Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz dropped significantly over the weekend, as a four-day exchange of attacks between Iran and the United States left some shipowners deciding it was too risky to transit.
Before the attacks, shipping traffic through the strait had risen to its highest levels since March 1, days after the start of the war. Many ships were taking a U.S.-backed route that bypassed Iranian waters.
But on Thursday, Iran reiterated its demand that ships use its waters and obtain permits to go in or out of the strait, a critical shipping route for oil and gas, warning that other routes were “unacceptable and extremely dangerous.” Later in the day, Iranian forces attacked a container ship that was transiting via Omani waters on the other side of the Persian Gulf. The United States conducted retaliatory strikes.
Iran attacked a second ship, a Panama-flagged tanker called the Kiku, with a drone on Saturday, according to the U.S. Central Command. By Monday, the United States and Iran had agreed to halt their attacks and allow vessels to move freely, according to a U.S. official. Iranian officials had not confirmed that an agreement had been reached.
Despite the risks, 22 ships passed through the strait on Sunday, down from 38 on Saturday, according to data from Kpler, a maritime tracking firm.
CMA CGM, a French shipping company, appears to have transited the strait through Iranian waters, around Hormuz Island, according to the data from Kpler.
CMA CGM did not comment on its decision to send the ship through Iranian waters. In a statement on Sunday, the company that it was pleased to announce that its ship passed through the strait that morning. “This transit marks an important milestone in a regional context that remains complex and requires constant vigilance,” the company said.
A plan announced last week by the International Maritime Organization to evacuate some 600 ships and 11,000 seafarers stranded in the strait remained on pause on Monday. The agency had helped get some 115 vessels out before it suspended the program on Thursday.
On Sunday, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, warned against trying to bypass Iranian waters.
“Any attempt to adopt new or separate arrangements from those currently being pursued by the Islamic Republic will only lead to further complications, delays in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and an increase in tensions,” he said in a news conference.
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