LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - Ships sailing to the U.S.

port of Baltimore dropped anchor in waters nearby while vessels

were stranded inside the port after traffic was halted following

a bridge collapse, shipping data showed on Tuesday.

A 948-foot container ship smashed into a four-lane bridge in

the port in darkness early on Tuesday, causing it to collapse

and sending cars and people plunging into the river below.

Port traffic was suspended until further notice, Maryland

transportation authorities said.

At least 13 vessels that were expected to load coal were

anchored near to Baltimore port, according to analysis from data

and analytics group Kpler.

Other vessels waiting nearby included container and cargo

ships, separate ship tracking data from MarineTraffic showed.

Three vessels inside the port had been due to load

commodities, while other smaller ships, including pleasure

crafts, were also unable to leave, separate data showed.

The Klara Oldendorff, one of the dry bulk vessels inside

Baltimore port, was undamaged but ship transits were halted

until further notice, the vessel's Germany-based owner

Oldendorff Carriers told Reuters.

Container shipping traffic was also impacted.

Top Danish container shipping group Maersk said

due to the damage to the bridge and resulting debris, it was

omitting Baltimore port from all its services "for the

foreseeable future, until it is deemed safe for passage through

this area".

The container ship Dali, which collided with the bridge on

Tuesday, was chartered by Maersk at the time of the incident in

Baltimore.

"With most of Baltimore's port terminals and all of its

container terminals behind the collapsed bridge, containerized

exports at or planning to depart from Baltimore will either need

to wait until the waterway re-opens, or be rerouted by truck or

rail to alternate ports," said Judah Levine of global freight

platform Freightos ( CRGO ).

Those could include Philadelphia, or the more major hubs

like Norfolk, New York and New Jersey, Levine said.

"Exporters choosing these options could face increased

trucking and rail rates if enough volumes are shifted to other

ports."

Baltimore port's private and public terminals handled 847,158

autos and light trucks in 2023, the most of any U.S. port.

The port also handles farm and construction machinery,

sugar, gypsum and coal, according to a Maryland government

website.

It was unclear how many car carriers were affected.

"While Baltimore is not one of the largest U.S. East

Coast ports, it still imports and exports more than one million

containers each year, so there is the potential for this to

cause significant disruption to supply chains," said Emily

Stausbøll, market analyst at Xeneta, an ocean freight shipping

rate benchmarking and intelligence platform.

Stausbøll said the incident would add to challenges to ocean

freight services - including drought in the Panama Canal and

attacks on Red Sea shipping - which have pushed Far East to U.S.

East Coast rates up by 150% in recent months.

(Reporting by Jonathan Saul; editing by Kirsten Donovan, Jason

Neely and Ros Russell)