On the 21st, it emerged that ships of Korean-flag carriers stranded in the Strait of Hormuz amid ongoing blockades by Iran and the United States have moved to gateway areas of the strait, including Dubai.
The HMM cargo ship Namu had left the gateway area after being struck, but expectations for resuming operations appear to have grown as HMM's very large crude carrier (VLCC) Universal Winner exited the strait.
According to the shipping industry and the vessel-tracking site MarineTraffic on the day, 22 of the 25 Korean-flag ships inside the Strait of Hormuz were anchored in the strait's gateway areas.
Right after Namu was struck on the 4th, more than half of the Korean-flag carrier ships inside the strait left the gateway areas such as Dubai and stayed in Qatar or central waters of the Persian Gulf. Then, as of the previous day, they returned to the gateway areas.
The shipping industry believes this is because, as the strait blockade enters its third month, HMM's VLCC succeeded in exiting the strait without paying a toll the previous day, boosting expectations for passage.
The government also said the previous day that after the VLCC's passage, it has continued consultations with Iran so that the remaining 25 ships can also exit the strait, and with reports that ships subject to the talks are being selected, expectations for passage are higher than ever.
Because of this, carriers, which are incurring a loss of about 2.1 billion won per ship per day, are moving their anchorages to the gateway areas to exit the strait as quickly as possible.
For the ships stranded in the Strait of Hormuz, issues with the ships and related towing expense, and expense arising from crew health problems can be covered by insurance, but there is reportedly no way to address business-interruption losses, fuel expense, and labor expense.
In contrast to carriers' desire to get out of the strait as quickly as possible, there are also forecasts that it will not be easy for all 25 stranded ships to exit the strait in a short period.
The government said there was no connection between the Namu attack and the VLCC passage, but since the VLCC that exited the strait is also operated by HMM like Namu, subsequent passage could be limited to some ships, including HMM vessels.
On Mar. 3, Japan moved three ships belonging to the same company out of the Strait of Hormuz in consultation with Iran after a cargo ship operated by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines was struck.
Then on the 14th, one additional ship belonging to the Japanese refiner ENEOS exited the strait. The number of Japanese ships still stranded in the Strait of Hormuz is currently 39.
Thailand, whose domestically related ship was struck on the same day as Japan, also moved three ships out of the strait in consultation with Iran. Both countries effectively secured passage only for a limited number of ships after the strikes.
A shipping industry official said, "As the strait blockade drags on, the burden on carriers keeps growing," and added, "Since the government's passage negotiations are not shared with carriers in real time, they moved to the gateway to monitor the situation up close."