The collective sigh of relief that Asian businesses heaved after the giant Japanese-owned container vessel Ever Given floated free in the Suez Canal after six days of being wedged into the side of the waterway is best explained by a single statistic: If you had needed to move Ever Given's load of 20,000 containers by plane, it would have taken 2,500 Boeing 747 freighters to do the job.

It now costs more than US$7,000 (S$9,400) to move a single container by sea from Northern Asia to Europe, which isn't cheap. Rail links are beginning to connect the continents, but are more expensive than sea freight still, which means several hundred extra dollars per container.