on this the March 11th 2026 edition of what’s going on with shipping. It was a bad day in the straight of Hormuz. I’m your host Sal Maglano. Welcome to today’s episode. So a bad day in that a bull carrier Thailand flagged outbound was struck by an unmanned surface vessel. Three crew members reported missing.

We had two other ships in the Persian Gulf also hit. One of them is Chineseowned. So, so much for China having a clear run through the area. We’re going to update you on everything going on in and around the straight of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf, and the Gulf of Oman. If you’re new to the channel, hey, take a moment, subscribe to the channel, and hit the bell so be alerted about new videos as they come out.

All right, we start with the Joint Maritime Information Center update. Everything still remains critical in this area. Of particular note, although persistent open source reporting continues to speculate about possible naval mining, there remains no confirmed evidence of mine deployment or detonation.

Imagery associated with the attack on the Mori Nari, that’s the ship you just saw, suggests a severe explosive event at or near the water line. However, the precise attack mechanism remains unconfirmed. It has all the likings and and characteristics of an unmanned service vessel. Recent incidents patterns suggest a campaign focused on operational disruption and the creation of uncertainty across maritime traffic flows.

All right, so we’re going to take a look at some of the key aspects in this report. As always, I’ll have the report linked in below so that you can take a look at it. So, here are the three vessels that were attacked within the past 24 hours. Oe Majesty, a container ship laden uh was underway and had departed in the incident area.

It was hit by a projectile. Minor damage to the ships about 50 nautical miles northwest of Dubai. The crew is safe. The Morin Nari, we’re going to look at some images of that in a second. That’s that bulk carrier in Ballast. Uh the crew abandoned it and there’s support ongoing.

Severe hole damage to the vessel, including an engine room fire and the Star Gwennneth. This is a bulker in Ballast. This is that Chinese owned vessel. Hole damage reported following a strike by an unknown projectile. Crew is safe and the vessel remains float. Also 70 mi northwest of Dubai, we have this story of multiple fuel storage tanks at the port of Salala in Oman were struck by uncrrewed aerial systems.

We have some very dramatic imagery of that. So the average historical transits through the straight of Hormuz on a daily basis 138. On four March we were at two, five and six march at four. 7 8 and 9 March just one. And then on 10 March we spiked up a bit here with seven. So chart on the left shows you the frequency of attacks with high percentage of attacks taking place in and around the straight.

But you will see that attacks have taken all the way up the Persian Gulf to right off the coast of Kuwait along the coast of Saudi Arabia around the major oil terminals at Rastanora and El Jale and then even out into the Gulf of Oman. And in particular, we’re still seeing massive amounts of spoofing in AIS throughout this region.

It’s causing a lot of distortion when you go look at ships on systems like marine traffic. So if this statement on war risk insurance, the joint war committee expansion of the listed areas across the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, adjacent waters continues to trigger voyage declarations and additional premium negotiations under most warar policies.

While commercial war risk insurance remains available, premiums have increased significantly and underwriting posture has tightened. I will say this that in the first week, the issue preventing the ships from sailing was war risk insurance. That has been largely resolved through the commercial means through additional supplement being provided by the US government.

There is war risk insurance out there. What is keeping the ships locked in place right now is not physical insecurity. Physical meaning money. What we mean is physical as is the physical nature of the ship and that is security in terms of attacks. That’s what’s keeping the ships locked in right now.

So this is the outlook over the next 24 28 hours. Everything remains critical. Offshore energy infrastructure and select port areas remain exposed. JIPMC assesses the most credible risk to include UAV and missile activity, follow-on incidents, standoff or sabotage style of attacks, global navigation system interference, AIS anomalies, and communication disruption.

The Straight of Hormuz traffic is expected to remain heavily suppressed in the near term. Any vessel transiting the straight does so at its own risk. We then have these charts showing you the average of vessel transits through the area going back to January 1st. Obviously, you can see where right around February 28th, we have that drop off and now barely vessels going through the straight of Hormuz.

And while we haven’t talked about our favorite place on the planet too much, the Bob Mandab. You do see a drop off here of vessel transits through the area, although we may see a spike in numbers here as you’ll see later on in the report. So, the big issue, as we’ve talked about, is insurance has been largely settled.

Although, there’s still insurance being dealt with out there. It’s not 100% by any means, but the next issue is the escort issue. And we’re getting a lot of issues with that. As you’ll see here, this Reuters story by Jonathan Saul over at G Captain. Behind closed doors, the US Navy says Hormuz escorts are too dangerous for now.

So that Navy’s assessment spell continued disruptions to the Middle East oil exports and reflect a divergence from President Donald Trump’s statements that the US is prepared to provide naval escorts whenever needed to restart regular shipment along the key waterway. Now the US Navy has held regular briefings with shipping and oil industry counterparts and has said during those briefings it is unable to provide escorts for the time being.

Three shipping industry sources familiar with the matter said. Now, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, the world’s top oil exporter, said on Tuesday, “There would be catastrophic consequences for the world’s oil market if the war in Iran continues to disrupt shipping in the straight of Hormuz.” Goes on here, neither France, the United States, an international coalition, or anybody is in a position to secure the straight of Hormuz.

