ContainerSignal Daily: Hormuz attacks widen as Iran keeps offer open

Iran’s foreign minister said on 18 October that Tehran’s offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days remains on the table, while the waterway recorded another week of attacks on merchant ships and container carriers kept most Gulf bookings suspended. Abbas Araqchi, speaking in Baghdad at a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, said Washington had sent comments that Iran is reviewing, and that the strait could reopen within six days if its conditions were accepted, Reuters reported. No carrier has restored normal Gulf calls, and the gap between the diplomatic track and the operational one is the defining feature of the market this week.

Today’s Signals

Trade Routes

Iran presented the reopening proposal in mid-September, after an interim ceasefire collapsed, and its conditions include lifting the US blockade on Iranian ports, lifting US sanctions on Iranian oil exports and ending hostilities on all regional fronts. The sticking point is Washington’s insistence on addressing Iran’s nuclear programme from the outset. The strait carried about a fifth of global oil and LNG trade before the war, which began in February and is now in its eighth month. A proposal that has not been accepted changes nothing for a forwarder booking cargo to Jebel Ali, and Reuters reported no movement on the seven conditions.

The attacks continued regardless. FreightWaves reported on 16 October that at least 10 vessels had been attacked in or near the chokepoint since Sunday 11 October, with six incidents on the Sunday alone, the highest one-day total since the war began. At least four of them were container ships. The 2,824 TEU feeder GFS Pride was struck by an unknown projectile on Tuesday and sank off Oman with containers aboard; Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority said all 21 crew were evacuated safely. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said the ship hit a naval mine on an unauthorised route and was carrying contraband, a claim the MPA and maritime analysts disputed, with the MPA saying the vessel was struck by projectiles. The Singapore-flagged GFS Giselle suffered hull damage and reached anchorage under its own power with 22 crew reported safe, and the 2,500 TEU DP World Kaveri, operated by a unit of DP World, was also hit. A fourth feeder was struck but not identified in the reporting.

The reporting base for all of this is weaker than the headline counts suggest. UK Maritime Trade Operations said in its weekly overview, published on 16 October, that most vessels struck in the region are not reporting incidents to it directly, so it cannot include them without verification, gCaptain reported. UKMTO recorded 12 attacks in the latest period, 10 of them in the strait, and found that 55 of 74 documented projectile strikes since 6 July occurred along the southern route through the waterway. US Central Command maintains that commercial traffic continues with coordinated protection from American forces and regional partners, which is consistent with Kpler’s count of 131 crossings in the week to 14 October, down from 176 the previous week. Kpler estimated 12.6 million barrels a day of crude moved through the strait on 13 October, against roughly 15 million barrels a day at the end of September.

For container cargo, the practical network is already redrawn. Maersk’s Middle East operational update, last revised on 2 October, suspends bookings to and from Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia’s Dammam, Al Jubail and King Abdullah ports, cross-border cargo via Jordan, and the UAE apart from Khor Fakkan and Jebel Ali by landbridge. The carrier routes Gulf cargo through Salalah, Sohar, Khor Fakkan, Jeddah and Aqaba, applies an emergency freight rate of USD 3,800 for bookings accepted to Jeddah for local consignees, and states that any vessel transiting the strait incurs an additional fee of USD 1,000 per container. Those terms are published on a page the carrier warns is subject to change in a highly volatile situation.

Freight Rates

CMA CGM has posted peak season surcharges across three corridors, with effective dates between 22 October and 15 November. Cargo from South China to Durban carries USD 1,050 per TEU for containers loaded between 22 and 31 October, and cargo from North and Central China to Durban carries USD 1,150 per TEU for loading between 28 and 31 October, Container News reported. From 15 November the carrier applies USD 700 per 20 foot and USD 900 per 40 foot container on dry cargo from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, excluding northeastern Brazil, to Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, the Black Sea, North Africa, the Middle East and the Red Sea. A separate charge of EUR 250 per TEU applies to reefer cargo from Morocco to West Africa from 1 November until further notice.

