PARIS, France (AFP) — Just hours after a fragile truce between the United States and Iran was meant to reopen one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints, shipping activity through the Strait of Hormuz remained severely constrained Wednesday, offering little immediate relief to global energy markets grappling with months of disrupted trade.
Only three vessels — all bulk carrier cargo ships — had either completed or were nearing completion of their transits of the 21-mile waterway by Wednesday afternoon, according to real-time tracking data from global maritime intelligence service MarineTraffic. The count only accounts for vessels that kept their navigation transponders active, leaving open the possibility that additional unreported crossings occurred with signals turned off.
The first two crossings were completed early Wednesday, mere hours after the ceasefire agreement was made public. The Liberia-flagged Daytona Beach, which departed the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas at 05:28 UTC, crossed the strait at 06:59 UTC, while Greek-owned bulk carrier NJ Earth completed its passage at 08:44 UTC. A third vessel, the Chinese-owned, Botswana-flagged Hai Long 1 — also departing from Iran — was approaching the end of its transit by mid-afternoon Wednesday.
Notably, the NJ Earth had already crossed into the Gulf of Oman between Monday and Tuesday before returning through the strait again on Wednesday. Ana Subasic, an analyst with commodities data firm Kpler — which owns MarineTraffic — told AFP that this single transit is an encouraging early signal, but it remains too early to confirm whether it marks the start of a full, ceasefire-driven reopening of the waterway, or merely a one-off exception approved by Iranian authorities before the truce took effect.
Both the NJ Earth and Daytona Beach used the Iran-approved transit corridor near Larak Island, the only route most vessels have been allowed to use for the past three weeks amid Iran’s access restrictions. While the Daytona Beach listed the United Arab Emirates’ Fujairah port as its destination on its transponder, AFP was unable to immediately confirm the NJ Earth’s final destination. By 16:00 GMT Wednesday, several additional cargo vessels were observed heading toward the same approved corridor for transit.
The slow resumption of activity comes as shipping industry reports confirm that hundreds of vessels remain stuck in the Gulf region. Shipping industry publication Lloyd’s List reported Wednesday that some shipowners and charterers have begun preparations to move the hundreds of vessels stranded since restrictions took effect, with the outlet estimating that roughly 800 ships are currently held in the Gulf.
Iran implemented the severe restrictions on access to the strait in late February as a retaliatory measure following coordinated US and Israeli strikes on Iranian assets in the region. Data from Kpler shows that between March 1 and April 7, just 307 commodity-carrying vessels completed crossings of the strait — a 95% drop from pre-restriction traffic levels.
The strait carries outsized importance for global energy security: in peacetime, roughly 20% of the world’s total daily crude oil and liquefied natural gas supplies pass through the waterway, making even minor disruptions to traffic enough to shift global energy prices and threaten supply chains worldwide.