(March 12): The cost to ship goods in containers to Europe from China jumped over the past week as the war in the Middle East disrupts one of the world’s busiest shipping routes and lengthens delivery times.
According to figures from the Drewry World Container Index posted on Thursday, the spot rate for a 40-foot container to Rotterdam from Shanghai increased 19% to US$2,443 over the past week, the steepest weekly gain in percentage terms since June 2025. Service from Shanghai to Genoa, Italy, jumped almost 10% to US$3,120.
From Shanghai to Los Angeles, the rate was 4.2% higher than a week earlier at US$2,503, Drewry’s figures showed.
The world’s major container carriers have added emergency fees and fuel surcharges to their long-haul rates since the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb 28. Shipping lines have stopped transiting the Strait of Hormuz — restricting their access to Dubai’s Jebel Ali, the busiest container port outside of Asia — and are largely avoiding the Red Sea, opting instead for the longer journey around southern Africa.
“Even if none of a shipper’s freight touches the Strait of Hormuz, they’re competing for space on a global vessel network that just got significantly tighter,” said Stephen Dyke, director of strategic solutions at Chicago-based FourKites, a supply chain AI platform. “We expect transit times on transpacific and Asia-to-Europe lanes to start creeping up within the next week or two.”
Uploaded by Felyx Teoh
