Up to 80 vessels linked to Hong Kong shipping firms are currently immobilized in or around the Strait of Hormuz, trapping approximately 1,600 seafarers, according to the Hong Kong Shipowners Association.
The trade body has issued urgent guidance to its members, highlighting the extreme difficulty of navigating the waterway amid escalating geopolitical friction between the United States and Iran.
The association described the predictability of the security situation as "very low," urging industry participants to exercise heightened caution.
This assessment comes as commercial traffic through the chokepoint has effectively ground to a halt, with only a handful of vessels managing to transit in recent hours.
The paralysis represents a significant operational bottleneck for global energy flows, given that the strait serves as the primary conduit for a substantial share of the world's seaborne oil trade.
The disruption follows a period of on-and-off tensions that have persisted for more than five months, but the current standstill marks a sharp contraction in movement.