Hormuz traffic stabilises near 80 vessels/day after February strike
Strait of Hormuz throughput is back to roughly 80 transits per day in May 2026, but additional war risk premiums remain elevated at 1.5-3% of hull value.
Vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has stabilised at roughly 80 transits per day across May 2026, according to AIS-derived flow data tracked by Reuters and Lloyd's List Intelligence. That compares to the 5-6 transits per day floor reached in the days immediately after the 28 February strike, when several owners voluntarily paused fixtures and a number of Masters declined the passage.
The recovery is uneven by segment. LPG and LNG carriers — which carry a higher concentration of long-term charters and contractual obligation to perform — returned to pre-crisis volumes first. Clean and dirty product tankers followed once charterers accepted updated voyage clauses. Crude VLCC traffic remains a few percent below the 2025 baseline, with a handful of operators still routing around or holding off the Hormuz approach for weather or escort windows.
Additional War Risk Premiums (AWRP) have not normalised in step with traffic. Hull war-risk quotations across the major London and Singapore syndicates are still printing in a 1.5-3.0% range of insured value for a single seven-day transit, versus the 0.05-0.125% baseline seen in early 2025. K&R and crew war-risk rates remain similarly elevated. Several P&I clubs are now requiring documented BMP5 currency and a current K&R certificate before binding cover, where previously a statement of intent was accepted.
Crew-side, refusals at the Gulf approach have not gone away. Crewing managers reporting to ICS and InterManager surveys describe an ongoing pattern of late retraction — officers signing on, then declining to transit at the Khor Fakkan or Fujairah call. Owners with pre-signed warlike-area riders and a documented willingness pool are absorbing fewer of those events.
What it means for owners
- Pre-signed warlike riders and a documented Hormuz-willing bench are now a vetting expectation, not a differentiator.
- Budget AWRP at the 1.5-3.0% range through Q3 2026 — and check that your crew package documents BMP5 and K&R before the charterer's vetting team asks.