Freight rates on the Panama Canal, the Rhine and Red Sea routes each reached record levels. The three differ in geography and in the cargo they carry, but bottlenecks arrived at the same time and pushed global logistics costs up together.

Panama's constraint is water. A lock canal consumes a large volume of fresh water for every transit, and when the level of Gatun Lake falls, daily transits must be cut. Fewer slots send the auction price for priority passage sharply higher.

The Rhine is also about water, in the opposite direction. When levels drop, barges must load lighter, so moving the same tonnage takes more vessels. Chemical and steel raw material shipments through inland Germany hang directly on this.

The Red Sea is about security. The route itself is open, but the accumulation of decisions to avoid risky stretches has lengthened effective distance and time. Water, water and security are three different causes; the cost borne by shippers is the same rise in rates.

Higher freight reaches consumer prices with a lag. Because contract and spot rates renew on different cycles, today's numbers take months to show up on shelves.

Chinese-owned traders watch two things at once here: the rate itself, and the volatility of lead times. Predictability of arrival often drives inventory cost more than the average rate does.