Hormuz War-Risk Premiums Double as Carriers Stack Emergency Surcharges on Gulf Cargo

By the Editor-in-Chief · NauticX · 27 July 2026

With US missiles striking across Iran and Houthi rockets reaching Saudi refineries, the cost of moving a box through the Gulf is being rewritten in real time — and the insurance market is rewriting it fastest.

Two Shipping Chokepoints Under Fire at Once

The security picture deteriorated sharply this week. US missiles struck targets across Iran as far as its Caspian coast, gCaptain reported via Reuters, after the President vowed military punishment over attacks at the mouth of the Red Sea. Tehran responded by firing at US bases in neighbouring states.

The maritime read-through is immediate. Hormuz tanker crossings slipped 65.5% week on week to their lowest in more than two months, per gCaptain, while Brent pushed above $100 a barrel on supply-disruption fear. Simultaneously, the Houthis claimed a missile strike near Saudi Aramco's 400,000-bpd Jizan refinery, according to PortNews.

How the Surcharge Stack Is Being Rebuilt, Line by Line

Maersk has moved most aggressively. Container News and PortNews report a Dry Emergency Freight of $1,800/TEU and $3,000/FEU, a $1,000 Hormuz transit fee per container, and revised Emergency Contingency Surcharges on Oman and UAE exports of up to $5,300/TEU from 1 August.

Fresh Peak Season Surcharges follow: $1,000/TEU and $2,000/FEU on Far East–Saudi Arabia from 10 August, and $250/TEU and $500/FEU on Far East–Europe and the Mediterranean from 3 August. CMA CGM, meanwhile, has lifted Middle East FAK rates to as much as $7,600/TEU and added a $1,500-per-container PSS from 1 August.

War-Risk Premiums and the Insurance Squeeze

Figure 1 — War-risk premium as a share of hull value, July 2026. NauticX visualisation from reported figures.

The sharper cost is in cover, not freight. Southern Red Sea war-risk premiums now exceed 1% of hull value, with some Saudi-linked vessels quoted up to 3%; Hormuz premiums that sat near 3% in early July are being marked toward 5% and beyond after the strikes, per market reporting.

The Lloyd's Market Association has added an optional clause letting underwriters cancel a policy if the owner pays a transit toll to Iran, Maritime Executive reports — a compliance shield that could, in practice, close the Iranian-waters route to otherwise neutral owners.

“The premium is no longer just the price of the risk; it is now the price of staying compliant. That is a different, stickier kind of cost.”

Why Some of This Premium May Prove Ephemeral

There is a credible case that part of the surcharge wave is opportunistic. Xeneta's Emily Stausbøll has noted, via Hellenic Shipping News, that carriers may use US–Iran tension and rising bunker costs as justification for surcharges despite limited actual operational disruption.

The physical evidence is mixed. Saudi Arabia told the UN Security Council that Houthi 'blockade' claims are fabricated, and gCaptain reports crude still flowing from Yanbu as a working Hormuz bypass. If routing holds up, the gap between quoted premium and realised disruption becomes a negotiating lever.

“Scrutinise every surcharge against the routing it claims to cover — a fee justified by a chokepoint your box never transits is a fee to contest.”

What Charterers Should Contest and What They Should Absorb

The disciplined approach is to separate genuine war-risk repricing, which must simply be budgeted, from event-driven surcharges whose operational basis is thin. Demand routing evidence before accepting Hormuz-linked charges on cargo that moves via alternative lanes.

On insurance, review the new LMA toll clause with your P&I and hull underwriters now: the compliance exposure around Iranian transit payments is a legal risk, not merely a commercial one.