That’s according to Adele Bakawan, director of the European Institute for Studies on the Middle East and North Africa. So that goes back to the issue we’ve said here for a long time that the US military with two full carrier strike groups deployed still do not have enough resources to be able to perform escort missions.

The Lincoln battle group stationed in the Arabian Gulf has about eight Arley Burke class destroyers and three latoral combat ships with it. But that’s not enough to provide the number of escorts needed through the straight of Hormuz all the way up to Kuwait. And that’s a problem. uh back when the US did this in the 1980s had a much bigger navy.

It had a 600 ship navy and more importantly it had a mix of high and low-end ships, destroyers, cruisers, frigots, helicopter carriers. There was a wide array of vessels that can bring it in there. It just doesn’t have that. And that goes handinhand with the report that came out today about the attacks on shipping.

Mike Schuller over at G Captain. Three additional commercial ships have been struck by projectiles in and around the straight of Hormuz over the past 24 hours as the maritime security situation in the region continues to deteriorate amid the escalating US-Israeli conflict. Adding to the latest advisory from the joint maritime information center, the attacks involved the container ship OE Majesty and the bulk carriers Mari Nari and Star Gwennneth, reinforcing warnings that merchant vessels operating in the region remain exposed to standoff kinetic threats. The latest attacks bring the total number of confirmed vessel strikes in the region to 13. Meanwhile, the number of seafarer fatalities has reached seven according to the UN International Maritime Organization. and the maritime threat environment across the Arabian Gulf straight of Hormuz in Gulf of Oman remains at critical. So at times this channel can be very abstract and kind of big high ranging looking at global shipping and really taking the

50,000 ft view of what’s happening. But every now and then we got to get down into the water and that’s what we do here. These images from the Thai bulk carrier that was hit is graphic representation of what it’s like for those merchant mariners out there right now in the region.

Here you see the Thai bulker on fire back after you see the deployed life rafts. This image shows some of those life rafts being lowered. You can see this is before the fire really gets out of control. The vessel has been hit on the port side aft right there underneath the stern just forward of the ship’s rudder.

So this image here is a pretty dramatic image actually. You get a couple of things happening here at the same time. You can see the lifeboat being launched here. It’s a freef fall lifeboat coming out of the Davit. You’ll see some crew members heading down a ladder into a life raft. And most significantly, you can see the hull damage right here where you can see fire inside the vessel.

And that fire is going to sweep up through the engine compartment into the ship’s superructure into the house and really run through that vessel. This is the image I used for the thumbnail, and I think it’s the most haunting one. One of those crew members on the vessel right here. Uh 3E, that could be the third assistant engineer and his life jacket that he has.

That device you see right there, that’s used for it’s an emergency light, but it’s also an emergency indicator so that he can be located should he go into the water or have to be found. This is on board an Omani patrol boat. You can tell by the weapon there on the left side. Here’s more of the crew together looking out.

Again, you just get the face here of these. Not sure if the crew is Thai or Filipino or Indonesian. Here’s the damage to the vessel. It’s a pretty gaping wound in the side. And one of the things that we’ve seen happen with attacks by these unmanned surface vessels, basically motorized boats, remote control with large explosives, is they’ll get underneath the stern of the vessel because that directs the flow of the explosion into the vessel and it actually resonates into the ship and then back out. And that’s why you see that steel probably ripped out the way it is there. Uh that that whatever it was that hit it got in there right underneath the vessel. So, we don’t get a lot of images like that and I think it’s really important to have them in there. Again, three crew members are missing from that ship. Probably in that engine room. So, they’re presumed lost until we can get salvage crews on board. Quick reminder, the last ship that got hit like that in the Straight of Hormuz.

That’s where the Emirates sent a tugout and that was bombed by the Iranians, killing at least four of the crew on board and wounding three others. SenCom has issued a statement on Tuesday warning civilians to avoid port facilities in Iran where naval forces are operating. The warning issued from SenCom said the presence of Iranian naval vessels and military equipment within civilian port facilities could strip those locations of protected civilian status under international law.

On the flip side of that, we have Iran attacking civilian port infrastructure. In particular, the port of Salah was attacked and operations have been suspended. uh drones have hit the fuel tanks at the port. So the image I’m going to show you here is a pretty dramatic one. This is an image from a bulk carrier of the port of Salala.

You can see up on the hill there, oil tanks ablaze. There are some smoke and fire out in the harbor there with some craft that are damaged. Pretty dramatic. I mean, this is quite significant. This ship is up against the dock there. You can see it docked starboard side, too. You’ve got a tug out in the harbor spraying water to provide some protection probably because of heat coming off those radiated fires to make sure it doesn’t spread.

Uh this is a a pretty horrific scene in a commercial port in southern Oman out on the Indian Oceanside. So how do you overcome having the cork in the bottle so to speak of the straight of Hormuz and reducing the amount of flow of vessels into it? Well, you start using other ports and that’s what we see here in this story from Lloyd’s list.

