Despite the announcement of the interim peace deal between Iran and the United States after a three-month-long armed conflict, shipowners will not resume immediate transit through the Strait of Hormuz until they are confident that the ceasefire is “material”, said Jotaro Tamura, the CEO of Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines.
The war, which began in the last week of February 2026, brought the strategically important maritime chokehold to a near-halt kind of situation. The important shipping lane sees the transportation of around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, along with products such as aluminium and urea.
“Given the experiences in the last couple of months, I think it’s reasonable to assume that it may take at least a couple of weeks, if not a month,” Tamura told the Financial Times (FT), just before US President Donald Trump announced the peace deal. And as per the media outlet, Tamura’s stance hasn’t changed yet, despite Trump announcing on his Truth Social post, “Ships loaded with oil are starting to move out of the strait, going along the southern ‘highway’, which is totally safe, secure, and pristine.”
“We recognise that there are signs of movement towards a ceasefire. However, operations will not be resumed until safety has been sufficiently confirmed. The resumption of transit will require close coordination with the governments of the relevant countries, insurers, and other stakeholders,” Mitsui OSK told Reuters.
Mitsui, one of Japan’s three biggest shipping firms, has a fleet of more than 900 vessels, including bulk carriers, tankers and ferries.
Denmark’s Maersk, another logistics and container shipping biggie, said that it was too early to assess the peace deal’s impact. As of now, the Danish group has maintained its Middle East operations.
The Strait of Hormuz blockade has severely disrupted travel and cargo across the wider Middle East, with many vessels, including those belonging to Maersk, reportedly being unable to enter or leave the Gulf.
As per Jakob Larsen, chief safety and security officer of shipping association BIMCO, the maritime body still considers transit through the strait highly risky, with mines a key concern.
“The news of an agreement is clearly positive. However, in recent months there have been several announcements of a halt to the conflict, or at least of a truce, and unfortunately they have never been followed by concrete action,” said Stefano Messina, head of Italian shipowners’ association Assarmatori.
While the German shipowners’ association VDR expressed “cautious optimism” about the deal’s prospects of normalising the maritime activities along the Strait of Hormuz, the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association said details of the agreement and the framework for any transit remained unclear, as does the extent of mines laid in the key shipping lane.
Norway-headquartered shipping group Wallenius Wilhelmsen said it was “too early to comment on operational implications”, while Oslo-listed Frontline, one of the world’s largest tanker companies, viewed the development “positively”.
Current scenario at Hormuz
As per the latest data from Kpler, three ADNOC-linked LNG tankers have signalled movement towards the 5.8 mtpa Das Island LNG facility in the UAE, in the first signs of what seems to be a pickup in shipping activity along the Strait of Hormuz.
“Kpler data show the vessels – Umm Al Ashtan, Mraweh, and Al Hamra – all in ballast and heading east, with Al Hamra being the closest to the Strait of Hormuz. Umm Al Ashtan is signalling Das Island with an expected arrival date of Apr. 28, while both Mraweh and Al Hamra are indicating Fujairah as their latest destinations today, on April 17,” commented the trade intelligence platform in its latest bulletin.
“The coordinated movement comes shortly after a spike in flaring at the Das Island LNG complex on April 15, as observed in satellite data, suggesting a potential resumption or adjustment in operations at the facility,” it stated further.
“Of the three tankers, Al Hamra and Mraweh appear as the most likely candidates to attempt a transit in the coming days, should the Strait of Hormuz remain open. This would make them the first LNG tankers to cross the strait from the Gulf of Oman. The Sohar LNG – the first LNG vessel to cross the strait since the start of the war – was still idling offshore Muscat, has not updated its AIS signal in two weeks and remains idle,” said Charles Costerousse, senior analyst at Kpler Insight.
As per the agency, an estimated 155 tankers, carrying oil and chemicals, were in the Gulf area as of June 15, down from 201 at the end of May.