ISTANBUL
More ships are beginning to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, although overall traffic remains far below prewar levels, according to maritime intelligence firm Windward and UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Windward said Thursday transits through the critical waterway rose to 16 on April 1, up from 11 a day earlier, marking the third consecutive daily increase.
The firm said all 16 vessels used the route via Larak Island, which it described as a permission-based corridor running close to Iran’s coastline.
"Western-sanctioned ships comprised 62% of transits on April 1 as Iran’s inbound shadow tanker fleet prepared for further loadings," it noted.
The pattern suggested that more countries were negotiating with Iran to secure passage for ships through the strait, raising the possibility that transit volumes could increase further in the coming days, Windward said.
Despite the rise, traffic through the strait remains only a fraction of normal levels. UNCTAD said ship transits through Hormuz fell from around 130 per day in February to just 6 in March, a drop of about 95%, underscoring the scale of disruption since the conflict began.
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints, carrying around a quarter of global seaborne oil trade as well as significant volumes of liquefied natural gas and fertilizers.
Roughly 20 million barrels of oil used to pass daily from the strait, which has been effectively disrupted since early March following Iranian measures taken in retaliation for the US-Israeli offensive on Iran that began on Feb. 28.