Hormuz Tanker Traffic Slumps as U.S.-Iran Standoff Drags On

Tankers moving along the Strait of Hormuz dwindled further this week, with only five crossings on Wednesday and nine crossings on Thursday, down from a monthly average of 12 crossings, according to data from Kpler, as cited by Reuters. Five tankers went into the waterway yesterday, according to the data, and four exited it, most of them moving along the Iranian corridor. Traffic via the Bab el-Mandeb strait in the Red Sea was in the double digits, with Kpler reporting 19 commodity carriers passing the waterway on Thursday. The data only covers…