Despite Iran’s warnings, ships use the Oman route to transit the Hormuz.

Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz eased from Wednesday’s high but ships were still using a route not allowed by Iran, even though a projectile hit a vessel, tracking systems indicated on Friday.

Kpler’s tracking software showed at least 42 commodity vessels including tankers carrying oil, gas and dry bulk such as fertilisers crossed on Thursday, down from a peak of 57 on Wednesday.

Ten of those ships came into the Gulf, while 32 left. 42 vessels, half of them, took a southern route down the coast of Oman.

By Friday afternoon, another 29 commodity vessels had already passed through the strait, with 10 entering the Gulf and 19 exiting, Kpler said.

Seventeen of those ships used the Omani route even as a Singapore-flagged cargo ship reported being hit while traversing the corridor on Thursday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said.

Marine Traffic, a tracking platform, said some 15 tankers and cargo vessels passed through the strait between 1410 GMT, when the incident occurred, and midnight Thursday.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Thursday that Oman and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) announced the new channel without informing Tehran and cautioned vessels against utilising it.Only the transit routes authorised by the Islamic Republic of Iran are allowed in the Strait of Hormuz, it claimed.

The attack on the cargo ship caused the postponement of an operation to rescue some 11,000 seafarers stranded by the closing of the vital channel, the IMO said.

Since Tuesday, roughly 115 boats and 2,500 seafarers had been evacuated until the operation was suspended, the UN maritime body said Friday.

IMO secretary-general Arsenio Dominguez said he took the decision to stop evacuations after “consultations with some countries, particularly in the region”.

Traffic has been slowly increasing across the strait since 15 June, which generally accounts for about a quarter of the world’s oil and gas exports.

Kpler said in an X post that there were 70 confirmed crossings by all vessels on Wednesday vs about 125 transits in peacetime.

And Brent North Sea crude oil, the international benchmark, dropped more than five percent on Friday on optimism over the reopening of the strait.

Experts, however, warned against saying that the crisis was over as talks on a long-term settlement between Iran and the US continue.Some have taken the sharp increase in shipping across the Strait of Hormuz as a sign that the region is returning to normal. “It’s not,” said Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of maritime publication Lloyd’s List on Friday.What we are seeing is a pent-up demand release from a ceasefire – a ketchup-bottle burst of tonnage. “The Strait of Hormuz may be busier, but it is not any more secure. “Until the terms of any post-ceasefire regime are known – and respected – the idea of a return to normality remains more hope than forecast,” he continued.