Spot rates continued to skyrocket this week and shippers are clearly getting anxious, in relation to high rates may go. But the truth is, nobody really knows. Simply put, prices will increase until sufficiently many shippers cannot afford to ship their goods. This will lower container demand, to the point where it matches the available vessel capacity. But the actual level where this happens is not known. The easiest answer to “how high can rates go?” would be to point to the maximum level seen during the pandemic. This, however, does not account for the increased round-Africa sailing distances that weren’t present during the pandemic. (....)