Anyone shipping a container by sea is currently paying a lot of money. In return, however, they don't necessarily get a reliable schedule. According to the latest figures from Sea-Intelligence, global schedule reliability in container shipping was only 56.4 percent in July 2026. This represented a decline of 6.1 percentage points compared to the previous month. Compared to July 2025, the figure was even 8.8 percentage points lower. In this measurement, a ship arrival is considered on-time if it arrives no more than one calendar day before or after the published schedule. Ships that arrived later had an average delay of 6.06 days in July. This was the highest value since January 2024. Sea-Intelligence At the same time, freight rates remain high. Drewry's World Container Index, or WCI, stood at $4,465 per 40-foot container on September 3rd. The index was thus 112 percent higher than a year earlier. Drewry The WCI reflects agreed spot rates on eight major East-West routes. Spot rates are short-term negotiated prices and are not longer-term contract rates. On September 3rd, Shanghai-Rotterdam cost $4,092 according to Drewry, for example. Shanghai-New York, on the other hand, was at $9,587. For companies, this means: A high price is far from a guarantee of on-time arrival. If a ship arrives almost a week late, connecting transportation, production schedules, and customer deliveries can fall into disarray. There are additional costs to consider. Containers remain longer in the port, booked trucks must be rescheduled, and inventory levels become tight. It becomes particularly problematic when multiple delayed ships arrive in close succession. First there is a shortage of goods, and then too many containers arrive at once. The figures therefore show not just a problem for shipping lines. Poor reliability affects the entire supply chain—from manufacturers through retail to end customers.