Due to a maritime blockade, ships of Korean-flagged carriers stranded inside the Strait of Hormuz have been moving farther away from the strait's gateway.
The United States began Project Freedom, an operation to escape the Strait of Hormuz, urging vessels to leave, but it appears they are not daring to venture outside the strait.
This seems to be due to heightened safety concerns after the U.S. launched the operation, attacks were carried out on the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and an unexplained explosion occurred on an HMM-operated ship.
According to MarineTraffic, a vessel-tracking service, and the shipping industry on the 6th, more than 10 vessels of Korean-flagged carriers stranded inside the Strait of Hormuz moved into the Persian Gulf within the strait starting the day before.
Initially, they had been at anchorages about 30–40 nautical miles (about 55–74 kilometers) from Dubai, but they moved their holding positions to locations farther from the gateway.
As of this morning, a total of 17 ships were more than 60 nautical miles (about 111 kilometers) from Dubai. That amounts to 65% of all Korean-flagged carrier vessels (26) stranded inside the Strait of Hormuz.
The shipping industry believes the vessels moved away from the UAE area due to rising military tensions in the Middle East.
On the 4th, immediately after the United States released that it would launch Project Freedom, the UAE's Fujairah port and nearby vessels within the Strait of Hormuz began coming under attack.
During this process, an explosion and fire also occurred on HMM's cargo ship NAMU. With the exact cause still unknown, the possibility of an external shock cannot be ruled out. There were no casualties.
At the time of the incident, the UAE said its facilities were attacked by Iran, and U.S. President Donald Trump released that Iran had attacked a Korean cargo ship. However, Iran maintains it did not carry out an attack.
Regardless of whether they were hit, growing safety concerns inside the strait are prompting Korean-flagged carrier vessels to move. HMM ships that directly suffered damage have relocated their holding positions to waters near Qatar, 150 nautical miles (about 278 kilometers) from the accident site.
In addition, ships of Korean-flagged carriers such as Pan Ocean, SK Shipping, Sinokor Tanker, and Sinokor Petrochemical have moved away from waters near the UAE.
With the vessels stranded in the strait, each ship is incurring losses of 2.1 billion won per day. If cease-fire talks between the United States and Iran proceed positively, they had been clustered in waters near the gateway to make a swift escape from the strait.
A shipping industry official said, "Setting aside the cause of the explosion on HMM NAMU, many ships that had crowded waters near the UAE in anticipation of cease-fire talks came to feel threatened about safety," adding, "As crew safety is the top priority, they had no choice but to evacuate."