The total share of global container‑shipping capacity absorbed by vessel delays has effectively doubled to tripled, settling at an average of 5.3% for the 2023–2026 period, according to the latest analysis from Sea‑Intelligence. In the newest issue of the Sea‑Intelligence Sunday Spotlight, the company examined the continuing impact of vessel delays on the operational availability of global container capacity. Based on March 2026 Global Liner Performance data, the Sea-Intelligence found that despite carrier efforts to improve schedule reliability, the market has not returned to pre‑pandemic norms. Instead, global schedule reliability has stabilized at a lower range of 50–65%, while the average magnitude of late vessel arrivals has increased to roughly five days. The share of delayed vessels, combined with the duration of those delays, is used to calculate the amount of capacity effectively absorbed by disruptions and therefore unavailable to the market. During the 2011–2019 pre‑pandemic period, this absorbed capacity formed a highly stable structural baseline of 2.2%, fluctuating by only +/- 0.5% and implicitly factored into global supply‑demand balances. Sea‑Intelligence's analysis shows that the deviation from this baseline now consistently ranges between 2% and 4% above historical levels, with no sign of near‑term improvement. As a result, the total share of global capacity absorbed by vessel delays has risen to an average of 5.3% for 2023–2026. "The nominal impact of this structural deterioration is significant. At a 5.3% absorption rate, the global market is continuously 'missing' 1.8 million TEU of vessel capacity," said Alan Murphy, CEO, Sea‑Intelligence. Even isolating only the 3.1% excess above the historical 2.2% baseline, the industry is still losing 1.06 million TEU of active capacity — effectively removing from the market the equivalent of the world's eighth‑largest carrier, HMM, solely due to the new, lower baseline of schedule reliability.