Two ultra-large Cosco Shipping container vessels successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, three days after the ships had abandoned a first attempt to travel through the conflict-ridden oil chokepoint.
This marks the first confirmed passage by a major container shipping company through the trade artery since the start of the war in Iran.
The Islamic republic has threatened to attack vessels traversing the strait throughout the conflict, which has effectively closed off the conduit, trapping hundreds of ships in the Persian Gulf and spiking oil prices globally.
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The CSCL Indian Ocean and CSCL Arctic Ocean are currently sailing eastward in the Gulf of Oman, according to automatic identification system (AIS) transponder data sent by both vessels. Both ships list Chinese ownership and crew details in their AIS transmission and are currently bound for Port Klang, Malaysia.
The CSCL Indian Ocean crossed the strait at approximately 08:47 UTC, followed by the CSCL Arctic Ocean at 09:14 UTC, according to MarineTraffic.
The ships carry nearly 19,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of container capacity and are part of the ocean carrier’s MEX/ME5 service loop linking the Middle East with the Far East.
It is unclear if the vessels paid a toll to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to pass through. Iran’s parliament has sought to formally introduce the fees via legislation, according to reports from Iranian news agencies.
Most major ocean carriers had already suspended all bookings to the Persian Gulf because of safety concerns, but Cosco said last week it was resuming shipments to the area.
Cosco will drop off goods at the Khor Fakkan or Fujairah ports on the east coast of the U.A.E., before those shipments get transported via a land bridge to major gateways in the gulf including the Ports of Jebel Ali and Abu Dhabi. Additionally, the Chinese state-owned carrier still operates a feeder network for transshipment out of Abu Dhabi to other upper gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq.
Other major carriers have remained cautious amid the hostilities. On Saturday, Maersk halted operations at the Port of Salalah in Oman following a drone strike that injured one port worker and caused damage to a ship-to-shore crane.
According to Maersk, whose subsidiary APM Terminals runs the port, operations expect to remain suspended for up to 48 hours depending on guidance from port authorities. No vessels or cargo were affected.
“The area impacted by the incident is limited, and it is not expected to significantly hamper operations or capacity in the terminal,” Maersk said in a Monday statement.
Vessels en route to Salalah will continue to call at the port, but operational delays are expected.
In total, there have been 18 reports of physical attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding areas since the U.S. and Israel began their military offensive against Iran on Feb. 28.
There have not been any confirmed attacks on commercial shipping in the region since March 19, when the Halul 50 offshore vessel was struck by debris off the coast of Qatar.
Traffic through the strait remained climbed to 11 vessel crossings on Saturday, the highest daily count since March 1, before falling again to just two on Sunday. This includes oil tankers, liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessels and container ships, among others.
The future of the Strait of Hormuz remains in flux, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying in a Monday morning interview with Fox News that the U.S. plans to “retake control” of the waterway.
“There will be freedom of navigation—whether it is through U.S. escorts or a multinational escort,” Bessent said.
Bessent’s comments followed those from his boss, President Donald Trump, who repeated his warnings to Tehran to reopen the strait.
The president said in a post on Truth Social Monday morning that the U.S. is in “serious discussions” with Iran to end the military operation.
“Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched,’” Trump wrote.
Trump said last week he would pause attacks on Iran’s energy plants for 10 days, which would be until April 6.
Iran war tacks on $20 million in added costs for Next so far
The Hormuz crisis is expected to have some consequences for fashion retail operations.
U.K.-based Next has already accounted for 15 million pounds ($19.8 million) in added costs stemming from the Iran war, on the assumption that disruptions from the conflict last three months.
Breaking down those costs, 8 million pounds ($10.6 million) are related to outbound stock from the U.K. to overseas customers, Next CEO Simon Wolfson said in a Thursday earnings call. Roughly 5 million pounds ($6.6 milliion) of that sum come directly from elevated costs to ship to the Middle East, while the rest are air freight surcharges to the rest of the world.
The remaining 7 million pounds ($9.3 million) are for U.K.-bound cargo, with 4 million pounds ($5.3 million) in surcharges tacked onto ocean freight due to the fuel price increases. Another 3 million pounds ($4 million) in expenses were related to directly to U.K. energy costs.
These costs have been offset by savings elsewhere, so they do not affect the company’s annual guidance.
“What I should stress is that those numbers are very volatile. They’re just rolling forward the costs we have today,” said Wolfson. “Don’t take that number and multiply it by three to get to the cost for the rest of the year because if it looks like this is going to persist, we will begin to pass through those costs to consumers, specifically in the affected regions but also in the U.K.”
According to Wolfson, U.K. prices could go up between 1 percent and 2 percent in June and July from where they are today, if the war persists. A prolonged conflict could increase those numbers “significantly” by October and November due to potential hikes in polyester and energy costs, he said.
H&M Group CEO Daniel Ervér echoed Wolfson’s concerns in a Thursday earnings call, saying that although the fast-fashion giant has “fairly small” exposure in the Middle East, a drawn-out war may trigger a spillover effect from higher energy prices that could in turn hurt consumption.
According to Ervér, the fast-fashion giant has “a low share of air freight in our full supply chain, so that has also had a minor impact so far.”
