Two ships owned by China's Cosco Shipping Lines turned back from the Strait of Hormuz overnight, marking the first attempted crossing by a major container carrier since the start of the conflict and raising fresh doubts about the restart of commercial shipping operations in the Gulf.
The ultra-large container vessels CSCL Indian Ocean and CSCL Arctic Ocean aborted their transit attempts at approximately 03:20 and 03:50 UTC Thursday, according to MarineTraffic vessel-tracking data.
Both vessels operate on Cosco's MEX service, part of the Ocean Alliance network linking the Middle East with the Far East. The aborted crossings came less than 48 hours after Cosco, the world's fourth-largest container shipping line by capacity, announced it was resuming booking acceptance to Gulf destinations. It was the first major ocean carrier to do so since the conflict began.
Cosco is a Chinese state-owned enterprise, and China is among the five nations, including Russia, India, Iraq and Pakistan, whose vessels Iran has said may transit the strait freely, making the aborted crossings all the more significant.
Slow traffic
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 warned 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.
Only three vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, with shadow and sanctioned vessels accounting for two-thirds of daily transits, according to MarineTraffic trade risk analyst Ana Subasic. No new physical attacks have been confirmed since March 19, though the regional threat environment "remains critical," she said.
Flows dropped by as much as 97 per cent at one point compared to pre-war levels, according to Kpler.
From March 1 to March 15, a total of 11 China-linked vessels transited the strait, mostly general cargo ships, while tankers operated by mainstream Chinese owners avoided the route, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence. One China-owned vessel was struck by shrapnel while sailing toward Jebel Ali on March 12, deterring further Chinese transits.
Hormuz toll
Around 130 container ships remain stranded in the Gulf, representing approximately 1.5 per cent of global fleet capacity, with roughly 3 per cent of global container volumes unable to move, according to BIMCO. Iran has sought payments of as much as $2 million per voyage on an ad hoc basis, with some vessels making the payment. The mechanism and the currency used remain unclear.
At least two vessels have paid a fee in yuan, with one transit brokered by a Chinese maritime services company acting as intermediary, according to Lloyd's List. Legislation to formalise the charges is advancing in Iran's parliament, according to Iranian MP Mohammad Reza Rezai Kouchi.
"Just as in other corridors, when goods pass through a country, fees are paid. The Strait of Hormuz is also a corridor. We ensure its security, so it is natural ships and tankers must pay their fees," Iranian MP Mohammad Reza Rezai Kouchi told Iranian state media.
The strait is an international waterway governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea transit passage rights and is not a manmade canal from which a host state can exact tolls.
Mr Trump said in a Truth Social post that the US wanted no impediment to shipping. "We want ships to go through," he wrote. On Thursday, he extended his deadline for Iran to fully reopen the strait to April 6, citing ongoing talks he described as going "very well."
