Sea shipments through the Strait of Hormuz: what the temporary corridor changes for your contract, route and paperwork

26 August 2026Trade Pulse

If your cargo moves by sea through the Persian Gulf on its way to a buyer in Russia or the CIS, plan the next two months with reservations: the corridor through the Strait of Hormuz is described as temporary, and officially the strait remains closed. For an exporter this is not geopolitics but a list of very concrete items — the Incoterms rule in your contract, who pays for demurrage and transshipment, which transport documents will have to be reissued, and what extra paperwork your Russian buyer will start asking you for because freight and insurance have gone up. A separate risk is timing: your buyer's import permits, their onward contracts and the shelf life of the goods will not wait for the corridor to open. Below is what actually changes for your shipment and what is worth doing now, without waiting for news about a permanent route.

What changes for sea shipments through the Persian Gulf

Tehran and Muscat are working on a memorandum concerning the Strait of Hormuz. It covers a temporary shipping corridor and joint demining of the route. The right of passage is granted to merchant vessels only; no such possibility is provided for warships. Entry into the Persian Gulf along this route runs through Iranian waters, and the exit through the territorial waters of Oman.

The key point for planning: the corridor has been announced as temporary. Within 30 to 60 days the parties intend to discuss a permanent route that will replace the current one. At the same time the Iranian side stresses that the country remains in a state of war and that the strait is still closed, and that the memorandum with Oman does not in itself open it. Opening is tied to the implementation of the June arrangements: lifting the naval blockade, ending hostilities and settling the situation in Yemen. In parallel, a ceasefire regime providing for free navigation in the strait was reported to have been agreed.

For an exporter this means one thing: any transit time you quote on this direction right now is a probability, not a commitment. The vessel may take the temporary corridor, may sit at anchorage, or may be rerouted with transshipment at another port — and each scenario lands differently on your documents, your costs and the date your buyer can actually clear the goods.

Contract and Incoterms: which rules apply to sea carriage only

When the route becomes unpredictable, everything comes down to the exact point where risk passes from seller to buyer. This is where the two groups of Incoterms rules matter. FAS, FOB, CFR and CIF apply to sea and inland waterway transport only — they are tied to the ship's rail and the port. The universal rules — EXW, FCA, CPT, CIP, DAP, DPU, DDP — work with any mode of transport and let you switch the shipment to rail or road without rewriting the contract.

What this means for you as the shipper. On FOB, risk and cost after loading on board sit with the buyer, including demurrage, detention and the cost of moving the box onto another route — which is precisely why the buyer will come back asking you to postpone the shipment, share the surcharge or change the terms. On CIF you pay for freight and insurance, yet risk still passes at the port of shipment, while the carrier's war risk surcharges will be billed onward to the buyer. On DAP or CPT the position reverses: delivery to the agreed point is your responsibility, so every day the vessel waits is your exposure, not your buyer's.

Do not schedule shipments as if the strait were already open: the corridor is declared temporary and the closed status of the strait has not been lifted. If your sales contract carries a hard delivery date with no force majeure wording and no right to change the route, the penalty falls on you, not on the carrier.

It is also worth revisiting the type of foreign trade contract you are working under: international sale of goods contract, supply contract, agency and commission contracts, distribution agreement, tolling agreement for processing supplied raw materials. The type determines who is the shipper of record in the documents and who can claim compensation from whom if the delivery window is missed. If the sale runs through a trading house — China being the most frequent case — check who is named as shipper in the bill of lading and whether that matches the party to the contract. When documents are reissued through an intermediary, the mismatch surfaces at Russian customs: the cargo sits, and the missing explanation has to come from your side of the chain.

If the route has to change, alternatives are priced in advance, not at the moment the container is already stuck: sea freight via other ports with transshipment, rail carriage along the land corridors, road transport, or air freight for the critical part of the consignment. Each option has its own cost, its own transit time and its own set of documents.

Sea shipments through the Strait of Hormuz: what the temporary corridor changes for your contract, route and paperwork

A temporary corridor through the Strait of Hormuz is discussed for merchant vessels only, while the strait itself officially remains closed

Situation by situation: what it means for your shipment

Situation	Where the risk arises	What to do
Cargo already at sea, vessel waiting for passage	Demurrage, detention, missed delivery window with your buyer	Ask the line in writing for the vessel status and the planned route, notify the buyer, keep the correspondence for any future claim
Shipment not yet made, terms FOB or CIF	Risk passes at the port of loading, so the buyer carries the consequences and will push back on price and dates	Agree a new shipment date with the buyer or a move to DAP/CPT, and add a route change clause
Vessel rerouted with transshipment in a third country	New transport documents, questions about direct shipment at Russian customs	Arrange a through bill of lading or obtain documents at the transshipment port confirming that no processing took place
Freight and insurance rose after the deal was closed	Higher customs value on the buyer's side, therefore higher duty and VAT	Send the buyer the carrier invoice, proof of payment and the insurance policy promptly, in a form that can be filed with the declaration
Goods with limited shelf life or seasonal goods	Consignment loses value, buyer's permits expire before arrival	Price air delivery for the critical part of the lot, check the remaining validity of conformity documents against the new arrival date

Documents your Russian buyer will now ask you for

The clearance procedure in Russia does not change; what changes is the contents of the document pack, and most of those documents originate with you. In outline, clearance runs as follows: preparation of documents and verification of the HS code, calculation of customs value and payments, filing of the declaration, format and logical control, a document request and physical inspection where required, then release. A change of route hits two points in that chain.

