Second Time's the Charm as Iran Permits Chinese Boxships Through Hormuz

Two Chinese-owned containerships were permitted to make the transit through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, March 30, as Iran continues to let a trickle of ships from noncombatant nations pass. It came as Donald Trump first told reporters Sunday evening that Iran was letting more ships through out of “respect” for the United States, and then hours later on social media threatened Iran that the U.S. would be “blowing up and completely obliterating” infrastructure if the Strait of Hormuz was not “open for business.”

The two Chinese containerships, each with a capacity of approximately 20,000 TEU, had first approached the Strait coming from the region of the UAE on Friday, but made a “U-turn” and went back to the anchorage. Iranian officials said they turned back three Chinese ships to punish Donald Trump, who they said was not telling the truth, and that there had been no agreement to release eight and then 10 tankers, as Trump had said.

After spending the weekend in the anchorage, the CSCL Arctic Ocean and CSCL Indian Ocean resumed the voyage on Monday, and this time made it past into the Gulf of Oman. Each of the vessels is 184,000 dwt, registered in Hong Kong, and operated by a division of the Chinese state-owned COSCO Shipping. AIS signals late on Monday showed each vessel making better than 18 knots, with one declaring it was bound for Port Klang, Malaysia.

Both ships had used their AIS transmissions to display the message Chinese owned and Chinese crew. It is being highlighted that they are the first large containerships Iran has permitted to use the passage, except for its own vessels.

Following the two boxships, a bulker, Mac Hope (55,500 dwt), also appears to have been permitted to make the transit on Monday. While registered in Panama, the vessel is also Chinese-owned. It also had the message Chinese owned, Chinese crew on its AIS. It was among a trickle of ships with reports that another Greek-owned tanker controlled by Dynacom also made the transit at the end of the week, bound for India.

Reuters reports that over the weekend, two Indian-flagged LPG gas tankers made the transit on Saturday, followed by two others carrying cooking gas. It appears that Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, and China have all received agreements that their ships can pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump speaking to reporters on Air Force One Sunday night said as a “tribute” and “sign of respect,” the Iranians had agreed to release an additional 20 ships through the Strait. Analysts, so far, have had difficulty identifying the specific ships to match Trump’s reports of the number of vessels being released.

Speaking with Al Jazeera on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio predicted that the Strait of Hormuz will “reopen one way or another.” Around the same time, speaking on Fox, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also expressed optimism, saying more ships were coming through the Strait. He, however, went on to say, “Over time, the U.S. is going to retake control of the Straits and there will be freedom of navigation.” He said it could be through U.S. or multinational escorts.

Trump, however, changed his tone on Monday saying if the Strait of Hormuz was not “open for business” and Iran did not make an agreement with the United States, the U.S. would end its time in Iran by “blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.’”

He, however, repeated the statements that the U.S. was in talks with a “more reasonable regime” in Iran and said, “Great progress has been made.” He called them “serious discussions,” while Iranian factions continue to deny negotiations or demand the U.S. totally withdraw from the Middle East to end the war. One report said that Iran is also demanding that it be permitted to charge fees on an ongoing basis for transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump, last week, said he was giving Iran 10 days to agree to a deal. He set April 6 as the new deadline.