Iran conflict snarls 10% of world’s container fleet: ONE CEO
Iran conflict snarls 10% of world’s container fleet: ONE CEO
Carriers will begin to reshuffle cargo and prioritize empty vessels, which will impact freight rates, Ocean Network Express executive Jeremy Nixon said at TPM26 by S&P Global.
Published March 3, 2026 Kelly Stroh Editor Peter Tirschwell, VP of maritime and trade at S&P Global Market Intelligence (left), sits beside Jeremy Nixon, CEO of Ocean Network Express (right), at a TPM26 by S&P Global session on March 2, 2026, in Long Beach, California. Kelly Stroh/Supply Chain Dive Listen to the article 2 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback.LONG BEACH, Calif. — Cargo backlogs will build up at major hubs and key locations in Asia and Europe as ocean carriers halt bookings to the Middle East — one of the many broad ripple effects of the military conflict between Iran, the U.S. and Israel according to Ocean Network Express CEO Jeremy Nixon.
Currently, about 750 ships are backed up due to the Strait of Hormuz closure, 100 of which are container vessels, the CEO said at TPM26 by S&P Global. This means that about 10% of the global container fleet is being impacted by the closure.
In turn, vessels with cargo that planned to traverse the Strait of Hormuz will have to turn around and move to locations such as Colombo, Sri Lanka, among others, Nixon said. Freight rates will also be on the rise, he added.
Exports from Asia will face the brunt of the impact, and major port hubs in the region will start to lose their fluidity, including the Port of Singapore, he said. This will lead to an immediate cessation of bookings and a halt to cargo movements already in terminals.
“So, that's going to give a few headaches to the port operators in terms of their stack utilizations, the fluidity of their terminal, and then carriers are going to have to try to prioritize empties and move other cargo around,” ONE’s CEO said. “It'll inevitably have an impact on freight rates.”
Fuel prices are also rapidly escalating because of the conflict, Nixon noted.
He added that if the Strait of Hormuz doesn’t open after 25 days, Middle East oil production sites will start curtailing activity “because they’ve got nowhere to put the oil and the gas.”
“So, that's one aspect,” the CEO said. “I think the other one is we'd be looking at a really significant oil shock in terms of price — I think $100 a barrel is quite possible.”
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