European retailers are rushing to place their Christmas orders early as soaring shipping costs and trade route disruption threaten holiday deliveries, experts say. For the last few months, vessels belonging to Western firms have been attacked in the Red Sea by Houthi rebels backing Hamas in its war with Israel, driving shipping prices up. Container prices, which peaked in January and briefly declined, have rebounded sharply in recent weeks. The average cost of shipping a 40ft container now exceeds $4,000, a 140% increase from 2023, according to freight market tracker Xeneta. Peter Sand, Xeneta's chief analyst, said that importers have learned many lessons from the pandemic including that "the most straightforward way to protect supply chains is to ship as many of your goods as you can as quickly as possible". "That is what we are seeing with some businesses telling us they are already shipping cargo for the Christmas period - in May," he said. Typically, retailers start importing goods for the November Black Friday sales and Christmas shopping season between late summer and autumn.
