Twenty-eight Indian vessels carrying 778 seafarers are trapped in the Persian Gulf as Iran blocks the Hormuz Strait. The numbers tell a story about preparedness that extends far beyond this crisis.
According to Rajesh Kumar Sinha, Special Secretary in the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, twenty-four ships with 677 crew members sit in the western portion of the strait. Four more vessels carrying 101 individuals are positioned on the eastern side. What the ministry hasn’t disclosed: how many of these vessels carry cargo for Indian companies, and what those companies are telling their boards right now.
The Hormuz Strait handles roughly 21% of global petroleum liquids. When it closes, the world notices. But for Indian companies dependent on Gulf trade routes, this isn’t just a geopolitical headline. It’s a stress test of their business continuity planning.
I’ve reviewed enough enterprise risk assessments to know the pattern. Companies model cyber attacks, pandemic disruptions, regulatory changes. Geopolitical blockades get a paragraph in the risk register, filed under “low probability, high impact.” The probability just changed.
The real question isn’t about these 28 ships. It’s about the companies whose supply chains run through chokepoints they can’t control. How many Indian manufacturers are discovering their “diversified” supplier base all ships through the same strait? How many commodity traders are explaining to boards why their hedging strategies didn’t account for physical delivery failures?
The ministry’s response reveals another blind spot. Tracking vessels is operational management. Understanding commercial exposure requires asking different questions: What cargo is aboard? Which companies face delivery delays? What alternative routes exist, and at what cost premium?
This blockade will end. The supply chain vulnerabilities it exposes won’t disappear as quickly. Companies that treated geopolitical risk as someone else’s problem now face board-level questions about operational resilience. The smart ones are already modeling scenarios beyond this crisis.
What happens when the next chokepoint closes? The Suez Canal handled this stress test in 2021. The Malacca Strait could be next. Companies building genuinely resilient supply chains don’t just diversify suppliers. They diversify trade routes, transportation modes, and geographic exposure patterns.
The 778 Indian seafarers stuck in those vessels represent more than a diplomatic challenge. They’re evidence that global trade flows through predictable bottlenecks, controlled by actors with their own interests.
My Boardroom Takeaway
Directors should be asking management three questions right now: First, what percentage of our supply chain transits through single-point-of-failure routes like Hormuz? Second, what alternative logistics options exist, and what’s the cost impact of switching? Third, how do we stress-test our business continuity plans against scenarios where multiple chokepoints close simultaneously? The companies that answer these questions before the next crisis will outperform those still discovering their vulnerabilities in real time.