From Hormuz to Panama, the South China Sea to the Black Sea, geopolitics is rewriting the rules of global shipping.
The Strait of Hormuz is usually described as a chokepoint. Today, it is more than that. It is the hinge point between war and peace in the Gulf. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas trade passes through this narrow waterway. When it was secure, the global economy barely noticed it. As soon as it was threatened, prices jumped, shipping costs rose and military tensions spread beyond the region. Today, the issue is even larger than economics. If the status of the strait is left unresolved,...
Indonesia’s top diplomat said the country will not pursue tolls on ships passing through the Strait of Malacca, seeking to calm concerns after its finance minister raised the idea this week. “As a trading nation, Indonesia supports freedom of navigation and expects open sea lanes,” Foreign Minister Sugiono said on Thursday in Jakarta. “So Indonesia is not in a position to impose such charges – that would not be appropriate.” Finance Minister Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa on Wednesday questioned whether...
China’s shipyards are emerging as beneficiaries from the US-Israeli war on Iran, securing new orders as crude transport bottlenecks worsen and global demand for large oil tankers rises. With the United States and Iran effectively blockading the Strait of Hormuz – a chokepoint that handles about a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil – shipping companies are racing to expand capacity, particularly in very large crude carriers (VLCCs) capable of transporting about 2 million barrels of oil per...
Owned by Mumbai-based Great Eastern Shipping Company, Jag Vikram is carrying around 20,000 tonnes of LPG
Of the 16 India-flagged vessels in the Western part of the Strait, one vessel is carrying LNG and two are LPG vessels
Jag Vikram, carrying 20,000 tonnes of LPG, and three more foreign-flagged vessels cumulatively carrying 87,000 tonnes of LPG are awaiting a safe passage from the strait