Overview
- Shipping leaders report the waterway is technically open but not operating for normal trade, with only a trickle of escorted or Iran-cleared passages.
- Traffic has collapsed by more than 90 percent, leaving hundreds of vessels stuck and roughly 20,000 seafarers stranded on board.
- Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has harassed and fired on merchant ships, and it has warned of mines, though no mines have been publicly confirmed.
- The United States has run limited naval escorts under Project Freedom, and India has helped move several LPG carriers, yet regular flows have not resumed.
- Oil prices have jumped from about $74 to above $112 per barrel as war-risk insurance has surged by up to 70 percent, pushing up voyage costs and delaying fuel and cargo deliveries.