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2026-04-27 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

The Times: 600 large commercial vessels remain in the Strait of Hormuz

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Posted by badanov 2026-04-27 00:00|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [1851 views ] Top

1 Each day a vessel doesn't move it incurs costs. There are fixed costs (crew wages, insurance, ongoing maintenance, interest on the loan for the ship). There are opportunity costs (in addition to loss of revenue, there is the sacrifice of income that could have been generated in that down time). There are penalty costs - demurrage, failure to deliver the cargo in a timely manner. Then there are the costs to the charterer, the consignee, the shipper (if they don't have FAS or FOB terms terms), the distribution vendor at destination and ultimately the end user.

If those costs are conservatively $100,000 per day per vessel then 600 ships times 40 days is looking like $2.4b in sunk costs for the war thus far. That figure doesn't include the cost of ships outside the Gulf diverting to other routings and other serendipity expenses.

Note my observations are based on the impact of dwell time when moving air freight. I did work boats briefly in Rotterdam & Livorno a LONG time ago but the basic cost factors haven't changed a lot since then although the numbers have.

Posted by Clem+Elmish4239 2026-04-27 04:47|| 2026-04-27 04:47|| Front Page Top

2 Interesting factoid. Thanks Clem.

Posted by Besoeker 2026-04-27 04:48|| 2026-04-27 04:48|| Front Page Top

3 Except I dropped a place in my math - it's "only" 2.4 billion dollars in sunk costs. Note this is the cost to the shipowners and charterers - not to the owners of the inbound / outbound cargo.

Posted by Clem+Elmish4239 2026-04-27 04:53|| 2026-04-27 04:53|| Front Page Top

4 Oh well, The powers that be will figure out a way to gouge us anyway. Fuck their cost

Posted by chris 2026-04-27 05:39|| 2026-04-27 05:39|| Front Page Top

5 Hormuz crisis spurs $24B Iraq trade corridor as Gulf routes shift

Posted by Skidmark 2026-04-27 07:25|| 2026-04-27 07:25|| Front Page Top

6 #3 - Fixed

Posted by Frank G 2026-04-27 08:54|| 2026-04-27 08:54|| Front Page Top

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