SHENZHEN's Yantian terminal crisis is contributing to delays and tied up capacity already plaguing the industry, and pushing the share of global capacity currently waiting outside a port to more than five per cent, reports the American Journal of Transportation.

The crisis is also pushing ocean rates even higher, with Asia-US east coast rates spiking 25 per cent to more than US$9,000 per FEU, and prices from Asia to Europe and the Mediterranean to more than $11,000 per FEU.

Asia-US West Coast prices climbed 15 per cent to a new high of $6,341 per FEU. This rate is 245 per cent higher year on year.

Asia-US East Coast prices spiked to a new record of $9,317 per FEU, and are 250 per cent higher than rates were a year ago.

The Port of Yantian - responsible for about 25 per cent of US-bound, Chinese origin ocean volumes - has been operating at only 30 per cent capacity for three weeks now following a coronavirus outbreak.

This has created a queue of ships that could wait 16 days to dock. With the nearby ports of Shekou and Nansha unable to handle all the impacted containers, some carriers are skipping not only Yantian but also Shekou to avoid days of delays.