{"id":5541,"date":"2026-03-05T20:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T20:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/5541\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T20:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T20:28:07","slug":"cargo-ships-stuck-in-persian-gulf-as-hormuz-conflict-paralyzes-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/5541\/","title":{"rendered":"Cargo Ships Stuck in Persian Gulf as Hormuz Conflict Paralyzes Traffic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMore than 120 container vessels remain stuck inside the Persian Gulf as war in Iran spills beyond its border and the country threatens to attack ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs of Thursday morning, 87 cargo ships are continuing regional port calls throughout the Persian Gulf, according to data from MarineTraffic. Another 37 are trying to exit but are unable to leave via the 21-mile-wide waterway.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis does not mean operations inside the gulf continue normally,\u201d said Isabella Koustas Murcia, product marketing manager at MarineTraffic, in a Thursday post. \u201cWhile some vessels still have scheduled calls at Gulf ports, activity is significantly reduced. Many ships hold offshore rather than approaching terminals, positioning themselves outside potential strike zones as port infrastructure remains at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCMA CGM<\/a> has 14 vessels inside the Persian Gulf, the most among any container shipping<\/a> company. Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)<\/a> comes in second at 12, with Maersk (eight), Cosco Shipping (seven) and Hapag-Lloyd (six) all operating vessels roaming around the conflict-ridden waterway.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe longer these vessels and equipment are out of circulation, the more likely that reduction will be felt in terms of available capacity and equipment out of the Far\u00a0East,\u201d said Judah Levine, head of research at Freightos, in a Thursday morning update. \u201cWhen traffic through the strait resumes, there will likely be some vessel bunching at these ports too, as ships arrive off schedule. Taken together with climbing fuel costs, these factors could start pushing rates up on non-gulf lanes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Strait of Hormuz<\/a> has been barren of traffic since Iran launched retaliatory attacks at multiple countries surrounding the passage and its armed forces declared it \u201cclosed.\u201d The long-term prospects of the war don\u2019t spell improvement for the hotbed, with a report from Reuters indicating drone attacks could disrupt the Strait of Hormuz for months.<\/p>\n

\n\tWednesday\u2019s attack on a container ship<\/a> voyaging the strait has further scared off ocean carriers<\/a>, even amid President Donald Trump\u2019s insistence that the U.S. would provide war-risk insurance<\/a> for global ships and help escort oil tankers through the area.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are still nearly 100 ships outside the gulf, 40 of which are still sailing toward the region, MarineTraffic says. While 16 vessels are waiting for clearance or instructions on their next move, 43 already diverted to alternate ports.<\/p>\n

\n\tMSC, the world\u2019s largest ocean carrier by tonnage, has been the most proactive in rerouting ships away from the Persian Gulf. Out of 18 vessels linked to Gulf services, 15 have already diverted to alternative ports.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCarriers still sailing to the region are diverting containers already in-transit to alternatives in the area with most volumes likely to be offloaded at the major Far East transshipment hubs in Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka,\u201d said Levine. \u201cA similar shift to transshipment in the early months of the Red Sea crisis led to significant congestion<\/a> at these ports in 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPeter Sand, chief analyst at Xeneta, noted that the Port of Salalah in Oman is the next best option for many shippers seeking an alternative drop-off point due to its close proximity to the Persian Gulf for onward land transportation. However, he acknowledged that a drone had crashed near the port on Tuesday, \u201cmeaning carriers may look to ports further from the conflict zone, such as Colombo in Sri Lanka.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe tension has escalated freight rates<\/a> on lanes directly impacted by the Middle Eastern conflict.<\/p>\n

\n\tAverage spot rates from Chinese ports to the Port of Salalah have increased 28 percent from the week prior, as of Thursday, while rates for cargo to the Port of Colombo have jumped 17 percent.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen accounting for a longer timeline, Xeneta data indicates that average spot rates out of China escalated 19 percent to all U.A.E. ports from Feb. 14 to March 3, while shipments going to the country\u2019s Khor Fakkan Port saw a 24 percent rate increase.<\/p>\n

\t\tOcean carriers pass on war-risk, emergency surcharges\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the U.S. sinking an Iranian naval ship near Sri Lanka and reports of Iran\u2019s drones striking its northern neighbor, Azerbaijan, shipping companies now must adapt to a growing conflict beyond Middle Eastern borders. And that could further push up rates for shippers.<\/p>\n

\n\tMSC, which already scrapped Middle East bookings and declared \u201cend of voyage\u201d on shipments to the region earlier this week, announced Wednesday that it would implement a $2,000 per TEU war-risk surcharge for cargo shipped from the Arabian Peninsula to Africa and the Indian Ocean islands. Emergency surcharges of $500 per TEU have also been added to shipments from the Indian subcontinent to east Africa and Indian Ocean islands.<\/p>\n

\n\tMaersk and Hapag-Lloyd have also tacked on further charges as the war evolves.<\/p>\n

\n\tMaersk\u2019s new emergency contingency surcharges for cargo exiting ports across Oman, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are going into effect Friday, and add up to as much as $3,300 per TEU when headed to Latin America and the Caribbean. This marks a substantial step up from the prior maximum surcharge of $1,500 per 20-foot box on those routes.<\/p>\n

\n\tEmergency fees to regions like North America, India and the Far East are now $1,800 per TEU. None of these regions had the extra fees before Friday.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn April 1, Hapag-Lloyd will implement a $1,000 general rate increase for all cargo containers going from Pakistan, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East to the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 120 container vessels remain stuck inside the Persian Gulf as war in Iran spills beyond its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[3676,3677,3678,3679,39,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-5541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-persian-gulf","8":"tag-container-shipping","9":"tag-freight-rates","10":"tag-mediterranean-shipping-company-msc","11":"tag-ocean-carriers","12":"tag-persian-gulf","13":"tag-strait-of-hormuz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116178459178118476","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}