Australian consumers and businesses will pay more for everything from chocolate and sofas to mining equipment as shipping crises in the Red Sea and Asia fuel the worst freight delays since the pandemic and threaten to stoke local inflation.

The continuing threat of attacks on commercial ships by Yemen’s Houthi militants off the Horn of Africa has forced vessels to reroute around the southern tip of the continent in what shippers say has become a “new normal” that adds weeks to their journeys and contributes to the worst congestion at the Port of Singapore since COVID-19.