The CMA CGM Kribi, sailing under a Malta flag and operated by French shipping company CMA CGM, became possibly the first vessel with links to France to pass through the Strait of Hormuz since Iran effectively closed the vital shipping lane, according to the MarineTraffic website.
The ship departed waters off Dubai Thursday and arrived Friday off Muscat, Oman, MarineTraffic data showed.
The vessel’s path through the strait, according to MarineTraffic’s tracking data, indicates that it took a northerly route, traversing a narrow gap between the Iranian islands of Qeshm and Larak — the latter of which analysts say Iran has been using as a “toll booth” to collect fees as high as $2 million to grant vessels safe passage.
CMA CGM, the world’s third-largest container shipping company, declined to comment when contacted by the AP.
Traffic through the strait has dropped by about 90% since the start of the Iran war. Only about 150 vessels, including tankers and container ships, have transited the strait since March 1, according to data firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence. Most were linked to Iran and countries including China, India and Pakistan.
A Japanese vessel also completed a safe transit of the strait, the liquid natural gas tanker’s owner told the Reuters news agency on Friday, in what would be the first crossing for a Japanese ship since the war started.
The Panama-flagged LNG tanker “SOHAR LNG” crossed the strait and was safe Friday along with its crew off the coast of Oman, the ship’s joint owner Mitsui O.S.K. Lines of Japan told Reuters. MarineTraffic also showed the vessel just off Oman’s coast, east of the strait.
The Japanese logistics company declined to tell Reuters when the ship transited the strait or whether there was any kind of negotiation with Iran to enable its safe passage.
Japan’s Asahi newspaper said it was the first Japanese owned vessel to make it through the strait since the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran.
CBS/AP
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