It could take six months or longer for ships to be cleared for transit through the Strait of Hormuz, even after the Iran war is over.
That’s because Iran has mined the narrow waterway that guards the entrance to the Persian Gulf.
In 1991 it took the United States six months to recover 1,300 mines after the Iraq war — a task that led to the destruction of two American warships, a source with knowledge of military operations at that time, told FreightWaves.
“And we had a map of where [the mines] were,” said the source, who requested anonymity to protect relationships. “Not even the Iranians know how many, nobody has a map nor knows how many and where they were dumped.
“They move around and there most likely will be incidents in the future.”
As a result, the source said, six months from the end of hostilities to clear ship operations would be normal for vessel insurers and underwriters who have declared force majeure in the region.
Marine insurers have said that war risk coverage is available for the Strait of Hormuz, but surging premiums and safety fears are deterring transits. Published reports cite rates up to 1%-5% of hull value, as much as 10 times pre-war levels under 1%. Lloyd’s List reported premiums of $10 million to $14 million for a very large crude carrier, and triple that for U.S.-connected vessels.
United States Central Command on Sunday said a guided missile destroyer fired on an Iran-flagged container ship headed to Bandar Abbas after the crew failed to comply with repeated warnings that the ship was in violation of the U.S. blockade of the strait. After the 967-foot Touska was disabled, Marines boarded the ship and took it into custody.
In Washington, the Federal Maritime Commission has twice rejected requests by liner operators including Maersk (OTC: AMKBY) to waive the 30-day waiting period to implement emergency fuel surcharges. The carriers say war-related increases in bunker fuel prices are testing the limits of their financial resiliency.
Maersk earlier filed a third request; the FMC is expected to rule on it soon.
Read more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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