A Chinese auto trader has “nearly 500” exported vehicles sitting idle in the Gulf of Oman, unable to complete delivery to Iran after the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz cut off the route into the Persian Gulf, according to Fast Technology.
The trader, identified by the Chinese business outlet as Li Xin, has lost all contact with the Iranian buyer since the conflict erupted.
The cargo — approximately 500 vehicles valued at roughly 60 million yuan ($8.7 million) — is stranded in the Gulf of Oman, unable to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
The vehicle brands in the shipment remain unknown.
Li Xin is seeking safe storage options while facing rising freight costs, with the broader industry described as having ground to a near standstill.
The case is among the first concrete examples of how the Strait of Hormuz disruption is hitting Chinese auto exporters at both the automaker and individual trader level.
Nine Days In
The disruption shows no sign of easing as Iran continues to launch retaliatory missile and drone strikes across Gulf states, with Bahrain, Kuwait, and the UAE.
Commercial shipping through the strait has been essentially paralysed since March 2, when a senior IRGC official declared the waterway closed and warned that any vessel attempting transit would be attacked.
The Joint Maritime Information Center reported Friday that only two commercial crossings had occurred in the prior 24 hours — neither of them tankers.
Before the conflict, average daily traffic ran to 138 ships.
By Friday’s close, Brent crude had settled at $92.69 per barrel, up 28% for the week — the largest weekly increase since the Covid-19 Pandemic in April 2020.
US crude surged 36%, its biggest weekly gain in the history.
The Trump administration announced a $20 billion maritime reinsurance facility on Friday, intended to backstop war-risk coverage for tanker owners willing to transit the strait.
The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday that the administration had no timeline for when the strait would be safe for commercial shipping.
A Market in Suspension
China shipped 1.39 million vehicles to Gulf countries in 2025, according to the China Passenger Car Association, making the Middle East the country’s second-largest overseas auto market.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE alone absorbed 874,000 of those vehicles, up more than 30% year on year.
Chinese freight agents working the Middle East route have described a week of near-total paralysis.
A Sina News investigation published Saturday described agents who received no response from Iranian counterparts after the conflict began — one describing a customer he had not heard from since the strikes.
According to Kpler, limited traffic continued in the strait early in the conflict, primarily ships flying Iranian or Chinese flags.
Brands Most Exposed
Among major automakers, Asian manufacturers carry the greatest direct exposure.
Bernstein, in a research note sent to clients earlier thos week, identified Toyota as the leading non-domestic presence in the Middle East at 17% of regional sales, followed by Hyundai Motor at 10% and the Chinese giant Chery at 5%.
As reported on Friday by EV, Bernstein identified Jianghuai (JAC), SAIC, Chery, Changan, and Great Wall Motor as the five Chinese automakers facing the greatest exposure to the Middle East conflict.
The five are the leading Chinese players inside Iran, the region’s largest automotive market, which accounts for roughly 38% of the approximately 3 million annual sales across the Middle East.
Western brands exited the country years ago under sanctions, leaving Chinese manufacturers to sharply increase their market share.
Chery alone holds an estimated 5% of Middle East regional sales, according to Bernstein, while JAC, SAIC, Changan, and Great Wall maintain significant presences inside the country alongside domestic automakers Iran Khodro and SAIPA.
“By far the biggest risk is that a prolonged war continues to drive up oil prices and undermine confidence in the global economy, crashing auto sales well beyond the Gulf,” Bernstein wrote.
Oil Prices
Goldman Sachs raised its Brent forecast for Q2 this week, citing five more days of near-zero Hormuz exports in its base case before a gradual recovery over the following month.
Under that scenario, the bank projects Brent averaging $76 per barrel in the second quarter of the year.
If disruption extends to five weeks, Goldman warned prices could reach $100 per barrel.
JPMorgan’s Natasha Kaneva, head of global commodities research, told clients that Gulf states could exhaust storage capacity and be forced into deeper production cuts, potentially spiking Brent to $120.
The China Passenger Car Association’s secretary-general Cui Dongshu has argued that short-term disruption will not alter the broader trajectory of Chinese auto exports.
