Container shipping rates from Asia jumped sharply over the past week, with the spot price for a 40 foot box to the US West Coast climbing 20% to $3,933 and the equivalent rate to northern Europe rising 27% to $3,649, according to Oslo based freight platform Xeneta. Drewry's composite reading across major long haul routes confirmed the move, posting its highest weekly jump in about a year.
Xeneta's figures show transpacific rates are up 109% since the US war with Iran began on February 28, while Europe bound rates are up more than 50%. Carriers are layering on fuel surcharges and passing energy crisis costs onto importers as bunker prices stay elevated.
The blocked Strait of Hormuz has forced reroutes that are now backing up Singapore and Malaysia's Port Klang, two of the largest transshipment hubs in Southeast Asia. That congestion is spilling into trades that never touch the Middle East, including the transpacific. Peter Sand, chief analyst at Xeneta, called port disruption toxic for supply chains and said it is driving the largest spikes on lanes far from the Persian Gulf.
Capacity is also tightening into July and August, the traditional peak booking months for inventory restocking ahead of the holidays. Sand warned that if shippers move to front load imports, carriers will keep pushing rates higher and the market may still be far from its peak. Shares of A.P. Moller Maersk, the world's second largest container line, rose about 13% on the week.
The pressure is not limited to ocean freight. The May reading of the US Logistics Managers' Index showed transport costs expanding at the fastest pace recorded in the report's ten year history, a signal that the freight shock from the Iran conflict is now feeding broadly into domestic supply chains.