Only eight vessels crossed the critical waterway Tuesday, compared with as many as 140 a day before the war, as Washington and Tehran remain divided over its reopening
SCN NEWS | WORLD
WASHINGTON/DUBAI — Commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen to a fraction of its prewar level, underscoring the continuing disruption to one of the world's most important energy corridors even as President Donald Trump declared that the United States has “total control” of the strategic waterway.
Only eight vessels crossed the strait on Tuesday, according to shipping data cited in multiple reports — down dramatically from the roughly 130 to 140 ships that typically passed through each day before the war.
The eight-vessel tally was also below the recent 10-day average of about 12 crossings, highlighting how far commercial shipping remains from normal despite weeks of diplomatic efforts aimed at securing a broader agreement.
Trump, meanwhile, portrayed the military balance in dramatically different terms.
“The USA has total control over the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday, adding that he believed the United States would keep that control.
Trump described the U.S. naval blockade as a “wall of steel” and said Iran could do nothing about it.
The claim was swiftly challenged by Tehran.
Iran maintains that Washington does not control the strait and has linked its full reopening to a broader settlement with the United States.
The competing claims expose the central contradiction surrounding Hormuz: the United States says it controls the waterway, Iran says Washington does not — and commercial ships are still barely moving through it.
The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea and has historically carried a major share of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Any prolonged disruption therefore extends far beyond the military confrontation between Washington and Tehran.
Shipping companies must calculate the risks to vessels and crews, insurers must price the possibility of attacks, and energy markets must assess how much oil and gas can reliably move out of the Gulf.
Those calculations have become increasingly difficult as negotiations over the waterway stall.
Washington and Tehran have been discussing possible arrangements through regional mediators, but significant differences remain over who would exercise authority in and around the strait and what political or military concessions would accompany its reopening.
Previous proposals have included possible arrangements involving Iran and Oman, while the United States has repeatedly resisted any agreement that could be interpreted as granting Tehran control over an international shipping route.
Iran, for its part, has sought broader concessions as part of any settlement.
The dispute is therefore no longer simply about whether ships can physically cross Hormuz.
It has become a contest over who controls the rules governing their passage.
For Trump, the presence and operations of U.S. forces demonstrate American control.
For Tehran, the collapse in normal commercial traffic — and its ability to make reopening part of negotiations — points to a very different reality.
And for global shipping, the numbers tell perhaps the clearest story.
Before the war, as many as 140 vessels could move through the strait in a single day.
On Tuesday, there were eight.
Until that gap begins to close, claims of control from either side will remain overshadowed by a more immediate fact: one of the world's most important maritime trade routes is still operating at only a fraction of normal capacity.