Commercial shipping visible via shows traffic transiting the Strait of Hormuz has slowed to a trickle over the past 24

Commercial shipping visible via shows traffic transiting the Strait of Hormuz has slowed to a trickle over the past 24 hours, with just five merchant vessels completing the transit-all via the Iranian (northern) traffic separation scheme. One vessel, Jin Zeng 5, initially appeared to be routing through the U.S. established safe route through Omani waters, but altered course before entering the Strait and instead completed its transit through the Iranian channel. It is possible additional vessels transited the Strait with their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders disabled, in which case they would not appear in publicly available tracking data. Even so, the visible traffic suggests commercial operators continue to overwhelmingly favor the Iranian route despite the availability of the expanded southern corridor.