LONDON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Container shipping rates for key global routes have soared this week, with U.S. and UK air strikes on Yemen stirring concerns of a prolonged disruption to global trade in Red Sea, one of the world's busiest routes, industry officials said on Friday.

The benchmark Shanghai Containerized Freight Index was up over 16% week-on-week to 2,206 points on Friday.

Rates on the Shanghai-Europe route rose 8.1% to $3,103 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) on Friday from a week earlier, while the rate for containers to the U.S. West Coast soared 43.2% to $3,974 per forty-foot-equivalent-unit (FEU) week on week, leading ship broker Clarksons said on Friday. (Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Josephine Mason and Toby Chopra)