Shipping has faced the perfect storm, and the Suez issue was the final straw, but prices have started to drop over the past month.

My contact suspects prices will drop a bit now the Christmas rush will be mostly past, then probably again after the Chinese new year, before balancing off in the summer, but that all depends on there being no more major issues. But as you say, there is a huge backlog of goods waiting to be shipped, which is what will keep prices up for a while.

The main driver up until a few months ago, was the major shipping lines who owned their ships, mothballed a lot of them. At one point there were hundreds sat off coasts doing nothing, as the owners figured it was better to have them sat doing nothing, than have prices drop and lose money waiting for ships to be loaded/unloaded at congested ports.
As I was told, shipping is just one big cartel.

BTW, sent you an email Dean.