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Major shipowners began moving vessels through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday for the first time in 110 days, after the United States and Iran signed an interim agreement to end their war, maritime data provider Lloyd’s List Intelligence said.
Richard Meade, editor in chief of Lloyd’s List, told a media briefing that ships owned by major carriers had crossed the strait after being effectively marooned there since February. He did not say how many vessels had completed the transit by Thursday.
The strait sits off Iran’s coast and carried a fifth of the world’s crude oil before the war. Its closure triggered a severe disruption to global energy supply, and its partial reopening now offers the clearest signal yet that shipping in the Gulf is starting to normalize.
Tankers Cross as Blockade Eases
Lloyd’s List said tankers controlled by Grimaldi Group, Cosco, Knutsen and NYK had passed through the strait. Two tankers owned by the sanctioned National Iranian Tanker Company and flagged to Iran also entered the waterway, according to the data provider.
United States Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the U.S. Navy had lifted its blockade of the strait to allow some ships through Iranian ports. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote on social media platform X that an Italian merchant vessel owned by Grimaldi Group was among the first ships to transit after the agreement was signed.
Separately, maritime data firm Kpler said it had observed six verified crossings on Wednesday and another eleven on Thursday, pointing to a steady, if still limited, pickup in traffic.
Center Route Still Mined, Two Detours Carry the Load
Phillip Belcher, marine director at Intertanko, a trade group representing independent tanker owners, said the strait’s main central channel remained closed, with an estimated 80 mines still requiring clearance. Ships instead are using two alternative paths: a smaller northern route through Iranian waters and a southern route through Omani waters.
“Those two routes now seem to be fully open,” Belcher said.
He cautioned that fully reopening the central channel could take weeks or months, and that the two detours lack the capacity of the main passage. Belcher compared the situation to a highway closure. “This is like a highway where the road in the middle is closed and you’re using that hard shoulder,” he said. “That’s now being used as the main route. We need to get back to having the highway open.”
The distinction matters for operators weighing transit times, insurance terms and fuel costs, since narrower, shallower alternate routes can limit vessel size and slow throughput even once they are declared safe.
A Backlog of 550 Ships Awaits Exit
Lloyd’s List estimated that 550 merchant ships need to prepare to leave the Persian Gulf, a fleet that includes 160 tankers, 200 bulk carriers, 60 container ships and 10 vehicle carriers. The scale of that queue suggests congestion could persist even as the legal and physical barriers to transit ease.
For oil and gas shippers, the gap between alternate route capacity and the volume of cargo waiting to move is likely to keep freight rates and insurance premiums elevated in the near term. Charterers and underwriters are expected to watch mine clearance progress on the central channel closely, since that work will determine how quickly the bottleneck eases.
No timeline has been given for when the central route will reopen or when the full backlog of vessels is expected to clear the Gulf.