These are carrier surcharges on specific corridors rather than index readings for a whole market, and the distinction matters when rates overall are moving by a few percentage points a week. Surcharges are filed line by line and by cargo type, which is why our explainer on container freight rate indexes treats them as a separate layer from the WCI, FBX and SCFI readings. The China to Durban charges land in a week when Asia-Europe spot rates were still falling, the subject of our market update on 15 October, so the pricing signal is corridor-specific rather than a turn in the broader market.

Ports

The Port of Long Beach handled 997,177 TEU in September, its busiest month in 115 years and 25% more than September 2025, beating the previous record of 987,191 TEU set in October 2024. Loaded imports rose 31.3% to 509,390 TEU, exports rose 7.8% to 91,747 TEU and empty moves climbed 22.1% to 396,040 TEU, FreightWaves reported, citing the port’s 15 October briefing. Through September the port handled 7,675,255 TEU, up 3.9% year on year. Chief executive Noel Hacegaba attributed the surge partly to shippers adjusting to high diesel costs, Panama Canal access restrictions and the prospect of a new US-China trade agreement, and said the record came without congestion. The port has also flagged a 16 month deck replacement on the Vincent Thomas Bridge starting 7 November, with an incentive programme from late October, so the landside constraint arrives just as volumes peak. The port’s own release could not be read from this host because the page is script-rendered; the figures above are as reported by FreightWaves.

COSCO Shipping Ports handled 11.04 million TEU across its terminals in September, up 15.7% year on year, taking the nine month total to 93.91 million TEU, an increase of 8.5%, Container News reported. Third quarter throughput was 32.60 million TEU, up 9.2%. Overseas terminals excluding Container Terminal Tollerort handled 3.56 million TEU in September, up 20.7%, with Piraeus at 366,600 TEU, up 15.3%, and Suez Canal Container Terminal at 540,300 TEU, up 4%. Chancay handled 46,700 TEU in the month, up 25%, and 341,400 TEU in nine months, up 47.3%.

The Asian picture is more mixed than the totals imply. Forwarders report a general easing of bottlenecks as holiday-related cargo volumes fell, but point to terminal hotspots that remain, including berthing delays at Shanghai, the Journal of Commerce reported on 16 October. That is the pattern behind the schedule reliability problem our guide to what schedule reliability measures sets out: aggregate port performance can improve while individual terminals stay congested.

In Canada, the Maritime Employers Association said on 16 October that a new collective agreement covering more than 1,200 longshore workers at the Port of Montreal, members of CUPE Local 375, had been implemented for the 2024 to 2028 period, WorldCargo News reported. The terms were set by an arbitration tribunal after the Canada Industrial Relations Board acted on a federal referral, and neither the employers nor the union has published details. The agreement removes a disruption risk that produced several work stoppages, without settling the automation question that drove the dispute.

Fleet & Capacity

HMM’s board approved KRW 2.168 trillion, or about USD 1.62 billion, for 12 containerships: eight 13,000 TEU newbuildings plus three 2,800 TEU ships and one 1,700 TEU ship bought as resales of newbuildings already under construction, Splash 247 reported, citing a stock exchange filing. The 12 ships add 114,100 TEU combined, with deliveries completed by December 2029. HMM has not named the yards for the eight larger vessels, the sellers of the four smaller ones, or the propulsion specification. The order follows last year’s KRW 4 trillion commitment for 12 LNG dual-fuel 13,000 TEU ships and two VLCCs, with HD Hyundai and Hanwha Ocean holding the boxship contracts, and sits under a plan to reach 166 containerships of 1.47 million TEU by 2030. The sizes chosen show where the carrier sees its mainline requirement, as our guide to how container ships are sized explains.

At the other end of the asset market, MSC has been confirmed as joint buyer of Romania’s bankrupt Mangalia shipyard alongside Rheinmetall in a EUR 138 million deal, Splash 247 reported. The partners plan a dual-use facility combining commercial and naval construction, expect to close within weeks, and have not disclosed ownership shares. Rheinmetall already has a EUR 920 million Romanian naval programme covering two 96 metre offshore patrol vessels and two 43 metre diver support ships.

