Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz surged significantly on Thursday, June 18, with a total of 25 commercial vessels transiting the strategic waterway following the signing of the preliminary agreement between the United States and Iran.
That figure is five times higher than the daily average recorded during the first ten days of June, according to shipping tracking data from AXSMarine.
It marks the highest single-day traffic count since the 28 transits recorded on April 18, when a brief window had opened for the resumption of vessel traffic through the strait. The waterway connects the Gulf to the international waters of the Sea of Oman and is now under Iran’s de facto control.
The spike in activity coincided with the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran on Wednesday. However, the follow-on talks between the two sides that had been scheduled to begin on Friday, June 19, in Switzerland — specifically at the upscale Burgenstock resort — to kick off a 60-day window for resolving the issue of Iran’s nuclear program, were postponed indefinitely.
Separately, AXSMarine recorded the most severe AIS (Automatic Identification System) signal disruption in the Gulf since the start of the war on February 28. More than 200 commercial vessels were simultaneously affected by what the company described as “spoofing or anomalous AIS behavior,” according to a post on X.
The same post noted that “demining operations in the Strait will continue and shipowners are urged to exercise caution until insurers restore normal coverage terms.”
