Ship crossings through the Strait of Hormuz hit a two-week low Thursday, according to an S&P Global report Friday, as the United States and Iran exchanged new strikes this week.
The decline in ships transiting the choke point comes after President Donald Trump at the NATO conference in Turkey declared the already-fragile ceasefire “over” and cast doubt about negotiations with Tehran. In a Truth Social post Friday, Trump said talks would continue but stressed the ceasefire was finished, sending global oil prices spiking briefly before they fell.
Reopening the Strait of Hormuz has been a major priority for the Trump administration as it strove to end the conflict, which began in late February. The United States issued a general license last month so that Iran could sell its oil but revoked it this week after several tankers were attacked while transiting the waterway.
The report from S&P Global Energy Commodities at Sea said crossings Thursday were at their lowest daily level since June 28, when traffic fell after an Iranian drone hit a crude tanker. An average of nearly 140 ships passed through the strait before the war, the Joint Maritime Information Center said this week. The number of Hormuz transits fell to 34 on July 9, the S&P report said.
