by typhoon-level disruptions every 3–5 days during July–August, leading to cancellations, congestion, and reroutes.

🚢 What This Means for Vessel Schedules & Capacity

📦 Peak Season Warning: Plan Ahead Now

• Peak season is imminent—especially before mid‑Autumn holidays and ahead of factory closures in Asia.
• With schedule reliability around 50–60%, and delays often ranging 3–6+ days, even longer in bad weather periods, the risk of disruption is high.
• forecast demand and place orders early, ideally building in a minimum 2-week buffer to avoid stock‑outs.

✅ How We Support You

At Transitainer WA, we’re here to help you navigate the uncertainty in global shipping. Here’s how we work with you to minimise disruption:

1. Order proactively – We recommend placing your bookings at least 2 weeks before the requested arrival date—or longer if your shipments fall during typhoon season or major holiday closures. This buffer helps reduce the risk of delays and stockouts.
2. Routing flexibility – You don’t need to worry about selecting carriers or ports—we take care of that for you. By understanding whether your shipment is urgent or non-urgent, we can choose the best routing and carrier options to keep your cargo moving.
3. Visibility with TransiTrack – Through our TransiTrack platform, you gain real-time visibility of vessel schedules and ETAs. This helps you stay informed and adjust quickly if weather events or port omissions affect your shipment.

🚩 Final Thought

The landscape today is clear: with schedule reliability stuck at ~50–60%, strong weather risks, and intensifying port congestion, delays are not anomalies—they’re the norm. That’s why we encourage you to plan ahead, stay flexible, and build in buffer time where possible. At Transitainer WA, our role is to help you manage these challenges and keep your supply chain moving smoothly, even when disruptions occur.