Hormuz traffic slows as uncertainty persists

SINGAPORE: Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz slowed, data showed ​on Wednesday, as most ​shipowners avoided the key waterway because of a lack of clear signalling on its reopening from a blockade during the Iran war.
Six commodity vessels crossed the strait on Tuesday, Kpler data showed by 0258 GMT, ⁠down from nine a day earlier and below the 10-day ⁠daily average of 11.
Inbound traffic included an empty very large crude carrier that followed the Omani side of the strait, as well ‌as two tankers, one of medium-range ​and the other ⁠intermediate, the data showed.
Two medium-range fuel tankers and ​a post-Panamax vessel exited the strait.
On ‌Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said no talks were taking place with Iran ​and insisted the Strait of Hormuz was open, contradicting Iran's assertion that it remained shut to shipping.
The waterway handled a fifth of the world's shipments of crude oil and liquefied natural gas before ‌the war.
As security concerns curb oil shipments to the ​world's largest importer, two Chinese shipping giants that used to carry half ​its ‌imports ⁠of Middle Eastern oil before the war have kept their tankers out of the Strait of Hormuz and Bab ​al-Mandeb since late July, say tanker tracker ⁠Vortexa and a ​ship broker.
At the Bab el-Mandeb strait on the Red Sea, where Yemeni Houthis declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on July 20, Kpler data showed 30 weekend ​transits by commodity vessels, up from 19 in the ​prior week.
There were no tracked Saudi oil shipments.