Strait of Hormuz traffic dips sharply after US-Iran escalation
Commodity vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz fell to four on Tuesday, down from ten a day earlier, as US-Iran tensions escalated.
Preliminary shipping data shows a sharp drop in commodity vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, following the latest round of US air strikes against Iran. Only four vessels made the transit, compared with ten a day earlier and a 10-day average of around 13, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Kpler.
The four ships comprised one very large crude carrier, one Panamax tanker, one Kamsarmax carrier, and one intermediate tanker. Of these, one was entering the strait while the remaining three were leaving. The figures may be revised, as vessels sometimes switch off their transponders during transit.
The reduction comes after the United States launched air strikes on Iran, prompting retaliatory actions. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responded by stating that the attacks would "tighten the lock" on the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that carried roughly one-fifth of global oil consumption before the conflict.
Elsewhere, traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb strait also remained subdued. Eighteen commodity vessels passed through on Tuesday—seven entering and eleven exiting—against a 10-day average of about 24. Among them were two Aframax tankers and one Suezmax tanker.