Experts are warning that consumers may begin to feel the pinch from rising shipping costs, as the price of transporting goods by sea skyrockets.

New figures show the transportation of a 40-foot steel container ship between Shanghai and Rotterdam now costs over $10,000, that’s a huge 547 percent increase on the average price.

Around 80 percent of the world’s goods are transported by ships, meaning the costs will be largely unavoidable for both consumers and businesses.

Toy importer, Gary Grant says “during 40 years in toy retailing he has never known such challenging conditions from the point of view of pricing.”

It’s believed the rise in costs is associated with a number of factors, from soaring demand to a shortage of containers, busy ports and a limited workforce.

The disruption to the shipping industry could lead to shortages in the lead up to Christmas.

An outbreak of Covid-19 in a province in southern China is causing congestion at the region’s ports.

Shipments have now been delayed… adding to the tensions within global supply chains, the knock-on effects could take many months to resolve.

This is the latest in a series of severe setbacks for the industry and experts says that problems in just one region can have ripple effects around the world for several months.