The global shipping industry has been thrown into disarray, with more extra container ships being deployed on the Asian-Nordic route

Disarray in the global shipping industry continues unabated.

The fallout from the grounding of a giant cargo ship that shut down the Suez Canal for nearly a week in March has left cargo stranded at ports across Europe, the US and Asia.Freight rates for container ships have risen by 10% since the end of March to a record high.

According to real-time contract prices released by China's Shanghai Shipping Exchange, freight rates for a standard 40-foot container on the West-US route reached $4,189, and on the East-US route reached $5,452, both up more than 10% from the end of March and the highest since statistics began in 2009.

European routes have also raised prices by more than 10% to $4,187 for a standard 20-foot container.About 100 freighters are queuing up to enter Europe's largest port, Rotterdam in the Netherlands."The disruption of the Suez Canal has resulted in a large number of simultaneous ship arrivals and significant disruption is likely to continue into May," said Charlotte Cook, an analyst at UKRR.

The closure of the Suez Canal comes at a time when a shortage of workers at U.S. ports is running out of capacity to handle cargo.Adding to the chaos, more than 400 cargo ships are stranded at the same time heading to ports around the world.

Maersk, the world's largest container shipping group, suspended a large number of spot bookings and short-term contract shipments on March 31 to avoid the disruption caused by the grounding, and some routes remain unbooked.

The surge in cargo has also led to high freight rates, with shipping companies investing in new vessels.But orders for new ships will take two to three years to be delivered, which will not ease the immediate squeeze on demand.

More ships are being lined up on the Asia-Nordic route

Asian exporters face weeks of delays at any price, but some shipping lines are adding capacity and adding extra container ships to meet demand.

Since last August, THE union members only HMM has deployed more than 20 boats were "loaded" additional services, including 12 in Asia - THE U.S. west coast line, three to Asia - THE east coast of THE United States route, went to South Korea three routes - Russia, 1 ship to Asia - northern routes, 1 went to South Korea ship - Vietnam airlines.

In addition to this, HMM's new Asia-Europe additional loading service, the 4600TEU "HMM Goodwill" will depart from Busan on 26 April to deliver goods to Rotterdam and Hamburg, which are expected to arrive on 27 May and 30 May respectively.The ship, which will be filled with chemicals, steel, machinery, car parts and home appliances, is scheduled to pass through the Suez Canal in mid-May.

Meanwhile, the 16,000TEU HMM Nuri and HMM Gaon allocated to the Asia-Nordic route in March both exceeded their nominal capacity of 13,300TEU, carrying 13,438TEU and 13,502TEU, respectively.

In addition, 12 new 24,000TEU ships that HMM took delivery of last year have been deployed to the Asia-Northern Europe route and have been fully loaded on 32 consecutive trips.

New players are also coming in

However, some shipping lines are keen to "limit" additional capacity, preferring to take a more cautious approach to supply and demand issues rather than focus on restoring network capacity after the Suez disruption.

The large volume of cargoes on the spot market, at least five times higher than a year ago, guarantees a voyage profit for independent services that was not possible even for Panamax and smaller Panamax vessels a year ago.

CU Lines, a Chinese shipping line, is the latest entrer in the lucrative Asian-Nordic market, where shippers offer very limited cargo space but can charge up to $14,000 per 40-foot container.

Last week, the company secured round-trip service on two small vessels from China to northern Europe and appears to have the backing of Xstaff, an international sourcing association based in Dusseldorf.

In February of this year, CU Lines made its first voyage to Northern Europe and it is understood that CU Lines is actively promoting further voyages from China to Northern Europe in May and June with base cargo support from XStaff and other carriers.

Meanwhile, freight carriers such as DSV and Geodis have identified one-off charters from Asia to northern Europe to mitigate the impact of tight capacity on routes, while issuing warnings to major carriers to ensure they are complying with contracts.

But there are now few open ships in Asia, so the do-it-yourself options of the big shippers have in effect been suspended.

By contrast, CU Lines has access to China's domestic fleet leasing market, which until now has barely been on the radar of traditional container ship brokers.

With the exception of CU Lines, the large volume of freight and high rates will certainly attract new players into the liner market, provided they can find open vessels and containers.