EP.4 – The Global High Tea Series | The Hormuz Disruption and Its Impact on India’s Maritime Trade Routes

Introduction

The disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz during the 2026 Iran war presented one of the most significant challenges to global maritime trade in recent decades. For India, the crisis extended beyond concerns over energy supplies. It tested the resilience of the country’s shipping routes, logistics networks, and trade corridors as commercial traffic through one of the world’s busiest maritime chokepoints became increasingly uncertain. Although the June 2026 ceasefire has enabled the gradual resumption of shipping, higher insurance costs, security concerns, and continuing uncertainty have raised important questions about how India prepares for future disruptions to critical sea lanes. 

The conflict forced India to reconfigure its maritime logistics architecture in real time. As routes west of the Strait of Hormuz became commercially unviable during much of the crisis, shipping activity along alternative corridors east of the strait and through the Red Sea increased sharply. The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways recorded the number of shipping services operating along these routes rising from 127 in February 2026 to 257 in April, before easing only slightly to 245 in May. Rather than reflecting a deliberate diversification strategy, this surge represented an improvised reconfiguration of India’s maritime trade routes under crisis conditions. While the rapid adjustment demonstrated operational adaptability, it also exposed the limited depth of India’s contingency planning for major disruptions to critical sea lanes.

The crisis also exposed the limits of long-standing “Hormuz workaround” infrastructure, both India’s own and the Gulf region’s. India’s flagship hedge, the Iranian-operated port of Chabahar, developed over the years as a gateway into Central Asia that bypassed both Hormuz risk and Pakistan, failed to function as a viable alternative once the US blockade logic widened beyond the strait itself to

Iranian-port enforcement more broadly, and Chabahar’s previously tolerated “hybrid” status had become “more of a liability than an asset for India.” The Gulf’s own bypass pipelines fared little better: Saudi Arabia’s Petroline and the UAE’s Habshan-Fujairah pipeline (Adcop) are the two major routes built specifically to avoid the strait, but Adcop’s terminal at Fujairah was repeatedly struck by Iranian drones in March, setting storage tanks alight and suspending loadings, while even at full capacity neither pipeline can replace more than a fraction of normal Hormuz throughout.

The Hormuz crisis has demonstrated that resilience is not simply about securing energy supplies but about ensuring the continuity of maritime trade under increasingly uncertain geopolitical conditions. The experience has raised important questions about India’s preparedness for future disruptions, the viability of alternative trade corridors, and the investments needed to build a more resilient maritime trading system.

Key Takeaways

1. Maritime Disruptions Extend Beyond Energy Security

The Strait of Hormuz crisis demonstrated that geopolitical tensions affect more than oil supplies. Higher freight costs, increased insurance premiums, longer transit times, and supply chain disruptions exposed the vulnerability of global maritime trade, with significant implications for India’s economy.

2. Diversification is Essential for Resilience

The crisis highlighted that relying on a single alternative route or infrastructure project is insufficient. India must diversify trade routes, logistics networks, energy suppliers, and maritime partnerships to reduce dependence on critical chokepoints.

3. Alternative Corridors Have Limitations

Projects such as Chabahar Port and the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) remain strategically valuable but cannot fully replace the capacity of the Strait of Hormuz during major disruptions. A broader connectivity strategy is therefore necessary.

4. Strengthen Domestic Maritime Infrastructure

Building resilience requires expanding India’s port capacity, improving cargo handling, enhancing customs efficiency, increasing strategic petroleum reserves, and developing deeper domestic transhipment capabilities through a “Port First” approach.

5. Expand India’s Maritime Capacity

India should invest in a larger Indian-flagged merchant fleet, reduce dependence on foreign shipping, strengthen logistics infrastructure, and improve coordination between commercial shipping and maritime security agencies.

6. Institutionalise Long-Term Contingency Planning

The discussion emphasised moving beyond short-term crisis responses towards institutionalised planning that integrates immediate preparedness with medium- and long-term infrastructure, logistics, and trade strategies.

7. Deepen Strategic Maritime Partnerships

Closer cooperation with partners such as the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and other Indian Ocean countries will be critical for securing shipping routes, ensuring energy supplies, and strengthening maritime resilience.

8. Accelerate the Energy Transition

Reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels through renewable energy, increased storage capacity, and diversified energy sources will enhance India’s long-term economic and strategic security.

9. Maritime Security is an Economic Imperative

Maritime resilience is no longer solely a naval concern. It is central to protecting India’s trade, industrial growth, supply chains, and overall economic stability in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical environment.

10. Build a Multi-Layered Maritime Strategy

India’s future maritime strategy should combine diversified connectivity, stronger ports, enhanced logistics, strategic reserves, industrial collaboration, renewable energy, and robust regional partnerships to withstand future geopolitical disruptions.

Speaker

Dr Alvite Ningthoujam

Deputy Director and Assistant Professor

Symbiosis School of International Studies (SSIS)

Dr Dhritishree Bordalai

Senior Research Associate, International Relations

Centre for Public Policy Research

Dr Dhritishree Bordalai holds a PhD from the Centre for European Studies (CES), School of International Studies (SIS), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. She has a Certificate in Public Policy and Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIM-K), and has been awarded the UGC-DAAD Short-Term Scholarship during her PhD at the Otto-Suhr-Institut für Politikwissenschaft (OSI), Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.

She has attended several national and international conferences in her area of research and presented a paper at the Young Researchers Conference in JNU. Her core areas of research are migration, security and refugee studies.

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