Ship traffic resumes through Strait of Hormuz after recent seizures, but many carriers still reroute

Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz picked up on April 25, but carriers are still treating the waterway as a high-risk route after fresh ship seizures. (maritime-executive.com) (windward.ai) Windward said 19 vessels crossed the strait that day, including five inbound and 14 outbound transits. All of them kept their Automatic Identification System, or AIS, switched on, a sign that operators were avoiding the “dark” sailings seen earlier in the crisis. (windward.ai) (maritime-executive.com) The rebound came after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized two container ships, MSC Francesca and Epaminondas, near the strait on April 22 and moved them toward Bandar Abbas. Reuters reported about 40 crew were aboard and the seafarers were safe. (yahoo.com) (nytimes.com) The strait is the narrow outlet for Gulf oil and gas exports, and even partial disruption scrambles tanker schedules, container rotations and insurance pricing. Politico reported on April 17 that the waterway normally carries about 20 percent of the world’s oil supply. (politico.com) Washington and Tehran both said on April 17 that commercial traffic could resume during a 10-day ceasefire, but the reopening never turned into a normal market. Iran required ships to follow routes coordinated by its Ports and Maritime Organization, while the United States kept a blockade on Iranian shipping. (politico.com) (maritime-executive.com) The result is a controlled reopening, not free passage. The Maritime Executive reported that 37 vessels have been intercepted and redirected since the blockade began, and three have been seized. (maritime-executive.com) Shipping lines are also warning that even a stable ceasefire would not quickly reset their networks. Hapag-Lloyd said on April 8 that normal traffic would still take six to eight weeks to restore after the Middle East stabilizes. (marketscreener.com) (insurancejournal.com) Part of the delay is physical, not just commercial. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces were already working to clear Iranian naval mines near the designated sea lanes, and Reuters reported U.S. officials told lawmakers that mine clearance could take as long as six months. (maritime-executive.com) (trans.info) The human backlog is also growing. International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said on April 24 that around 20,000 seafarers remain trapped aboard vessels in the Persian Gulf and cannot leave. (imo.org) So the latest traffic increase is a real change, but it is still a thin flow through a militarized chokepoint. Ships are moving again, yet the strait is operating under seizure risk, mine risk and heavy naval enforcement rather than anything close to normal trade. (windward.ai) (imo.org)