Commercial vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz rose more than 50% from the previous week amid ongoing negotiations following a temporary deal between the US and Iran.
Negotiations between the two countries remain fragile despite the deal reached on June 14, which took effect on June 18.
Before the war broke out at the end of February, an average of 130 commercial vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz each day. Following a virtual standstill after joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s subsequent retaliation, maritime traffic through the strategic waterway has begun to recover following the US-Iran deal.
Despite the recent increase, traffic through the strait remains around 70% below pre-war levels.
Industry representatives remain cautious about using the waterway because of the fragile state of US-Iran negotiations and continuing uncertainty.
According to data from analytics firm Kpler, 223 commercial vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz during the week of June 15-21, averaging 32 transits per day.
The lowest daily traffic was recorded on June 17 with 19 vessels, while the highest was 54 on June 22.
During the week of June 22-28, 343 commercial vessels passed through the strait, with the daily average rising to 49 vessels. The lowest daily total was 24 vessels on June 28, while the highest reached 76 on June 24.
June 24 recorded the heaviest traffic through the Strait of Hormuz since the war began on Feb. 28.
Compared with the previous week, traffic through the strait increased by nearly 54%, with tankers carrying crude oil and petroleum products—primarily from Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Kuwait—accounting for most transits.
At least 6 million barrels of crude oil transited the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, the data showed.
A significant share of vessels continued to use the route designated within Iranian territorial waters, with most of those transits carried out by shadow fleet and sanctioned vessels.
*Writing by Emir Yildirim in Istanbul