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The latest news and commentary on how the US/Israel-Iran conflict is affecting the global maritime industry and shipping markets. The JMIC says the threat level in the Strait of Hormuz is moderate, Bimco warns security situation remains volatile June 19, 2026 TheUShas officially ended its blockade of Iranian ports, the threat level has reduced in the Strait of Hormuz, but the shipping industry remains wary on security. On 18 June US Central Command stated. “Today, US forces lifted the blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas, in accordance with the President's direction. American forces are not impeding the transit of vessels to or from Iranian ports. All US military blockade enforcement efforts have ceased.” As part of the Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran for a 60-day ceasefire while a full agreement is negotiated in a 60-day window, the US agreed to end its blockade of Iranian ports and Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz toll free to shipping. It said that US naval ships would remain the general area to ensure the conditions of the agreement between US and Iran are adhered to. For the second time this week the Joint Maritime Information Centre (JMIC) has reduced its threat level. The latest update from the JMIC brought the threat level down to “moderate” from “substantial” earlier in the week. The moderate threat level means, “An attack is possible but not likely”. Related:Sanctions clarity needed before Hormuz trade resumes, says LMA A potential threat from mines still remains despite the reduce threat level. “However, Mariners should be advised of the existence of mines and expect naval presence as clearance operations continue. Mariners should also expect congestion through transit routes and potential VHF hailing from naval forces to support free flow,” JMIC said. Commercial vessels are advised to avoid the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) in the Strait of Hormuz. While the JMIC has dropped its threat level in the Strait to moderate the industry remains wary of the security risks around transits and the lack of clarity regarding safeguards for merchant vessels. Jakob Larsen, Chief Safety & Security Officer forBimco,commented, “Despite the signing of the ceasefire agreement, we believe the security situation for the shipping industry remains volatile. Due to the risk of congestion and navigational incidents in the inshore traffic zones we still consider it risky for ships to commence transits at this point and advise shipowners to continue doing thorough risk assessments and appeal to all parties to put the safety of seafarers first. “The MoU also raises several questions and does not offer sufficient information regarding key aspects such as safe routes, measures to separate traffic, sequencing of ships leaving the Gulf, reporting procedures, ship security procedures, procedures for naval protection and emergency response.” Related:US - Iran deal: how quickly will the Strait of Hormuz reopen The World Shipping Council (WSC), which represents global liner shipping companies said evacuation of ships and seafarers stranded in the Gulf since the start of the conflict on 28 February was the immediate priority. “That will require coordination between states, theIMOand industry, backed by the necessary safety and security guarantees. Coordinated risk assessments, mine mitigation operations, and vessel traffic operations should be prioritized as part of these efforts,” Joe Kramek, CEO of WSC. Read more about: Marcus Hand Editor Marcus Hand is the editor of Seatrade Maritime News and a dedicated maritime journalist with over two decades of experience covering the shipping industry in Asia. Marcus is also an experienced industry commentator and has chaired many conferences and round tables. Before joining Seatrade at the beginning of 2010, Marcus worked for the shipping industry journal Lloyd's List for a decade and before that the Singapore Business Times covering shipping and aviation. In November 2022, Marcus was announced as a member of the Board of Advisors to the Singapore Journal of Maritime Talent and Technology (SJMTT) to help bring together thought leadership around the key areas of talent and technology. Marcus is the founder of theSeatrade Maritime Podcastthat delivers commentary, opinions and conversations on shipping's most important topics. Marcus Hand regularly moderates at international maritime events. Below you’ll find a list of selected past conferences and webinars. Wind-Assisted Propulsion: Are we ready? at Seatrade Maritime Crew Connect Global 2024 IMPA 2024 SingaporeMaritime Procurement and Sustainability Panel, November 2024 Goodbye Globalization? Red Sea Impacts Reviewed,EGN Singapore (Executives' Global Network)webinar, February 2024 Offshore Marine Breakfast Forum atSea Asia 2023 Sustainable Finance, Shipping & Technology at Hong Kong Maritime Week 2022 Building & Operating Dual-Fuel Vessels, February 2022 Shipping’s Decarbonisation Challenge – The Role of Technology and Digitalisation at Hong Kong Maritime Week 2021 The Challenge Faced by Ship Registries in a Digital and Post-Pandemic Era, October 2020 The Future of Transhipment Hubs Post-Pandemic, November 2020 Offshore Marine Breakfast Forum at Sea Asia 2019 Marcus Hand regularly guests on mainstream media talking about maritime and shipping news stories. Below you'll find a list of selected appearances KBS World Radio -Korea24,May 2026 BBC News -Hindi Service,April 2026 RNZ -First Up, April 2026

The latest news and commentary on how the US/Israel-Iran conflict is affecting the global maritime industry and shipping markets. Fertiliser shipments from the Arabian Gulf could resume under the 60-day US-Iran ceasefire deal but doubts remain about possible mines in the Strait of Hormuz. June 19, 2026 The Middle East conflict and closure of the Strait of Hormuz have prevented fertiliser exports from Gulf countries which account for about 16% of global shipments. When the raw materials required for the production of fertiliser elsewhere are included – ammonia, urea, phosphate, sulphur, natural gas – the figure is substantially higher. Analysis byBimcohas revealed that phosphate, urea and sulphur cargoes have fallen by 28%, 12% and 30% respectively since the beginning of the war four months ago. Meanwhile exports of LNG – used for the production of urea – and sulphur, vital for phosphate production, have also ground to a halt. Bimco’s Shipping Analysis Manager, Filipe Gouveia, revealed that global fertiliser shipments have fallen 11% year-on-year since the start of the war. “The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has restricted