The Strait of Hormuz is closed again. Few ships were leaving the waterway in the first place | CNN Business

The Strait of Hormuz is closed again, underscoring how fragile a reopening can be as only 25 ships exited the waterway on Thursday. Traffic through the critical channel slowed quickly, with nearly 500 ships and about 20,000 crew members stuck in the Persian Gulf for months. Even before Iran announced Saturday that the strait had closed again, operators had pulled back on sailings, and Friday's tanker count fell to single digits after the initial talks between Iran and the United States to work out ceasefire details were canceled. Thursday's traffic was the highest since mid-April when Iran briefly opened the Strait, yet it remained far below the 100-120 tankers that sailed daily before the war.