Red Sea tanker loadings rise as a Ramco ramps up pipeline contingency. Yamboo leads the pack in an alternative loading ports as attacks on Iran limit liftings from the Middle East Gulf. That’s the Persian Gulf. That’s the politically correct term that that Lloyds list uses. With bari dominating loadings, a Ramco’s chief executive is looking to maxim maximize pipeline capacity to divert barrels from Saudis east coast to the west coast.

It’s estimated that that pipeline could at maximum handle about 8 million barrels per day, which is substantial considering the Persian Gulf exports about 20 million barrels per day. Tanker owners and operators remain cautious of potential attacks by the Houthi militants on Bal Mandab. Cheers. And amid the current conflict.

So this is a chart put out by Winward AI. 27 VLCC’s are sailing for Yanbu as Saudi Arabia pivots crude exports to the Red Sea. What this means is that the Babel Mandab, that little area here between the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and this narrow straight here between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, becomes extremely important.

Now, we’re not just seeing tankers diverting over to the port of Yamboo. Now, Mediterranean shipping company has just announced an expansion of their Dragon and Jade container service from the west coast of Saudi Arabia into the interior of the Persian Gulf. Now, there were some issues. People were worried about food shortages.

A lot of the Persian Gulf states have food stockpiled for anywhere from 4 to 6 months. Obviously, some perishables are of issues. The jade service routes all the way around Africa into the Mediterranean to Valencia and then through the Suez Canal to hit Jedha and King Abdullah and then the Dragon service will actually go through the big container terminal at the southern tip of Italy and then through the Suez Canal into the region.

So then we have the story from Greg Miller with a very ominous title. Fallout will ripple across globe amid straight of Hormuzu’s quote doomsday scenario. Extended loss of Qar LG could curtail power generation in Asia leading to knock-on effects in multiple industries. Coal flows likely to increase as coal replaces LG in Asia.

While global grain trades are at future risk due to inflation caused by fertilizer storage. In longer term, bulk commodity trades could see greater supply chain diversification and higher inventory builds mirroring trend in container shipping postcoid. So I had an email today this morning as a matter of fact from someone who was out on Chesapeake Bay.

There’s a big anchorage in Chesapeake Bay for the ships heading up to Baltimore. And the note I got from him is like I’ve never seen this many empty bulkers sitting at the anchorage waiting to get into Baltimore. That has to do with coal. Those are coal uh bulkers getting ready to load because the demand on coal has increased dramatically because of the oil and liqufied natural gas disruptions and you’re seeing it manifest itself right here in the United States.

The other issue we’re seeing that again it it’s it’s flying under the radar but needs to be known and we talked about in yesterday’s episode. Mayor says Hormuz crisis is squeezing global marine fuel supply. In an operational update issued March 10th, the Danish shipping company said the evolving security situation surrounding the strain of horror moves is significantly impacting fuel availability, forcing the company to take additional proactive operational measures to stabilize its network.

Uh what that means is fuel search charges. Everybody’s going to start charging you extra for fuel. And you’re going to see that on containers on every shipment coming across the water right now. You’re going to see that. Now that has spurred the Federal Maritime Commission under the new leadership of Laura Deello to issue this.

Federal Maritime Commission says it is closely monitoring new sir charges being introduced by ocean carriers amid the escalating security crisis around the straight of Hormuz. Under its statutory authority, the commission ensures that rates charges and rules that common carriers have implemented as a result of the threats to commercial shipping in the straight and neighboring waters do not violate the act.

Mayors on Wednesday announced a temporary global emergency bunker sir charge to address fuel availability beginning later this month and could roughly $200 per 20ft container and $400 per 40ft container. So the Federal Maritime Commission is not being reactive but proactive and that’s something I’ve always wanted them to be able to do.

We then have this story. Shadow tankers divert to India after the US greenlights Russian imports. About 60 million barrels of Russian crude loaded pre-waver is on the water. US sanctions pivot has had significant effect on Russian origin freight rates. Indian buyers in a position to out compete China buyers. This is from Bridget Dykum.

And I think this is a really interesting issue. All of a sudden that 60 million barrels of Russian crude that was floating that really didn’t have a home to go to because of US sanctions that’s off now. We ripped that band-aid off and now the Russians are one of going to be the one of the big beneficiaries of the US attack on Iran as Russian oil goes to fill the gap of Persian Gulf oil.

Not Iranian oil, but Saudi oil, Omani oil, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq. That’s the the void that Russian oil is going to fill. Who would have guessed that Russian oil would come to the rescue of the world? I did not have that on my bingo card, but then again, I haven’t had a lot of things on my bingo card back since 2021 when we started this crazy ride when the Evergiven went sideways in the Suez.

We’re coming up on the fifth anniversary this month of what’s going on with shipping. Going to have to do something special for the fifth anniversary. I’m just trying to think what it is. If you got an idea, dump it down in the notes there and let me know what you think cuz we got to do something to commemorate the 5 years of this channel.

I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you did, hey, take a moment, subscribe to the channel and hit the bell so you be learned about new videos as they come out. Leave a comment, share it across social media, and if you can, support the page. How do you do that? You hit the super thanks button down below or head on over to Patreon and become a monthly yearly subscriber.

Until next episode, S signing off.