Maersk completed what it describes as the world’s largest ethanol bunkering, supplying about 5,000 tonnes of ISCC-certified bioethanol to the Maersk Halifax in Singapore with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, Container News reported. Maersk Halifax is the first ship in the fleet converted to dual-fuel operation, and the carrier presented the operation as a test of ethanol infrastructure and supply chain readiness rather than a commitment to a single fuel pathway.

Regulation & Policy

Three House committee chairmen have asked the Department of Homeland Security to revoke COSCO vessels’ enrolment in the Coast Guard’s Qualship 21 programme, which reduces routine port state control inspections for foreign-flagged ships with strong compliance records. In a letter dated 14 October to Secretary Markwayne Mullin, John Moolenaar of the Select Committee on China, Rick Crawford of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and Carlos Gimenez of the Homeland Security transportation and maritime subcommittee asked DHS to refuse renewals and to scrutinise similar companies, the committee said. The lawmakers say at least 10 COSCO vessels were enrolled as of 15 July; an accompanying Coast Guard table identifies 11. A Coast Guard spokesperson told gCaptain that the Commandant directed an immediate review of the vessels’ participation on 15 October. The letter follows a 1 September Reuters investigation quoting administration officials, which COSCO denied in September, saying its onboard equipment serves navigation, communications and emergency response. COSCO has been on the Pentagon’s 1260H list since 31 January.

What It Means

For shippers with Gulf cargo, the operating assumption should be that the landbridge is the network, not a temporary workaround. Cargo moves through Salalah, Sohar, Khor Fakkan, Jeddah or Aqaba and then by road or feeder, which adds cost lines that a quoted ocean rate does not show: emergency rates on some bookings, a transit fee where a vessel still uses the strait, storage billed by the terminal and longer door to door times. FreightWaves reported analyst Lars Jensen’s point that war risk cover can be cancelled at short notice if cargo moves on a vessel not owned by the carrier named on the bill of lading, which makes the vessel on the B/L, not just the carrier’s brand, a term worth checking before booking.

The rate picture is not one story. Weakness in Asia-Europe spot pricing and peak season surcharges on China to Durban, South America to Europe and Morocco to West Africa can coexist, because each reflects a different balance of capacity and demand on its own corridor. Carriers are testing pricing where they have leverage and discounting where they do not.

Volume data from both ends of the Pacific points to firm underlying cargo rather than a demand collapse: Long Beach’s record month and COSCO’s overseas terminal growth came alongside soft spot rates, which is what a market with ample capacity and steady volumes looks like. HMM’s order does not change capacity in the near term, with deliveries running to December 2029, but it does show that carriers are still adding mainline tonnage into a network that is absorbing disruption rather than removing it.

Sources

• Reuters via gCaptain, “Iran Urges US To Accept Proposal To Reopen Strait Of Hormuz”, 18 October 2026
• FreightWaves, “Container ship attacks escalate in Strait of Hormuz”, 16 October 2026
• gCaptain, “Fog of War Deepens in Hormuz as UKMTO Says Most Ship Attacks Go Unreported”, citing the UKMTO weekly overview of 16 October 2026
• Maersk, “Middle East Operational Update 50”, published 29 September, updated 2 October 2026
• Container News, “CMA CGM updates surcharges for China, South America and Morocco shipments”, October 2026
• FreightWaves, “New Long Beach record as volume nears 1M containers”, October 2026
• Port of Long Beach, “Port of Long Beach breaks all time cargo record in September”, 15 October 2026
• Container News, “COSCO Shipping Ports throughput jumps in September”, October 2026
• Journal of Commerce, “Congestion eases at key Asian ports on holiday-related cargo reduction”, 16 October 2026
• WorldCargo News, “Montreal longshore workers secure five-year collective agreement”, 19 October 2026
• Splash 247, “HMM commits $1.6bn to 12 more containerships”, 16 October 2026
• Splash 247, “MSC joins Rheinmetall in EUR 138m Romanian shipyard takeover”, October 2026
• Container News, “Maersk completes world’s largest ethanol bunkering in Singapore”, October 2026
• House Select Committee on China, “Moolenaar, Crawford, and Gimenez: Scuttle Privileges for China-Owned Vessels Spying on U.S.”, 15 October 2026