2026 Kick-off: Global Schedule Reliability Hits 62.4%; Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk Lead the Rankings

Maritime data provider Sea-Intelligence has officially released the 174th edition of its Global Liner Performance (GLP) report. This comprehensive 120-page analysis offers a bird’s-eye view of schedule reliability across more than 60 carriers and 34 trade lanes through the end of January 2026. Below are the key takeaways from the latest findings.

Market Overview: The Global Outlook for Early 2026

At the start of 2026, the global shipping industry’s schedule reliability recorded a marginal month-on-month (M/M) decline of 0.4 percentage points, settling at 62.4%. Despite this slight dip, it remains the highest monthly reliability recorded for any January in the 2021–2026 period. On a year-on-year (Y/Y) basis, the industry showed significant improvement, surging by 11.0 percentage points.

Conversely, the average delay for late vessel arrivals saw a less favorable trend. This metric edged up by 0.07 days M/M to reach 5.17 days—the highest level recorded since February 2025. However, when viewed against January 2025, the delay remains 0.21 days lower.

Performance of the Top 13 Carriers

The performance rankings for the world’s top 13 ocean carriers in January 2026 reveal a clear divergence in reliability:

●    The Leaders: Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk jointly secured the top spot as the most reliable carriers, both posting a schedule reliability of 72.2%.

●    The Middle Tier: Seven carriers maintained reliability within the 60%–70% range, while the remaining four fell into the 50%–60% bracket.

●    The Laggards: PIL recorded the lowest performance for the month at 50.1%.

In terms of recovery trends, only seven carriers across the entire market saw M/M improvements, though 12 carriers showed better performance compared to the same period last year.

Alliance Performance: The Gemini Cooperation Breakthrough

Throughout December and January 2026, Sea-Intelligence continued to employ a dual-track reporting methodology for shipping alliances.

Traditionally, alliance scores are calculated based on vessel arrivals at destination regions (“TRADE arrivals”). However, because this specific metric was not yet available for the new alliances launching in February, Sea-Intelligence introduced a broader measure: “ALL arrivals.” This includes port calls in origin regions across East/West trades. The current report provides both figures side-by-side.

The findings highlight a dominant start for the new cooperation:

●    Gemini Cooperation: Delivered a commanding performance of 89.5% (based on "ALL arrivals") and 88.3% (based on "TRADE arrivals").

●    MSC: Followed in second place with 68.7% ("ALL arrivals") and 66.8% ("TRADE arrivals").

●    Premier Alliance: Recorded 58.8% ("ALL arrivals") and 59.4% ("TRADE arrivals").

●    Ocean Alliance: For this "legacy" alliance, the "ALL arrivals" and "TRADE arrivals" metrics were calculated as equal, standing at 64.0%.

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Source: Phaata.com (According to Sea-Intelligence)

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