Ships beginning to trickle through Strait of Hormuz heres how long it will take to return to normal

Ships are slowly trickling through the Strait of Hormuz following the announcement of a peace deal between the US and Iran — but it will take more than two months for traffic to return to pre-war levels, experts warned.Only a handful of ships have started crossing the strait since Sunday’s agreement, including the Malta-flagged Disha gas tanker, which was among the first to openly transit Hormuz as it heads for India.The majority of the 500 ships trapped in the Persian Gulf, however, are not expected to get underway until Friday’s signing in Switzerland.Even then, only 15 ships are expected to cross each day, Ana Subasic, a trade risk analyst at the Kpler maritime data firm, told The Post. “In that scenario, it would take about 30 days to clear out the backlog of ships,” Subasic said.

“All in all, it could take eight weeks to tackle all the constraints and issues surrounding the Strait of Hormuz.” Prior to the war in Iran, more than 130 ships flowed through the Strait of Hormuz, which also oversaw the transport of 20% of the world’s oil supply.It may take even longer to return to that shipping level — because disagreements still stand between the US and Iran over ownership of the Strait of Hormuz and the uncertainty over how many mines remain in the waterway.“The key point is that the Strait may reopen quickly from a political or security perspective, but the commercial shipping system is likely to normalize gradually,” said Dimitris Ampatzidis, a maritime risk and compliance manager at Kpler.

Ships will likely wait for confirmation from both the US Navy and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps before braving the strait, added Matthew Reisner, a senior national security analyst at the Center for Maritime Strategy.Once more ships start crossing without incident, more and more captains will grow confident to go through, but it may take a while before the impacts are felt on the global market, Reisner noted.

“If the peace holds, expe...