Container shipping reliability declined for the second month in a row in December, according to Drewry's enhanced Carrier Performance Insight.

Voyages data shows the aggregate on-time performance for the Asia-Europe, transpacific and transatlantic box trades dropped to 58 percent in December, down from 62 percent in November and 64 percent in October.

December's on-time performance was the worst since August (55 percent) with the monthly decline the result of weaker reliability across all three trades.

Reliability in the Asia-Europe trade (7,475 voyages tracked) declined 4.5 points month-on-month to 64.3 percent. On the transpacific (3,826 voyages) on-time performance dropped 3.3 points to a new low of 47.4 percent, while transatlantic (570 voyages) reliability fell to 46.3 percent, down 12.6 points.

"The slower demand winter season should ease some of the congestion pressures and allow for some improvement in container shipping reliability," said Drewry analyst Simon Heaney.

"Falling bunker prices should also help raise the on-time performance as carriers will face a lower fuel bill for speeding up ships that fall behind schedule. However, the introduction of new alliance service networks from the start of 2015 is a short-term risk to reliability as new schedules are phased in," said Mr Heaney.