Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has staged its sharpest rebound since the disruption began, with 42 verified commercial crossings on 22 June, according to AXSMarine.
The total included 30 outbound and 12 inbound crossings, lifting traffic to its highest one-day level in the period tracked by the company. It marked a rapid turnround from the first 17 days of June, when movements averaged 4.9 crossings per day.
Between 18 and 22 June, traffic averaged 29.2 crossings per day, against a March monthly average of 7.0. Even after the rebound, flows remained far below normal levels, with the five-day average equal to 27% of a pre-disruption baseline of about 110 crossings per day.
Traffic on 20 June and 22 June reached about 40% of the equivalent 2025 baseline, underscoring how quickly vessel movements returned once conditions eased.
AXSMarine also identified multiple inbound LNG carrier transits on 22 June, the first time several LNG carriers had moved inbound on the same day since the disruption began.
The recovery was not linear. Traffic fell on 21 June after Iran again declared the strait closed, before climbing to 42 crossings on 22 June after the conclusion of the Bürgenstock talks. Operational guidance still points to a cautious return rather than a full normalisation.
The Joint Maritime Information Center placed the maritime security threat level in the Strait of Hormuz at moderate, while warning that mines remained present and clearance operations were continuing. Its guidance allowed the southern route to be used day or night with AIS on. A later update identified rising traffic south of the traffic separation scheme through Omani waters and via a northern Iranian-controlled route.
AXSMarine’s earlier analysis put crude transiting Hormuz at around 2.1m barrels per day in mid-June, down about 85% from roughly 14.75m barrels per day on the day the strait closed. It also estimated that about 102.5m barrels of Gulf crude were held in floating storage on 66 tankers in and around the strait.
AXSMarine is a France-based maritime data and ship-chartering technology provider founded in 2000. Its platforms cover dry bulk, tanker, gas, liner and containership markets for charterers, brokers, shipowners and commodity-market participants.
