Splash247: Hormuz security collapses after boxship attack

Published by Splash247

The security situation in the Strait of Hormuz has deteriorated sharply after a 7,000 teu container vessel operated by Global Feeder Shipping was attacked over the weekend and caught fire, triggering a new round of US and Iranian strikes across the region.

The crew abandoned ship and have been rescued, although separate reports from Oman and US Central Command said one seafarer remained missing after the incident, understood to involve a Cyprus-flagged boxship that suffered significant engine-room damage while transiting close to Oman’s shoreline.

The attack marks a serious escalation in the campaign against commercial shipping in the world’s most important energy chokepoint. Iran said vessels had ignored warnings and failed to follow what it described as an approved route through the strait. The US said it had launched further strikes to degrade Iran’s ability to attack merchant ships freely transiting the waterway.

The continued escalation points towards a repeat of the closure we saw at the conflict’s outset

CENTCOM said American forces shot down an Iranian cruise missile and one-way attack drone, and later carried out additional strikes against Iranian military targets. US officials said the targets included missile and air defence systems, drone launch sites, ammunition dumps, communications equipment and Revolutionary Guard small boats around the strait.

Iran responded with missile and drone attacks across the Gulf, including against Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Jordan. Qatar said it intercepted incoming Iranian fire, while Kuwait also reported interceptions. Oman said drones struck sites near the Strait of Hormuz and later summoned Iran’s ambassador in protest, calling the attacks irresponsible.

Iran has said the Strait of Hormuz is now closed until calm returns, while US officials insist the waterway remains open to navigation.

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz fell to a five-week low on Sunday and remained very quiet on Monday morning. 

“The continued escalation points towards a repeat of the closure we saw at the conflict’s outset,” shipping analysts at Scandinavian bank SEB noted today. Crude tanker transits have roughly halved off recent levels.

“A closure supports [tanker] rates in the near term as the fleet scrambles to reposition for long-haul Atlantic barrels, but that is a dislocation spike that fades,” SEB suggested, adding: “The tell is the pool of vessels currently waiting outside Hormuz. As long as they hold for a reopening they stay out of the Atlantic, but if the closure persists and they begin ballasting west en masse, that latent tonnage floods the Atlantic and the risk flips to collapse.”