The Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for global maritime trade, handled nearly 1,000 ships in the 100 days since the US-Israel-Iran war broke out in the region, marking a figure that the waterway would have seen in only a week under normal conditions.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway at the mouth of the Gulf, connecting Middle Eastern oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to global markets via the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
The chokepoint accounted for 20% of the global daily oil consumption and liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade prior to Feb. 28, when the US and Israel preemptively attacked Iran and Tehran made subsequent retaliations, striking regional infrastructure.
The waterway also accounts for one-third of the seaborne fertilizer trade.
June 7 marks the 100th day of the war, and yet, daily commercial vessel transit through the transit route remains quite limited.
The primary methods for vessels to transit the chokepoint have been paying Iran or seeking diplomatic solutions via negotiations.
Some vessels passed through the strait with their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders turned offline. This period saw the emergence of a new route within Iran’s territorial waters, while some ships continued sticking to the route designated by the International Maritime Organization.
Prior to the conflict, an average of 129 vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz per day on Feb. 1-27, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), near the historical average of 138 ships per day, as per the UK Maritime Trade Organization.
However, the number of ships in the first 100 days of the war plummeted over 90% versus pre-war levels.
Some 988 commercial ships transited the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war, 84 of which were container ships, as of June 7, at 0700 hours GMT, according to data from analytics firm Kpler.
The daily vessel transits through the strait stood at 10 on the 100th day of the war.
While around 1,000 vessels would have typically transited the strait within a week under normal conditions, fewer than that managed to pass the waterway over the 100-day period. Among the vessels able to pass, a massive portion was made up of shadow fleets or sanctioned vessels.
Historic drop
Ship crossings through the Strait of Hormuz reached 78 on Feb. 28, and following the start of the war, the figure dropped to 30 on March 1 and 13 on March 2.
Ship transits dropped to as low as 2 in the following days, while April 18 saw the heaviest traffic during the war period with 27 vessels.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on April 17 that the Strait of Hormuz would remain open to all commercial vessels until the end of the ceasefire period in Lebanon.
US President Donald Trump also said that the Strait was fully open, but that the US blockade would continue until an agreement is reached with Iran.
Iran announced the strait would remain de facto closed on April 18, demanding that the US lift its blockade on ships bound or departing from Iranian ports.
Weeks later, only one ship transited the Strait of Hormuz on May 7, the lowest during the 100-day period.
The main trade route for ships otherwise passing the strait has been between Gulf producers and specific countries in Asia and Africa since the start of the war, while trade with Western countries through the strait all but disappeared.
Most able to pass have been oil, petroleum product carriers
The Strait of Hormuz saw 456 oil and petroleum carriers transit the waterway during the first 100 days of the conflict.
While 50 crude oil and petroleum product ships passed through the Strait on Feb. 28, this number decreased to 17 on March 1, 6 on March 2, and 2 on March 3. There were also days when no oil and petroleum product ships passed through the Strait during this period.
The majority of these transits were ships loaded with cargo departing from Iranian ports, while ships departing from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar also transited the waterway.
Oil and petroleum product carriers passing through the strait were heading primarily to countries such as China, India, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Pakistan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Myanmar.
Meanwhile, damage to energy infrastructure in the Gulf due to Iran’s retaliatory attacks led to massive losses in production in the region, especially with halting operations at the LNG facility in Qatar, which accounts for a large portion of LNG trade in the Strait of Hormuz.
No LNG ships transited the strait for days, and the first one to pass after Feb. 28 did so on April 2.
Only 18 LNG carriers transited the waterway during the first 100 days of the conflict, making up 2% of the total transits over the period. LNG ships loaded in the Gulf and transiting the strait were bound for Pakistan, India, China, and Japan.
At the same time, only 149 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels transited the strait over the 100-day period, making up 15% of the total — these ships departed primarily from Iranian ports, as well as from the ports of the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait, inbound for Pakistan, India, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Oman, Djibouti, Somalia, and Chile.
Some 281 dry cargo ships transited the strait over the war period, making up 28% of the total.
These vessels followed more diverse routes than other types of vessels.
Ships loaded in various countries like Qatar, the UAE, Iran, India, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Canada, Thailand, Ukraine, Brazil, Argentina, China, Oman, Tanzania, Indonesia, and Iraq.
In addition, nearly 10 passenger ships that were stranded in the Gulf following the outbreak of the war also transited the strait over the 100-day period.
*Writing by Emir Yildirim in Istanbul
