As per extant reports there are around 2500 ships stranded in the Gulf of Hormuz, the operating expense of each ship is around 25,000 dollars per day. Multiply that by 2500 and you get $ 62.5 mn.
The insurance cover being charged for a fuel laden VLCC / Suezmax vessel is $14 mn. Iran is asking for $ 2 mn per ship for allowing free passage. As a ship owner what would you do, pay $14 mn as insurance and risk losing your ship, crew and cargo or pay $2 mn for safe passage? If 2500 ships pay 2 mn each, then Iran gets $5 bn as protection money.
Iran is also dictating that crude purchased using Chinese Yuan will be allowed passage without charges, thus directly challenging the dollar hegemony in world trade.
The biggest loser in this conflict, once the dust settles, will turn out to be America, all because they got sucked into a disastrous conflict by a cunning Israel.
