Quest for Quality 2021: Ocean Carriers

After years of being battered by heavy seas, over-capacity and pricing complexity, the ocean container-shipping industry stands on the brink of a new era of sustainable profitability. However, the question remains whether carriers can now step off the boom-and-bust treadmill and continue to balance capacity against demand—and the entire global logistics community is anxious to receive an answer.

“As the world slowly moves toward recovery, industry analysts wonder how global ocean carriers will respond to a shift from consumer spending on goods to a restored concentration on services,” says executive editor Patrick Burnson, who has been covering the ocean carrier market for more than two decades. “At the same time, experts consider how vessel operators might reverse their long legacy of unreliable schedule integrity.”

As Burnson recently reported, due to this environment that finds ocean carriers re-gaining their balance, logistics managers are now approaching new contracts from a high-value strategic perspective this summer and into fall. “While shippers can play the spot market if they can handle the risk, our analyst contacts are suggesting that they lock into guarantees at a premium price at this stage while carriers steady the ship,” adds Burnson.

On the service front, our recent reports reveal that ocean carriers are taking all available measures to improve the speed and efficiency of cargo movement, including employing all available vessel tonnage. “When demand dropped some 20% to 30% in the second quarter of 2020, carriers curtailed services and idled vessels,” says Burnson. “However, as cargo volume rose, carriers redeployed those assets as quickly as possible—and that’s reflected positively on carriers.”

According to Logistics Management readers, the strategic moves made by the 11 carriers listed below over the past year have earned them Quest for Quality gold. Leading the way into port this year with the top weighted scores we find Seaboard Marine (49.87) and Hapag-Lloyd (49.64).

This year, Seaboard Marine put up top marks in the On-time Performance (13.92) and Value (12.87) attribute categories. Hapag-Lloyd earned top billing in year’s Information Technology category (8.91), while K Line and Matson both posted an impressive 10.30 in the Customer Service attribute category. In the Equipment & Operations category this year, Seaboard Marine, HMM, and Crowley Liner Service all posted an 11.22, the top mark for this important attribute.