DANISH shipping giant, Maersk Line, remains the world's most reliable carrier with Germany's Hamburg Sud and Singapore's APL placing second and third, according to the latest SeaIntel Maritime Analysis.

The monthly survey measures the containership arrivals at destinations within a day of schedule. Measurements are based on SeaIntel's database containing more than 68,000 arrivals across 2,200 vessels, 29 trade lanes and 52 carriers since July 2011.

Overall global carrier reliability enhanced one percentage point to 79 per cent in March from 78 per cent in February, reported London's International Freighting Weekly. This implies that most carriers were able to improve performance on individual trade lanes.

Among the top 20 carriers, MSC, the world's second largest carrier, recorded the lowest level of reliability with 64 per cent compared to Maersk's 93 per cent.

In individual trade lanes, other carriers had outstanding records. SeaIntel CEO Lars Jensen said: "MOL is the top performer from North America to South America at 96 per cent, Deutsche Afrika Linien is the top performer from North Europe to Africa at 75 per cent and Matson is the top performer on the westbound transpacific at 100 per cent."

SeaIntel said the southbound trade from North America to east coast South America achieved the most remarkable improvement, where 80 per cent of ships were on time in March against 70 per cent in February.