The Middle East conflict continues to escalate, pushing the Strait of Hormuz into a near-complete shutdown. According to a Bloomberg report on March 6, the Joint Maritime Information Centre (JMIC) stated in a briefing that vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has dropped to single-digit levels, with only two commercial ships recorded passing through in the past 24 hours. JMIC described the situation as a "near-total, temporary suspension of routine commercial traffic."
The report noted that dozens of oil and gas tankers remain stranded in the Persian Gulf, unwilling to risk crossing the strait. Frequent attacks on vessels have placed energy tankers and their multimillion-dollar cargoes under extreme risk. At the same time, international insurers have begun scaling back war risk coverage, further heightening panic in the shipping market.
Despite intervention measures by the Trump administration, including tanker insurance guarantees and naval escorts, the near-halt in traffic through the Strait of Hormuz indicates that market concerns have not been alleviated. Although oil prices have not surged as sharply as earlier, they remain elevated and volatile. As of press time, Brent crude edged up 0.14%, holding above $85 per barrel. The White House is currently considering further measures to curb prices, such as releasing strategic petroleum reserves and temporarily easing fuel blending requirements.
**Traffic Plummets, Strait Faces "De Facto Blockade"** As a critical global passage for oil and bulk commodities, the Strait of Hormuz has seen a sharp decline in traffic. The latest data from JMIC shows that only one inbound and one outbound vessel were observed passing through the strait on March 4, bringing traffic to an extremely low level.
It should be noted that these figures only include ships with active Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) and do not fully account for vessels traveling covertly with their signals turned off. The two confirmed transiting vessels were cargo ships rather than tankers, indicating that energy transport has effectively ground to a halt.
Amid international insurers withdrawing from the war risk market, Washington announced this week that it would provide insurance guarantees and deploy naval escorts in an effort to stabilize shipping market confidence. However, these measures have so far failed to ease shipowners' concerns, with the majority of tankers choosing to remain in place.
Against the backdrop of ongoing supply disruption concerns, oil prices continue to face strong upward pressure in the short term. The market will closely monitor further developments in the Middle East and whether shipping channels can return to normal operation soon.
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