BEIJING: Chinese shipping giant Cosco, which operates one of the world’s biggest oil tanker fleets, announced it was suspending services to and from Gulf countries from Wednesday, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait.

Other shipping giants including Maersk and MSC have alr­eady announced that they have halted operations in the region.

The state-owned, Shanghai-based firm is among several major shipping groups that have halted vessel operations in the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global energy transit.

Cosco Shipping Lines said it would “suspend all new bookings” for routes through the Strait of Hormuz “with immediate effect until further notice”.

The company blamed the disruption on “the escalating conflicts in the Middle East region and the resultant restrictions on maritime traffic” in the strait.

New worldwide bookings bound for Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and parts of the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been halted, the company said in a statement.

It has also suspended services from Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and parts of the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah, along with the UAE’s Khor Fakkan and Fujairah, are excluded from the suspensions and can be reached without passage through the Hormuz Strait.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2026