As the war in Iran enters its ninth week with no clear end in sight, shipping traffic in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz has been completely reshaped, heavily disrupting global markets and supply chains for oil, natural gas, fertilizer and other essential products.
Before the United States and Israel launched their attacks on Iran in late February about 3,000 vessels typically passed through the Strait of Hormuz each month, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence. Oil tankers passing through accounted for an estimated 15 million barrels per day of crude and other oil product exports, data from the analytics firm Kpler shows, amounting to about one-fifth of the world’s oil trade.
But since…