Container rates to Iran near 10,000 dollars as the blockade stills Bandar Abbas
A reinstated US naval blockade off Iran's southern coast has brought most of Iran's commercial shipping to a halt. Enforcement resumed in mid-July; more than 80 per cent of heavy imports and non-oil exports have been disrupted, with freight near 10,000 dollars a container and Bandar Abbas reduced to a trickle. In Hormozgan, authorities seized a sugar-laden bulk carrier over oil dumped into the strait and said they plan to charge transit fees; Washington opposes any fees, and no fee schedule has been published.
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The blockade resumed in mid-July and has disrupted more than 80 per cent of heavy imports
A reinstated US naval blockade off Iran's southern coast has brought most of the country's commercial shipping to a halt. Maritime enforcement resumed in mid-July following a one-month pause after the Islamabad Memorandum. Since then more than 80 per cent of Iran's heavy imports and non-oil exports have been disrupted, with non-oil trade down by nearly 40 per cent against pre-war levels and official inflation near 70 per cent. Shipping specialists, truckers and traders describe daily truck traffic at Bandar Abbas reduced to a trickle.[1]
Freight moved from 3,000 dollars toward 10,000 as cargo shifted to Rimdan
Gisoo, a shipping specialist in Tehran, said perhaps one in ten cargo ships leaving China now reaches Iran and that containers which used to take 35 days sit for months in Hong Kong, Karachi or Jebel Ali, with UAE ports no longer accepting Iranian dhows. Freight has moved from 3,000 dollars to nearly 10,000 dollars per container, overland carriage from China costs at least 16,000 dollars, and rerouting through Mersin in Turkey has left shipments stranded for weeks as storage charges build. With Bandar Abbas reduced from thousands of daily truckloads to a trickle, cargo now enters through the Rimdan crossing on the Pakistani border. Aras, a trucker from Kermanshah, said a pair of heavy truck tyres has gone from 35 million tomans before the war to 250 million tomans today.[1]
Hormozgan seizes a sugar bulk carrier as Tehran plans Hormuz transit fees
The deputy head of the Ports and Maritime Department of Hormozgan province, Esmaeil Makizadeh, told the official news agency IRNA that clean-up teams were sent after images of oil being discharged into the sea were published, and that the ship causing the pollution was seized. He said the vessel was a bulk carrier loaded with sugar that had dumped a mixture of burnt oil, bilge water and industrial sludge directly into the sea, and he did not give its flag or the nationalities of its crew. The waste has been cleaned and the ship referred to the judiciary. Tehran has demanded compensation for several oil spills, including one near Qeshm island, and has said it plans to charge fees from transiting vessels to fund services including environmental protection. The United States fiercely opposes any fees in the strait. No fee schedule and no administering authority have been published.[2]
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