Shipowners will not resume transit through the Strait of Hormuz for weeks until they are confident that the U.S.-Iran deal is “material”, the chief executive of Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines told the Financial Times in an interview published on Tuesday.
The Iran war that began on February 28 with U.S.-Israeli strikes largely stopped shipping through the transit route for around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supply, along with products such as aluminium and urea.
Mitsui O.S.K., one of Japan’s big three shipping firms has a fleet of more than 900 vessels, including bulk carriers, tankers and ferries.
“What will have to come in place is not just a simple agreement between the relevant countries, but it has to be material and translated into the real situations in the Strait of Hormuz, so that shipping lines can make themselves comfortable to go through,” Mitsui O.S.K.’s Jotaro Tamura told FT before U.S President Donald Trump announced a deal to end the war in Iran.
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“Given the experiences in the last couple of months, I think it’s reasonable to assume that it may take at least a couple of weeks or if not a month,” Tamura told the paper.
Mitsui O.S.K. did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The agreement between Washington and Tehran being finalised had not changed Tamura’s view, the FT report said.
President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that ships loaded with oil are starting to move out of the strait, “going along the Southern ‘Highway,’ which is totally safe, secure, and pristine”.