Iran maintains that Strait of Hormuz is closed until further notice

From earlier today: Iran shuts Strait of Hormuz to all vessels, says ships will be targeted And now they're repeating that the waterway will remain closed "until further notice". Before today, there have been some vessels still crossing the strait. From official ship tracking data, these numbers were still less than 10 vessels per day. But if you include shadow fleets, they may be somewhere around 10 to 30 vessels per day crossing perhaps. However, the actual figure is tough to ascertain and these do not really include bigger commercial vessels. At this stage, most ships who are willing enough have to bear the entire cost/risk when crossing with their AIS transponder turned off as maritime insurance will not cover any of this. And even if the strait reopens, it is not a guarantee that maritime insurance will also immediately be reinstated to cover vessels that are looking to cross. So, there will be delays to any pick up in traffic on any reopening. But for now, that is very much just conjecture. The fact remains that the Strait of Hormuz is not going to be opened in a meaningful way. That so long as the US and Iran are not finding ways to strike a deal, with control over the waterway being Iran's biggest leverage in negotiatons. This article was written by Justin Low at investinglive.com.