LOS ANGELES, May 31 (Reuters) - Spiking ocean shipping

rates, vessel backups at seaports and empty container shortages

- issues that wreaked havoc on global trade during the COVID

pandemic supply-chain crisis - are back as the industry enters

its busy season.

"There is a cocktail of uncertainty and disruption across

global ocean freight supply chains," said Peter Sand, chief

analyst at pricing platform Xeneta.

"It is the speed and magnitude of this recent (rate) spike

that has taken the market by surprise," he said.

On Friday, the spot rate to send a 40-foot (12

meter)container from China to North Europe was $4,615, almost

3.5 times higher than on May 1, but below the all-time high of

$14,407 on January 2022, Sand said. That rate excludes $10,000

"diamond tier" rates for priority shipments.

The China to U.S. East Coast spot rate was $6,061 on Friday.

That rate was $2,772 on May 1 and hit a record high of $11,900

in January 2022, he said.

The container industry's woes trace back to December, when

Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd ( HLAGF ) and other shipping lines

diverted vessels away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal to avoid

Houthi drone and missile attacks from Yemen.

Ships on the China to Europe and China to U.S. East Coast

lanes are instead sailing around Africa, cascading disruptions

and higher costs across supply chains that rely on ocean vessels

that transport about 80% of international trade volume.

Pricing experts said spot rates would keep rising as

retailers like Walmart ( WMT ) and Target ( TGT ) stock up for

the back-to-school, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, and as

manufacturers and importers rush in goods to avoid possible

tariff hikes.

"In the near term we will see a significant crunch in the

form of very elevated rates and additional delays," Judah

Levine, head of research at Freightos ( CRGO ), said.

Port congestion in China and other Asian countries is

pressuring an over-stretched container shipping market that is

already reeling from shortages in vessel space and equipment,

analytics provider Linerlytica said in a recent report.

Singapore, the world's second-busiest container port, is now

experiencing severe delays. Some ships are skipping calls there,

upending schedules at downstream ports, Linerlytica said.

Empty containers also are piling up in Sri Lanka and the

United Arab Emirates, while China and Singapore are reporting

shortages, said Koray Kose, chief industry officer at

Everstream Analytics.

"We're sailing into the storm," Kose said.