Renewed disruption in the Strait of Hormuz is holding back a recovery in fertilizer shipments, Alkagesta said in a company press release dated 24 June 2026. The fertilizer trader reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps declared the waterway closed on 21 June following Israeli strikes on Lebanon, reversing a brief improvement after the 14 June US-Iran agreement. Citing ship-tracking data, the release said vessel transits dropped from 35 on Saturday to 12 on Sunday.
Alkagesta estimated that roughly a third of internationally traded fertilizer passes through the strait, leaving supply exposed to disruption at a single shipping chokepoint. According to its account, urea prices exceeded $800/tonne FOB Egypt at the height of the interruption, force majeure provisions were triggered in supply contracts, and producers in South Asia curtailed output as access to Qatari gas tightened. The release presented these developments as evidence of limited alternative capacity across the supply chain.
The company said the temporary reopening had not brought shipping back to normal. Tanker movements reached 25 on 19 June, compared with a pre-war level exceeding 100 daily transits, before the renewed closure. Those tanker figures were presented separately from the broader vessel counts. Alkagesta argued that reopening the route would not, on its own, immediately restore physical fertilizer flows or pre-war operating conditions.
The release also cited FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu’s remarks at the organisation’s 181st Council session, where he described the closure as a threat to global food security and put the share of global fertilizer exports using the strait at 20–30%. It said G7 agriculture ministers had held an extraordinary meeting to coordinate efforts on diversifying supply and improving market transparency.
For buyers, Alkagesta emphasised the risk that delayed deliveries could miss seasonal agricultural requirements. The company said its fertilizer desk trades nitrogen, phosphate and speciality products and seeks long-term supply relationships across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and emerging agricultural markets. It described product specifications, storage, ports, inland transport and regulatory requirements as parts of its logistics work, while identifying energy and ammonia prices as important influences on nitrogen production costs. These descriptions reflect the company’s own account of its activities.