fertiliser exports from the Persian Gulf, tightening the global supply and increasing prices. The ceasefire between the US and Iran could lead to a rebound in shipments,” he said. Related:36 bulk carrier transits of the Strait of Hormuz However, experts warn that mine-sweeping of the Strait of Hormuz could impose further delays on ships and fertiliser exports. According to President Donald Trump, speaking earlier this week, the US military is already engaged in “doing a little hunting for a couple of mines”. But Iran is estimated to have had as many as 5,000 mines prior to the conflict and it is unclear how many of these may have been laid. The dramatic fall in fertiliser trade from the Gulf has serious implications for global food supplies. Countries in Africa, for example, rely heavily on fertiliser to restore depleted soils, improve crop yields, and provide a level of food security across the continent and for exports elsewhere. Bulk carriers in the Handysize and Supramax range up to about 60,000 dwt have been hit hardest, with volumes falling 13% and 7% year-on-year respectively, the Bimco analysis has revealed. “Fertilisers typically account for only around 5% of total dry bulk demand, but they account for 11% of Supramax demand and 13% of Handysize demand,” Gouveia explained. “In the medium term, fertiliser production and exports in the Persian Gulf could mostly recover since direct damage to production facilities has been limited. “However, exports from Qatar and theUAEcould remain below pre-war levels since they have sustained damage to gas fields and refineries,” he added. “In Qatar, Ras Laffan is expected to operate at 50-80% capacity during the next months, while in the UAE the Habshan complex is projected to operate below 80% capacity until the end of this year.” Related:Strait of Hormuz crisis impacts 4% of global dry bulk trade Read more about:

Freight forwarding has plenty of AI demos. The harder test is whether the technology can handle the daily mess of the quote desk: emails, PDFs, spreadsheets, carrier portals, agent replies and rates that change before anyone has time to clean the data. That is where Sumeet Trehan, founder of Starboard, believes the market is moving. His argument is not that AI will replace small and mid-sized forwarders. It’s that those forwarders are too important to global trade, and too close to their customers, to be pushed aside simply because larger players have better tools. Trehan came to that view after a career through Maersk, BCG and Flexport, where he helped build the company’s Canadian business. At Flexport, he said that he began to question whether digital freight was solving the right problem. “Small and mid-size freight forwarders are essential for global trade,” Trehan said. “The operational expertise they have cannot be replaced by a digital freight forwarder.” Starboard’s pitch is that local forwarders should keep the customer relationship and operating knowledge, while the platform gives them some of the advantages normally associated with larger competitors: better technology, stronger procurement and, eventually, financial infrastructure. Forwarding remains relationship-driven, local and exception-heavy. The person who knows which carrier office to call, or which routing will fall apart, still matters. But the pressure on smaller forwarders is real. In developed markets, Trehan said, forwarding has become a thin-margin business, often operating at net margins of 1-2%. After the freight rate itself, labour is the biggest cost. “It’s almost an existential crisis for a large number of freight forwarders,” he said. “How can they cut down cost? And it’s not a five-year strategy roadmap. For a lot of our customers, it needs to get done tomorrow.” Starboard’s first product focuses on quoting. In spot-heavy forwarding markets, importers and exporters may send the same request to several forwarders at once. A small or mid-sized forwarder might receive 20-30 quote requests a day, Trehan said, with each taking one or two hours to build. Average response times can stretch to 24-48 hours. That delay can lose business. The customer wants to know what it will cost to move cargo from A to B, and the forwarder that replies first often has the advantage. Starboard plugs into the inbox of a forwarder’s sales or pricing team. When an RFQ arrives, its AI agent reads the request, extracts the cargo and routing details, breaks the job into legs, searches contract and spot rates, and can reach out to agents or co-loaders for missing pieces. The company says users have reduced response times from a day or two to roughly one or two hours in many cases. Trehan argues the benefit is not just speed. Forwarders often receive rates from dozens of sources in different formats. A human may rely on memory, assuming yesterday’s best option is still today’s best option. In volatile markets, that assumption can be expensive. “The idea is not only to quote fast, but also always quote at the cheapest and best rate you can give to your customers,” he said. The industry’s data problem is old. Freight has spent decades trying to digitise around documents and messages that rarely line up cleanly between parties. EDI may be everywhere, but standardisation remains uneven. Trehan sees AI as useful because it can turn messy inputs into structured data that systems can use, without forcing forwarders to replace every legacy system first. He is also cautious about AI hype. Starboard spent more than two years working with around 25 design partners in the US and Canada to train its agents on real quoting workflows. “You can show magic in a demo,” he said. “But actually having something which can start replacing human work takes years and years of effort.” For forwarders evaluating AI, Trehan’s advice is to start with the business problem, not the technology. Faster quote turnaround, better win rates, higher profitability per quote and less manual work are measurable. A vague AI pilot is not. Trehan said customers have typically seen air quote response times fall to about an hour and ocean quotes to two or three hours. He also claimed average quoted rates can drop by around 5% when the system finds better options inside the forwarder’s own rate sources. Starboard does not name those customers publicly, citing confidentiality agreements. His final advice is simple: choose the partner carefully. “At this stage the technology is so nascent and early, you need to invest in the team over the brand or the company,” he said. For smaller forwarders, that may be the useful AI story: not a future where the local operator disappears, but one where the operator answers faster and prices more intelligently. This post was sponsored by Starboard.