Commodity Ship Traffic Through Hormuz Falls to Seven Vessels
Only seven commodity ships used the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, down from 14 the prior day, as Middle East shipping risks persist.
Commodity ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell sharply on Thursday, with only seven vessels making the transit, according to shipping data from Kpler. This is half the 14 ships recorded the previous day, reflecting continued caution over Middle East shipping lanes amid stalled U.S.-Iran peace efforts.
Of the seven ships, four entered the waterway and three exited. The strait normally handles nearly a fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas shipments, but volumes have been disrupted since the outbreak of war in February.
Notably, none of Thursday's transits involved very large crude carriers or LNG tankers. However, one very large gas carrier, transporting propane and butane, did exit the strait via the Iranian route, the data showed.
Meanwhile, at the Bab el-Mandeb strait, traffic also eased. A total of 23 commodity ships passed through on Thursday, down from 34 on each of the previous two days. Of these, 16 entered and seven exited.
Among the departures were two Suezmax tankers, the Stoic Warrior and the Dokos, carrying crude oil bound for Vietnam and India respectively. No very large crude carriers or LNG tankers used the Bab el-Mandeb on Thursday.
It is important to note that vessels sailing with transponders switched off are not captured in the tracking data, meaning actual traffic could be higher than reported.