A year after a giant containership got stuck in the Suez Canal for almost a week and disrupted global trade for months, another Evergreen Marine Corp. vessel has run aground, this time near the U.S. capital.

Ocean freight rates, which have pummeled retailers and manufacturers throughout 2021, may take more than two years to return to normal levels if past market cycles are any guide.

As volumes continue to surge at the nation’s ports on the coasts of the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, two of the nation’s biggest facilities — Los Angeles and Long Beach — are taking the first steps to expand their hours of operations to 24/7 to keep up with the backlog of freight.

Imported goods continued to flood into the U.S. in July as the nation’s ports produced substantial container volumes.

The biggest U.S. trade gateway with Asia is clogged with the most inbound container vessels in more than six months, threatening to extend transportation delays, bite further into margins for American importers and boost prices for consumers.

The cost to ship a boxload of goods to the U.S. from China edged close to $10,000 as the world’s biggest economy keeps vacuuming up imports amid slower recoveries from the pandemic from Europe to Asia.

For a nation that provides safe passage for so many ships through its waters, Egypt offered up rather special treatment for the Ever Given.

A giant containership that had blocked Egypt’s Suez Canal for nearly a week earlier this year will be released on July 7 following an agreement between authorities and the vessel’s owners, the canal operator said July 4.

Egyptian officials and owners of the giant Ever Given vessel that blocked the Suez Canal earlier this year have reached a preliminary deal over compensation, according to the ship’s representatives.

CAIRO — An Egyptian appeals court said May 23 it lacks jurisdiction to look into the Suez Canal Authority’s demands to uphold financial claims that led to the seizure of the cargo ship that blocked the waterway in March.