HMM Namu

HMM Namu is a Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) container vessel operated by the South Korean-majority state-owned shipping line, one of the world's fifteen largest container carriers. On 4 May 2026, the same day USS Truxtun and USS Mason made their armed Hormuz transit, HMM Namu caught fire while at anchor off the UAE coast. The attack occurred during the first Iranian strikes on UAE territory since the Trump Ceasefire of 16 April, which also included 15 missiles and four drones engaged by Emirati air defences and a drone that sparked a fire at the Fujairah oil terminal, wounding three Indian nationals.

HMM is a commercially significant vessel in the context of the 2026 blockade because South Korea is a major South Korean industrial consumer of Middle Eastern crude, and its maritime liability is tracked by global P&I clubs whose war-risk cover has been suspended for Iranian waters since the blockade began in April. The vessel's fire, while at anchor outside the blockaded strait, demonstrated that Iran's kinetic reach had extended to UAE bypass infrastructure on the same day that Khorfakkan and Fujairah were declared inside Iran's expanded maritime control area.

The incident is one of three vessel attacks recorded by the briefing in the 4-5 May window: HMM Namu off the UAE, a UAE-linked tanker struck twice in the strait, and the CMA CGM San Antonio struck by cruise missile inside Hormuz on 5 May.