Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi said that Iran's plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days has not been withdrawn and called on the United States to accept it. At the same time, the UKMTO said that four more attacks occurred over the weekend, and "most" of the attacked ships refused to report to it. The true situation in the Strait has become increasingly opaque.
According to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), two container ships were attacked over the weekend and one of them sank. However, analysts pointed out that the energy demand and high freight rates in the Middle East still attract ship owners to continue transit, and the risk premium has not yet reversed route selection.
Shipbroking company Gibson Weekly disclosed that the United States is considering exempting oil tankers that have been sanctioned due to Russia, Iran, and Venezuela - allowing them to carry non-sanctioned oil or sell it to mainstream shipowners; coupled with the decline in demand, VLCC freight rates have fallen from the historical high in September (TD3C TCE once exceeded 1 million US dollars/day). According to reports from the Maritime Service Network, A-share China Merchants Shipping, China Merchants Nanyou, were affected by this. COSCO Shipping Energy collectively fell to the limit on October 15.
According to Clarksons Research data, the average weekly container shipping capacity via Suez in the first two weeks of October was 753 thousand TEU (1.457 million TEU in the same period in 2023); BIMCO said that 16 items route services have announced the resumption of service since July, and the proportion of container shipping capacity via Suez has risen to 36% (previously only 8%), but it is still far lower than the 80% before the attack.
The special liquid ammonia bunkering ship "Shenghang Yongle" bunkered 1,000 tons of green ammonia into the 210,000-ton ammonia-powered bulk carrier at the Zhoushan anchorage (the green ammonia came from the "Qing Hydrogen No. 1" project in Songyuan, Jilin, completed by China Energy Construction, Belgium's CMB.TECH, and Jiangsu Andefu), realizing the full link of green ammonia "production-storage and transportation-filling-application". After filling, the ship will go to Australia to start commercial shipping.
The Maersk container ship "Maersk Halifax" completed the world's largest ethanol (bio-ethanol) bunkering during container loading and unloading operations at the PSA berth, marking the entry of another alternative fuel into normal commercial operations.
According to Splash247, the board of directors of South Korea's HMM approved an investment of 2.168 trillion won (approximately 1.62 billion US dollars) and added 12 container ships: including 8 new 13,000TEU ships, and the acquisition of 3 2,800TEU and 1,700TEU ships under construction through resale. The total added capacity of the 12 ships is 114.1,000TEU, and the delivery date is December at the latest 2029; The shipyards of the eight large ships and the sellers of the four small ships have not been disclosed, and the propulsion system specifications have not been announced.