Fertilizer Ship Transits Into Persian Gulf Fall While Six Commercial Vessels Cross Strait of Hormuz

Fertilizer shipments into the Persian Gulf have slowed to a trickle, with only four empty vessels booked to load cargoes transiting the Strait of Hormuz since June 30, according to tanker tracking data compiled by Kpler and Bloomberg. Two of those vessels have since loaded cargo but have not yet departed.

The Persian Gulf region accounts for about a third of global urea exports, and the reduced traffic threatens supplies to major Southern Hemisphere crop exporters Brazil and Argentina.

Before recent tensions, between 20 and 40 ships typically loaded fertilizer from the broader Gulf region each week. That figure has fallen to around five ships per week, said Serena Piazzo, dry bulk shipping market analyst at ship broker Ifchor Galbraiths.

“If this really is the end of the US-Iran ceasefire, it means that the fertilizer market’s biggest problem will be shipowner confidence,” Piazzo said.

Brazil’s urea imports fell 32 percent in the first half of 2026 as farmers delayed purchases during earlier conflict, said Alexis Maxwell, senior agriculture analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Urea prices in New Orleans reached their highest level in a month as of July 10, rising 6.2 percent from the prior week—the largest weekly gain in more than three months, Bloomberg Green Markets data show.

Dry bulk traffic through the strait has stayed well below pre-conflict levels despite an initial post-ceasefire surge in departures.

The subdued flow indicates a smaller pool of available vessels for fertilizer cargoes, according to Bloomberg. Maria Antip, a fertilizer pricing analyst at Bloomberg Green Markets, said constraints center on logistics, freight and marine insurance rather than production capacity.