Ocean freight charges are rising due to carriers postponing plans to resume transit via the Red Sea. This crucial route connects to the Suez Canal commerce route following a missile strike and the attempted kidnapping of a Maersk ship this past weekend.

Since November, Houthi rebels from Yemen have been assaulting valuable cargo ships in the Red Sea as a show of support for Hamas. This Palestinian Islamist organization is battling Israel in Gaza. Even if the rates are still considerably lower than the epidemic levels reached in 2021, it has caused ships to detour around the southern tip of Africa, increasing the expense for boats for the longer journey.

The quickest route for shipping food, petroleum, and consumer products from Asia and the Middle East to Europe is via Egypt’s Suez Canal, which links the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Shippers use this route to transport up to one-third of all container freight worldwide, which includes frozen food, tennis shoes, toys, and furniture.

Given that many corporations, like IKEA, Walmart (WMT.N.), and Amazon (AMZN.O.), utilize the Suez route, the assaults are already causing delays in delivering goods intended for these companies.

Asia-to-Mediterranean costs surged to $5,175 this week. At the same time, rates from Asia to North Europe more than doubled to around $4,000 per 40-foot container, according to Freightos (CRGO.O), a platform for international freight booking and payments.

According to Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos, several carriers have published rates for Mediterranean shipments starting in mid-month that are more than $6,000 per 40-foot container. Surcharges ranging from $500 to $2,700 per container could increase all-in pricing.

To escape the threats, hundreds of cargo ships and other boats were diverted as of Wednesday; this might extend their journeys by seven to twenty days.

According to logistics professionals, such so-called “spot” costs are around twice as high as those for freight traded on the contract market. The executive vice president of ocean freight at Unique Logistics, Christian Sur, stated, “People who are desperate to get space (on ships) are going to pay.”

Additionally, rates for North American ports that are less impacted are rising. Up to 30% of freight that arrives on the East Coast of the United States uses the Suez Canal. Executives in logistics anticipate that a portion of those imports will be redirected to the U.S. West Coast, which is directly across the Pacific Ocean from exporters in Asia like China.

The cost of shipping a 40-foot container from Asia to the East Coast of North America increased by 55% to $3,900. Prices on the West Coast surged 63% to over $2,700 ahead of anticipated freight reroutes to avoid problems with the Red Sea, according to Levine.

Rates have increased, but they are still far lower than the record highs set in 2021 by the pandemic, which were $14,000 for a 40-foot container from Asia to North Europe and the Mediterranean and $22,000 for a container from Asia to the East Coast of North America.