Two ships owned by China's Cosco Shipping Lines have crossed the Strait of Hormuz, an important development since the effective closure of the waterway, according to MarineTraffic vessel-tracking data.
The ultra-large container vessels CSCL Indian Ocean and CSCL Arctic Ocean made the journey on Monday after aborting their attempt on Friday.
Both vessels operate on Cosco's MEX service, part of the Ocean Alliance network linking the Middle East with the Far East. They are bound for Port Klang, Malaysia, MarineTraffic said.
“The successful transit marks the first confirmed crossing by a major container carrier since the start of the conflict,” it added.
Iran's military has effectively imposed a blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, choking oil and gas as well as other shipments through the waterway as retaliation for US and Israeli attacks that began on February 28.
A fifth of the world's crude shipments normally passes through the strait each day.
The Islamic Republic has threatened to attack vessels that it considers hostile to its regime, particularly those linked to the US and Israel. However, shipments from some countries have been permitted to pass.
On Saturday, Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said his administration had reached an agreement with Iran to use the Strait of Hormuz in a move aimed at easing the energy crunch in the South-east Asian nation.
This puts Thailand on a list that includes Bangladesh, China, India, Iraq, Malaysia, Pakistan and Russia as countries that Tehran has designated as “friendly”. Japan is also in talks with Iran.
“Shipping data seems to confirm the incremental pick-up of trade around Hormuz as Asian buyers are willing to engage with Iran on deals to safeguard ships,” Norbert Rucker, head economics and next generation research at Julius Baer, said in a note on Monday.
Last week, Iran said its parliament is working on a draft bill that would impose a fee on vessels seeking safe passage through the strait.
The Iranian parliament’s legislation is expected to formalise an arrangement whereby as much as $2 million is reportedly being sought from vessels, referred to as “the Tehran Tollbooth”.
China's Cosco announced on March 25 that it was restarting bookings for standard containers from the Far East to the Middle East, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq, reversing a suspension introduced on March 4.
The company said that bookings and actual shipments remained subject to change. In practice, Cosco had been routing containers to ports east of the strait and moving them overland to their final destinations.
