Chinese vessels transit Hormuz despite US blockade on Iran

Two Chinese-flagged vessels are transiting the Iranian side of the Strait of Hormuz, according to maritime tracking cited by Mehr News Agency on August 23, in a claim that has not yet been corroborated by other trackers or news outlets.

The report follows confirmation from US media that two Chinese state-controlled shipping companies, COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation and China Merchants Energy Shipping, have kept their tankers away from both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait since late July amid heightened security risks, loading crude outside the Persian Gulf instead.

The pair control more than 100 very large crude carriers and, before the outbreak of the Iran war in February, carried roughly half of China's Middle East crude imports outside sanctioned Iranian oil.

The Iranian agency cited a tracking account it identified as ManchO-Sint as saying a vessel named New Way was sailing from Al Hamriyah Port in the United Arab Emirates through the Iranian side of the strait, while a Chinese-flagged tanker named Mousik had also been observed entering the waterway.

Neither vessel could be independently identified on public ship-tracking databases, and the cited tracking account could not be verified.

Chinese vessels have intermittently used the strait's Iranian-controlled route during the conflict, generally with coordination from Tehran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy.

Iranian officials have said the passage is open to "friendly countries", a category that has included China, India and Russia, and state media reported earlier this year that around 30 Chinese vessels had been granted safe passage in coordination with the IRGC.