Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the price of crude oil has soared to its highest level since 2014, to more than US$105 a barrel, with analysts predicting $130 within weeks, reports London's Loadstar.

Meanwhile, Rotterdam-sourced low-sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) spiked by more than $30, to $731.50 a tonne, a 40 per cent increase since December.

The Loadstar understands an emergency BAF was being considered by carriers before the events of last week, but according to a carrier source, the "die is now cast" on surcharge hikes.

"Many of our contracts have a BAF calculator built in, but for our spot and short-term deals, we have no option but to try to recover as much of the extra cost as possible," he said.

In addition, a UK-based NVOCC contact confirmed to The Loadstar he had been warned about the introduction of an emergency BAF "within weeks", and that his carrier account manager had phoned with "good and bad news" on his March/April shipments from China.

"The good news was that there was space and that he could lop $200 off the 40ft rate until the end of April; the bad news was that new BAFs were coming," he said.

Asia to North Europe container spot rates, as recorded by the WCI, FBX and XSI indices, were flat last week at $13,625, $14,269 and $14,226 per 40ft respectively.

However, according to the Ningbo Containerised Freight Index (NCFI) commentary, there was a "slight decline" in rates on the tradelane, reflecting "sufficient supply in the market".

There have been many reports of carriers reducing the MQCs (minimum quantity commitments) of BCOs, obliging the shippers to seek deals with NVOCCs for overflow cargo to move containers at carrier spot rates.