China confirms three ships passed through Strait of Hormuz
By Jonathan Saul
LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) – Three Chinese ships recently passed through the Strait of Hormuz following coordination with relevant parties, a foreign ministry spokesman said at a regular daily press conference on Tuesday, while calling for peace and stability in the Gulf Region.
The critical waterway has been effectively closed since February 28, when the US-Israeli war with Iran began.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Mao Ning told reporters regarding the passage of the ships, “The Strait of Hormuz and the surrounding waters are an important route for global trade and energy supply. China calls for an immediate ceasefire to end the conflicts in the Gulf Region and restore peace and stability.”
Mao did not provide detailed information about the Chinese ships.
Ship tracking data showed two Chinese container ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday in a second attempt to leave the Gulf after returning on Friday.
Data on the MarineTraffic platform showed that ships were moving through the strait into open waters in close formation.
“Both ships successfully passed on the second attempt today, becoming the first container ship, excluding Iranian-flagged ships, to leave the Persian Gulf since the beginning of the conflict,” said Rebecca Gerdes, data analyst at Kpler, which owns MarineTraffic.
“Both ships are currently sailing at a high speed towards the Gulf of Oman.”
Officials from China’s COSCO, the shipping group that operates the two ships, did not respond to requests for comment.
In its customer advisory dated March 25, COSCO said it had resumed general cargo container bookings for shipments from Asia to the Gulf, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq.
Iran has launched attacks on Gulf ships and threatened more, leaving hundreds of ships and 20,000 sailors stranded in the Gulf.
Energy exports, including crude oil from Saudi Arabia and liquefied natural gas from Qatar, have been effectively halted.
While there are some talks with countries such as Iran and India and Pakistan about allowing their fleets to pass through the strait, oil and tanker markets are looking for any sign that shipping traffic is picking up.
The majority of energy shipments passing through the waterway were related to Iranian oil exports, and a few other ships managed to pass through this route every day.
GREEK OIL TANKER IS COMING OUT
According to LSEG ship tracking data, an India-bound tanker operated by Greece carrying Saudi crude oil also left the Gulf via the strait recently.
The Maltese-flagged Marathi started broadcasting its position off the coast of India on March 26, after last reporting its position in the Gulf on March 2.
LSEG data showed the ship was last seen off India’s west coast on Monday.
This was the third loaded crude tanker operated by the “Greek company Dynacom” to leave the Gulf since the start of the war.
Dynacom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Dynacom is one of the few shipowners willing to take the risk of crossing the strait, where risks from Iran include floating mines, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Ride companies used tactics such as turning off AIS tracking transponders and traveling at night to be less visible, sources told Reuters.
Two Indian-flagged liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tankers crossed the strait on Saturday, following two other tankers carrying critical cooking gas supplies bound for India in recent days.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul, Renee Maltezou, Nerijus Adomaitis and Aizhu Chen; Additional reporting by Ethan Wang in Beijing; Editing by David Goodman and Jason Neely)
