Iranian state media claimed Friday that 35 vessels had crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the last 24 hours in coordination with Iran’s naval forces, as shipping traffic through the strategic waterway remains far below normal levels following months of conflict and disruption.
According to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency, the vessels included oil tankers, container ships and other commercial cargo carriers. The report said all vessels had received authorisation from the IRGC Navy before transiting the waterway.
Though this marks an increase in shipping in the waterway, as per data from open-source maritime tracking, the traffic is still far below pre-war activity, when roughly 138 vessels per day typically passed through the strait.
On Thursday, the UK Maritime Trade Operations Center said traffic through the strait remained significantly reduced over the previous 48 hours, with only 13 vessels confirmed to have made the trip.
The British maritime agency also reported significant interference affecting automatic identification systems used to track ships in the region, complicating efforts to monitor movements of vessels transiting the waterway.
Shipping intelligence firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence estimated that only 26 transits occurred last week, though it also identified a cluster of 18 so-called “shadow fleet” tankers linked to Iran’s sanctions-evasion oil trade, reports CBS News.
According to Lloyd’s, the vessels were observed lingering off the coasts of Oman and Pakistan, well east of the main US naval blockade zone.
Rather than entering the Gulf of Oman and continuing towards Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, the vessels appeared to be weighing alternative routes to avoid potential US interdiction operations, the report said.
Tracking data from MarineTraffic showed at least one tanker, the Cook Islands-flagged asphalt and bitumen carrier Pushpak, anchored off the coast of Duqm in Oman alongside several other tankers after previously travelling through the strait during the conflict.
Iran has repeatedly said it is working with Oman to establish a new coordination mechanism for commercial shipping through Hormuz, reflecting the fact that both countries share coastlines along the strategically vital passage.
