Schedule reliability of cargo has consistently dropped since the beginning of the pandemic resulting in a loss of $5-10 billion to shippers, finds new report.

Analysts at Sea Intelligence calculated the share of global trade being moved on just the six major deep-sea routes that feature in the firm’s Global Liner Performance Report.

Compared to the share of cargo arriving late, the company found that prior to the pandemic, the baseline level of late arrivals stood at roughly 20 per cent. The figure has now soared to 70 per cent in recent months.

In order to assess the total impact over the baseline loss – as some cargo always gets delayed – Sea-Intelligence calculated the cumulative loss across January 2020 to March 2022 over the 2019 baseline level.

Calculations have found that severe vessel delays alone have resulted in a financial loss for the shippers globally of roughly $5-10 billion thus far; comprising the ocean side only and does not include any inland delays or port congestion.