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Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz picked up for the first time since Iran's recent attacks on ships in the waterway, with more operators sending crude tankers into the Persian Gulf.
Around 24 commodity ships including those that haul oil and liquefied natural gas, as well as bulk carriers, transited the strait in both directions on Monday, data from Kpler shows. The trend continued on Tuesday, with a supertanker re-appearing in the gulf, along with a number of smaller ships.
Taken together, the oil tankers can hold around 11 million barrels of crude, and their movements point to increasing confidence by shipowners to transit through the waterway. The number of vessels crossing Hormuz had dropped off after the initial attack on a container ship on Thursday.
The US conducted fresh strikes on Iran after the ship attacks, before both sides agreed to halt hostilities ahead of peace talks this week. Shipowners, traders and global investors have been tracking the re-entry of tankers into the gulf, which would be crucial for regional producers to restart output.
Among those entering the Persian Gulf, three supertankers operated by South Korea's Sinokor sailed in empty on Monday, while openly signaling they were moving along Oman's coast. A fourth, which database Equasis says the company officially began operating in April, began broadcasting from within the gulf, indicating that it's headed to Iraq's Basrah.
A 2026-built, Marshall Islands-flagged Suezmax owned by a Greek operator, also signaled from within the Persian Gulf in what appears to be the shipowner's first entry since the war began in late February. It's currently idling off Ras Al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, indicating that it's waiting for orders. The tanker previously broadcast its location in the Gulf of Oman on June 27, suggesting it crossed with its transponder off.
The Nisalah, a very large crude tanker controlled by the National Shipping Co. of Saudi Arabia, known as Bahri, made an inbound transit. The empty supertanker is currently off Ras Tanura, home to the largest Saudi refinery. Bahri has previously dispatched supertankers into the gulf, with four of them appearing near Ras Tanura last week.
