![\"Vessel\"](\"https:\/\/b843437.smushcdn.com\/843437\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vessel-scaled.webp?lossy=2&strip=1&webp=1\" "\\"Vessel\\"")
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Seven of the world\u2019s largest marine insurance associations have formally cancelled war risk coverage for vessels entering the Persian Gulf, a collective withdrawal that covers approximately 90 percent of the world\u2019s ocean-going fleet and represents the most significant insurance pullback from a major shipping lane in decades.<\/p>\n
Cancellation notices issued on March 1 by Gard, Skuld, NorthStandard, the London Protection and Indemnity (P&I) Club, the American Club, and Steamship Mutual will take full legal effect at midnight Greenwich Mean Time on March 5, 2026, after the mandatory 72-hour notice period. The exclusions cover Iranian waters including 12 nautical miles offshore, the Persian and Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and all waters west of a boundary line running from Oman\u2019s Cape al-Hadd to the Iran-Pakistan border.<\/p>\n
Lloyd\u2019s List captured the defining reality of the crisis in a single line that has since circulated widely across shipping markets: \u201cThe strait is closed, not by Iran, but by shipping itself.\u201d No formal military blockade has been declared. The closure is a function of commercial risk calculation.<\/p>\n
War risk premiums have surged from approximately 0.25 percent of a vessel\u2019s replacement value to a potential 50 percent increase per voyage in a matter of days. For a ship valued at $100 million, that translates to war risk costs jumping from roughly $250,000 to $375,000 per voyage, before factoring in the refusal of some underwriters to offer terms at any price for vessels attempting to transit the strait.<\/p>\n
The human and operational toll is already mounting. The U.S.-flagged products tanker Stena Imperative was damaged by aerial impacts while berthed in the Middle East Gulf, and a shipyard worker was killed. The Marshall Islands-flagged product tanker MKD Vyom was struck off the coast of Oman, killing a crew member. The Gibraltar-flagged bunkering tanker Hercules Star was hit off the United Arab Emirates coast. At least five vessels have now been damaged since Saturday.<\/p>\n
A hazard that has received less public attention but is generating intense concern within the maritime industry is GPS signal degradation. Persistent Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and GPS interference is now being reported across the Strait of Hormuz approaches, the Gulf of Oman, and the Arabian Gulf, with mariners logging Automatic Identification System (AIS) anomalies, positional offsets, and degraded signal integrity that dramatically increase navigational risk in already severely congested waters where 150 vessels are currently anchored.<\/p>\n
Hapag-Lloyd has introduced a War Risk Surcharge of $1,500 per 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) for standard containers and $3,500 per TEU for refrigerated and specialist cargo transiting to and from the Arabian Gulf, effective March 2. CMA CGM introduced a parallel Emergency Conflict Surcharge on the same day. Freight analyst Peter Sand of Xeneta warned that any plans for a phased return of container shipping to the Red Sea in 2026 are now effectively shelved.<\/p>\n
Oil shipping rates on the Middle East to Asia route have nearly tripled since the start of 2026 and were assessed approximately 4 percent higher on Monday morning alone. The benchmark for hiring a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) on the key Middle East to China route reached W225 on the Worldscale industry measure, equivalent to at least $12 million per voyage.<\/p>\n
\u201cLNG shipping disruption will continue, and traders must plan for the possibility of a temporary halt to transit through the Strait of Hormuz for a few days,\u201d said Leslie Palti-Guzman, founder of Energy Vista. \u201cWe are in an untested situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
For African importers, including Ghana, the effective closure of the world\u2019s most critical oil and gas corridor compounds the pump price pressures already in motion this week. Every day of disruption embeds additional freight, insurance, and rerouting costs into future cargo arrivals, with the March 15 pricing window set to capture the full weight of that accumulation.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" … pullback from a major shipping<\/span> lane in decades. … since circulated widely across shipping<\/span> markets: \u00e2\u0080\u009cThe strait … million per voyage. \u00e2\u0080\u009cLNG shipping<\/span> disruption will continue, and … additional freight<\/span>, insurance, and rerouting costs into future cargo<\/span> arrivals, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}