"Navigation Extremely Limited": Top Shipper Warns IRGC Mines Complicate Hormuz Normalization

The top executive of Japan's largest shipping company told the Financial Times in an exclusive weekend interview that the path toward normalization in the Strait of Hormuz remains far more complicated than anticipated. He warned that shipping volumes may stay well below prewar levels for months, as IRGC-laid mines are forcing vessels into narrow, safer corridors near Iran and Oman.

"The routes available for navigation are extremely limited — they're very narrow corridors," Takaya Soga, chief executive of Japan's NYK Line, told the outlet. "We're still nowhere near returning to conditions before the closure of the Strait of Hormuz."

The warning comes days after International Maritime Organization Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez stated that IRGC forces had laid 80 naval mines across the main shipping channels in Hormuz.

Tanker transits through Hormuz have gradually resumed in recent weeks following the interim peace deal between the U.S. and Iran, with tracked vessel traffic peaking at 57 transits last Wednesday. That figure, however, likely understates the true level of activity, as the Bloomberg data captures only vessels with transponders.

Related:

• Tanker Rates Nearly Halve As Hormuz Shipping Normalizes

Last week, IRGC forces warned that commercial vessels must coordinate with Iran's naval command before transiting Hormuz and cautioned against using unauthorized routes. That warning was followed by an attack on an Evergreen-operated container ship, U.S. retaliatory strikes against Iran, and a subsequent Iranian response targeting Bahrain and Kuwait this weekend.

UK maritime authorities also reported that a tanker's bridge was damaged by an unidentified projectile. Meanwhile, Iraqi forces locked down Baghdad's Green Zone and arrested pro-Iranian political officials under the guise of a corruption probe, suggesting the regional pressure campaign is now spilling into Iraq.