India- and Pakistan-owned ships transit Strait of Hormuz
VESSELS owned by the governments of India and Pakistan have successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, although traffic is still dominated by Iranian-linked tonnage.
The India-flagged LPG carriers, Shivalik (IMO: 9356892) and Nanda Devi (IMO: 9232503), both owned by the state-owned Shipping Corporation of India, transited the strait around March 13 or 14.
Pakistan-flagged, 109,990 dwt crude oil tanker Karachi (IMO: 9903413), owned by the Pakistan National Shipping Corp, also transited the strait on March 15. All three journeys were eastbound.
Recent transits also suggested that some vessels are sailing through Iran’s territorial waters and around Larak Island on their outbound voyages.
Both Karachi and Liberia-flagged bulk carrier Minoan Sky (IMO: 9422328) sailed around the island in Iran’s territorial waters, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence AIS data. The Marshall Islands-flagged Star Gwyneth (IMO: 9301031), which was attacked last week, may have also taken that route, as its AIS shows it transiting the strait relatively close to the Iranian shoreline. AIS data for the second India-owned LPG carrier Nanda Devi is patchy but suggests that the vessel also circled around Iran’s Larak Island before crossing the strait.
Before the three tanker voyages, transits had been made almost exclusively by Iranian-, Greek- and Chinese-linked tonnage. While it’s true that vessels linked to those countries still dominate traffic (47%, 17% and 9% of all transits respectively), this is perhaps evidence that other nations are growing in confidence that their vessels will be able to transit the strait without fear of attack.
Reports have emerged over the past few days that India is in dialogue with Tehran to allow India-flagged vessels to transit the strait, while Chinese vessels have reportedly been broadcasting their identity when transiting in a bid to avoid attack.
Despite continued threats by Iranian forces that the strait is closed to “Iran’s enemies”, analysis of attacks on vessels so far reveals that targeting is much more random in nature, designed to cause maximum disruption rather than target vessels linked to specific nationalities.
If that truly is the aim of the Iranian regime, then Lloyd’s List Intelligence data shows it is yielding some success.
Transits through the strait have collapsed since the conflict began, but dips in traffic are observable following spates of vessels attacks ever since the US and Israel began strikes on Iran.
March 10 saw 10 vessels make the journey through the Strait of Hormuz, followed by five on March 11. But after three vessels were attacked between March 11 and 12 (including two tankers being set ablaze off Basra), no vessels attempted to transit the strait on March 12.
Incidentally, that’s the first day on which no transits were recorded since the war began.
The campaign on shipping has succeeded in collapsing Hormuz traffic, and even those that are choosing to transit the strait are mostly exiting the Middle East Gulf, rather than entering.
There were four times as many eastbound transits compared to westbound transits last week (March 9-15).
US ‘let’ Iranian tankers sail through Hormuz
As most mainstream owners avoid sending their ships through the besieged strait, tanker and gas carrier traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has been dominated by vessels carrying Iranian cargoes.
That Iran is continuing to ship oil and generate revenue while essentially choking off nearly all non-Iranian supply through Hormuz has received much media attention over the last few days, leading to calls for the US to take action against Iran’s shadow fleet*.
However, Scott Bessent, Secretary of the US Treasury Department — the main US government department tasked with imposing and enforcing sanctions on Tehran’s oil sales — said the US was “fine” with Iranian tankers getting through.
“The Iranian ships have been getting out already, and we’ve let that happen to supply the rest of the world,” Bessent told CNBC in an interview on Monday.
He also noted that the US gave a “30-day waiver for Russian oil that was already on the water”, referencing a recent general licence issued by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control that temporarily removed sanctioned on shipments of Russian oil, so long as the cargo was loaded after March 12.
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