Oil tanker captains navigating the Strait of Hormuz are reportedly being paid rates equivalent to $100,000 a month, along with bonuses of up to $50,000 per transit, as attacks on vessels escalate amid the U.S.-Iran conflict.
Ship Owners Offering ‘Danger Money’
According to a report by the Financial Times on Tuesday, ship owners were offering captains “danger money” in a bid to have them continue taking vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
Ordinary sailors were receiving pay four to six times more with each Strait of Hormuz transit, the report said. Maritime security company Vanguard, cited in the report, said that at least 14 attacks on vessels had taken place in the waterway since September 20.
Freight rates for tankers passing through the waterway have reached a record $1.3 million per day, the report said, up from roughly $20,000-$50,000 per day before the crisis. Ships were navigating the Strait by turning off their GPS systems at night.
However, Manoj Yadav, the Secretary General of the Forward Seamen’s Union of India, alleged in the report that some shipowners were pressuring unwilling seafarers to traverse the waterway, threatening to replace the crew and cut wages.
War Insurance costs have also skyrocketed, with tanker owners paying up to 10% of the hull’s value as insurance, and ship fuel prices also reaching new highs of $686 per ton, a 67% surge, the report said.
Iran Says Strait of Hormuz Will Not Reopen
Amid the uncertainty, Iran’s Security Chief Mohsen Rezaee said that the Strait of Hormuz will not be reopened through pressure, criticizing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent‘s economic restrictions on Tehran as part of the Operation Economic Outcast.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf mocked Bessent with a Halloween-themed post on the social media platform X, sharing an image of a ghost that was in the shape of a graph that showed U.S. economic indicators like diesel prices, ten-year Treasury yields and more.
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