Is the Strait of Hormuz closed?

“Closed” does not mean the water is empty. It means the strait is closed to normal commercial traffic: the open, insured, any-flag transit that moved roughly a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil before the crisis. By that measure the waterway has been effectively shut since the 28 February 2026 declaration, with throughput a small fraction of its pre-crisis baseline.

What still moves does so under control. Iran has selectively permitted passage for vessels from a short list of states, scheduled and vetted through a newly created Persian Gulf Strait Authority and subject to per-vessel navigation fees reported in the seven-figure range. That is the opposite of an open strait: transit is now a permission granted case by case, not a right. The mechanics of that regime sit on our transit-fee explainer.

The other tell is who has voted with their hulls. The world’s nine largest container carriers have suspended Hormuz calls or rerouted Asia–Europe traffic south of the Cape of Good Hope, adding roughly two weeks to every leg, and war-risk underwriters have priced spot transit beyond what most operators will pay. When the people who actually move the cargo stay away, the strait is closed in the only sense that matters to the oil price.

Closed is not permanent. Oman is hosting indirect US–Iran talks on the maritime track, and the market-implied reopening date moves with each escalation. We track the live odds and the conditions that have to clear on the reopening page.