Shipping fees have soared by 467%! Geopolitical conflicts and sanctions are disrupting the global bulk shipping landscape.

The WiseFinance APP has learned that global ocean freight rates for bulk commodities such as energy and bulk minerals are experiencing an extremely rare year-end surge, as ongoing geopolitical conflicts, sanctions by Western countries, and continuously rising production are disrupting global maritime supply routes. The sudden surge in year-end freight rates highlights that demand has not gone into hibernation as expected, but instead is being pushed up by a combination of AI infrastructure, energy, and bulk commodity recovery, while the supply side is being artificially shrunk by geopolitical conflicts and sanctions. Effective capacity is being stretched and locked in, and in an industry where short-term capacity is essentially fixed, the end result is sudden skyrocketing prices.