Container rates soar on concerns of prolonged Red Sea disruption

Container shipping rates for key global routes have soared this week, with U.S. and UK air strikes on Yemen stirring concerns of a prolonged disruption to global trade in Red Sea, one of the world's busiest routes, industry officials said on Friday.

The benchmark Shanghai Containerized Freight Index was up over 16% week-on-week to 2,206 points on Friday. Rates on the Shanghai-Europe route rose 8.1% to $3,103 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) on Friday from a week earlier, while the rate for containers to the U.S. West Coast soared 43.2% to $3,974 per forty-foot-equivalent-unit (FEU) week on week, leading ship broker Clarksons said on Friday.