Hormuz traffic drops after Saturday strike on vessel

Strait of Hormuz traffic slowed over the weekend after a vessel was struck while transiting the waterway on Saturday, and a fresh exchange of strikes between the United States and Iran strained their preliminary deal to end the conflict.

In total, 29 commodity vessels crossed on Saturday and 12 transited on Sunday, according to data from the maritime tracking firm Kpler.

Sunday’s figures mark a sharp decline from last week, when a memorandum of understanding signed by Tehran and Washington on June 15 boosted traffic through the strait to its highest level since the start of the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic, reaching 70 crossings on Wednesday, according to Kpler.

Despite Iran’s warning against using unapproved shipping lanes, vessels continued to take several routes through the waterway over the weekend.

The website tracks only vessels with active transponders, meaning additional ships may have crossed with their signals switched off.

More ships entered the Gulf over the weekend than departed, reversing a trend seen over the previous week, when efforts focused on evacuating seafarers stranded in the Gulf.

A UN-led operation to evacuate 11,000 seafarers was suspended on Thursday after a vessel was struck in the Gulf of Oman.

Four tankers and a container ship used the southern Omani corridor to enter the Gulf yesterday, escorted by US Navy vessels, according to a post on X by HFI Research.

No vessels used that corridor to exit the Gulf yesterday, according to Kpler.

Total figures may rise further as crossings are identified retrospectively, notably through satellite imagery.