Spot rates for container shipping between Asia, Europe and the United States are climbing as the Red Sea crisis forces several shipping lines to reroute and global freighter capacity declines.

Freightos, a freight booking and payment platform, said late Wednesday that the spot freight rate for shipping goods in a 40-foot container from Asia to Northern Europe has exceeded $4,000, a 173% increase from before the Red Sea crisis in the middle of last month.
Freightos said the cost of cargo from Asia to the Mediterranean has increased to $5,175, and some carriers have announced that freight rates on this route will exceed $6,000 starting in mid-January. Freight rates for a 40-foot container from Asia to the east coast of North America rose 55% to $3,900.
Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos, noted that shipping costs from Asia to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean are more than double January 2019 levels, but still well below the peak during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Traffic in the Suez Canal has been reduced by more than a quarter in recent days as ships have diverted around Africa's Cape of Good Hope to avoid attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels. Compared with going directly through the Suez Canal, the voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa takes 25% longer.
When capacity is tight, shipping lines increase freight rates and impose surcharges for the extra time it takes to deliver goods and for busier-than-usual times of the year.
For cargo owners watching freight costs rise, the risk is that spot freight rates will remain high, giving them less leverage when negotiating long-term contract prices. Most ocean freight rates are calculated based on the rates specified in these contracts.
The impact of the Red Sea crisis on shipping is not limited to container shipping. Shipbroker Braemar said freight rates in the cruise market have also increased, mainly for ships transporting refined fuels such as gasoline and diesel. Earnings for ships transporting refined oil products from the Mediterranean to Japan through the Suez Canal have surged, climbing from about $8,000 a day in early December to $26,000 a day this week.