Overview
- Maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has effectively stopped, interrupting a route that normally carries about one‑fifth of global oil flows.
- Brent crude is trading around $80 a barrel, roughly 10% higher since the escalation, as buyers brace for tighter supplies.
- Bloomberg reported that China’s economic planners urged major refiners to suspend gasoline and diesel exports and stop signing new contracts, a claim China’s Foreign Ministry said it had no knowledge of.
- Export curbs are widening beyond China’s reported moves, with at least one Japanese refiner canceling shipments and Thailand signaling a suspension of fuel deliveries, according to Bloomberg.
- Trade flows are being reconfigured as non‑Gulf suppliers step in—Algeria plans a production increase and is redirecting cargoes—while port paralyses and shipping bottlenecks ripple into fertilizers, metals and petrochemicals, raising near‑term inflation and growth risks.