The first is transport documents. When the box is transshipped at an intermediate port, a new bill of lading appears, and the data in it must match the invoice and the packing list — shipper, consignee, marks, number of packages, weight. The certificate of origin is not affected by the route, since origin is determined by the goods and not by the way they travelled. However, when goods are transshipped in a third country, customs is entitled to request confirmation that the cargo stayed under customs control and was not subjected to processing. Such a document — commonly a non-manipulation certificate — is issued at the port of transshipment, and obtaining it after the fact is difficult. Arranging it is the shipper's job, and it is one of the most common reasons a rerouted consignment ends up sitting at a temporary storage warehouse.

The second is customs value. Freight, insurance and war risk surcharges form part of the value up to the point of arrival at the customs territory. More expensive carriage raises the base for duty and VAT even though the price of the goods has not changed. Every additional charge has to be supported by documents: the carrier's invoice, payment documents, the insurance policy. Expect your buyer to ask for these in a specific, itemised form, and expect the request to be urgent — by the time it reaches you, the declaration is usually already filed.

One more thing worth knowing about the receiving side. If the cargo is held up for a long time, your buyer is not obliged to clear it immediately: a customs warehouse allows the goods to be stored without paying import charges, and customs transit allows them to be moved under control to an inland office. This affects when the goods can actually be sold, and therefore when you get paid under deferred payment terms — worth discussing before the situation arises rather than after. Separately, check with the buyer whether the consignment needs EAEU conformity documents and how long the existing ones remain valid, because a delay of several weeks can outlive a certificate. The full sequence on the Russian side is described on our customs clearance page.

What the exporter should do

Get written confirmation from the line or the forwarder of the current vessel status and the planned route — verbal assurances cannot be attached to a claim.
Reread your contract and check the Incoterms rule: on FOB and CIF the consequences of a delay after shipment sit with the buyer, on DAP, CPT and DDP they sit with you.
Check the force majeure wording and whether the carrier has the right to change the route — that clause decides who pays for the transshipment.
Agree with the buyer either a postponement of shipments not yet made, or a move to a universal rule that allows a change of transport mode.
Prepare the supporting documents on transport costs in advance: carrier invoice, proof of payment, insurance policy, breakdown of war risk surcharges — your buyer needs them for the customs value.
If transshipment is likely, instruct the forwarder now to arrange a through bill of lading or a non-manipulation certificate at the port of transshipment.
Check that shipper, consignee and cargo details in the draft bill of lading match the contract and the invoice exactly, especially if the sale runs through a trading house.
Price the alternatives: transshipment via other ports, rail, road, and air freight for the critical part of the consignment.
Notify the buyer in writing about a possible shift in dates, and ask them to confirm the remaining validity of permits and certificates for the new arrival date.

Frequently asked questions

Is the strait already open for our containers?
Formally no. The Iranian side states that the strait remains closed, and the corridor being discussed with Oman is temporary in nature. Passage is provided for merchant vessels only, and the memorandum by itself does not amount to an opening.

How long will the temporary route last?
It has been announced that within 30 to 60 days the parties will discuss a permanent route to replace the temporary one. No specific transition dates were named, so it is safer to quote your buyer transit times with a margin.

Will the duty rate change because of the delay?
The rate is tied to the HS code and the country of origin and does not depend on the route. The amount payable will rise, though, if freight and insurance went up: they are included in the customs value and increase the base for duty and VAT on the buyer's side.

Does the certificate of origin have to be reissued after transshipment?
The certificate itself remains valid. But when goods are transshipped in a third country, customs may request confirmation that they were not processed and stayed under customs control. That document is obtained at the port of transshipment, which is why it has to be arranged while the cargo is there.

Summary

The temporary corridor through the Strait of Hormuz is being discussed for merchant vessels only, the strait itself officially remains closed, and a permanent route is to be agreed within the next 30 to 60 days. For an exporter shipping to Russia and the CIS this is a reason to recheck the Incoterms rule, the force majeure and route change clauses, and to be ready to document the higher freight and insurance that will go into your buyer's customs value. Check the transport document set for the case of transshipment in a third country, arrange the non-manipulation certificate in advance, and price the alternative legs of the route. Send us a request and we will go through your specific shipment.

We will work out an alternative route for your shipment and handle clearance on the Russian side end to end, so your buyer gets the cargo released instead of a document request.

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