China’s COSCO Ships Successfully Navigate Hormuz Strait: What It Means for Global Shipping

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MarineTraffic page showing merchant ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz[AFP/Yonhap news photo. Reproduction and database use prohibited][AFP/Yonhap news photo. Reproduction and database use prohibited]

Two COSCO-owned container ships that Iranian military authorities had previously denied passage to and ordered to turn back have successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz three days later.

MarineTraffic posted on X on March 30 (local time) that COSCO’s vessels had passed through the strait.

Three days earlier, the COSCO-operated container ships Indian Ocean and Arctic Ocean turned back after warnings from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy.

At the time, Iranian military authorities rejected U.S. claims that the ships had transited the strait and said they had forced three container ships to return.

The third vessel that Iran also refused to allow through is still reported to be near the United Arab Emirates.

MarineTraffic described the COSCO transit as the first by a major carrier since recent tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and said it could signal a shift in the commercial shipping environment around the waterway.

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Choi Ji-won (jiwoner@yna.co.kr)