Lloyd's List Intelligence counted 84 vessel transits through the strait of Hormuz in the week to Friday 7 August, up from 45 the week before, in figures relayed by the Associated Press1. A normal week carries more than 700.
Three independent trackers had already put crossings at about 15% of normal on 24 July, so the rebound restores a fraction of a fraction. War-risk underwriters price off demonstrated passages rather than announcements, and two counts this low both sit inside the noise band of a chokepoint that usually moves a hundred vessels a day. A doubling gives them a second data point, not a trend.
Lloyd's List has not published the split between tankers, gas carriers and general cargo. Energy trade resuming would show up in that breakdown; a return of general cargo would mean something much smaller. Without it, the rise cannot be read either way.
Charterers cannot fix a voyage against a route with no published text, which means the extra crossings most likely reflect operators who had already accepted the risk rather than new entrants coming back. If next week's count falls towards July's levels, this one reads as convoy movement rather than recovery.
