A ship anchors in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran, on August 10, 2026.
Ali Saidi | Getty Images
Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz ground to a halt over the weekend ahead of the expiration of a 60-day ceasefire between the United States and Iran on Monday, with no formal negotiations or agreement in sight.
Only five cargo ships passed through the crucial oil route over the weekend, but no vessels were registered to pass through the route on Sunday, according to Kupler data cited by Reuters. This compares to 31 vessels the previous weekend.
Ship traffic had already reached a three-month low last week, with a five-day average of 13 vessel sailings on Tuesday, reflecting the lowest level since May 12, a CNBC analysis of Kpler data found.
Overall, shipping is down 90% since before the war began on February 28, with an average of about 130 ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz a day, which transports about a fifth of the world’s oil.
HSBC shipping expert Palash Jain told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on Monday morning that investors should understand that “disruption is the norm” for the industry and factor that into their underlying assumptions.
Crude oil prices fell gradually on Monday in line with international indicators brent crude oil Futures fell 0.15% to $88.45 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 0.74% to $81.79.
Negotiations and negotiations between the US and Iran have stalled as a fragile ceasefire between the two countries expires on Monday.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi said there was “no such thing as a ceasefire” between the two countries, as quoted by Iranian news outlet Shahrah News on Saturday.
“At the moment, there are no negotiations between us and the United States. … Qatar and Pakistan are exchanging messages between the parties and are in contact with us, but this does not mean negotiations,” Araghchi said, according to the quote.
US President Donald Trump claimed last week that he would “soon declare the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the United States.”
However, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Ghalibabadi insisted in a post on X on Friday that the strait remains “Iranian’s” and can only be closed and opened “under Iranian command.”
