Container Shortage Push Freight Rates To Stratospheric Levels As Chaos Sweeps Across US Ports

Shipping costs have never been a small expense for manufacturers, but over the past 18 months, prices exploded to unprecedented levels as the global freight crisis spiraled out of control. The relentless rise in prices started in the autumn of 2020, but the first half of 2021 has seen another major price hike across different freight rates, such as dry bulk and containers, all along major trade routes. Up until this point, there’s no sign of relief for the shipping crisis, and consequently, rates are expected to continue spiking in the second half of this year, as the growing global demand will continue to be met with strained shipping capacity and congested ports. Just over the past 6 months, ocean freight from China to the US West Coast has surged three-fold, and the overall cost of freight from China soared by a shocking 200 percent. Most ships are exposed to the spot market, only a small share of the fleet is on fixed-rate contracts. For that reason, contracts keep getting repriced every week, and shipp