How Maersk and the U.S. military got a ship to pass through Strait of Hormuz

The chief executive of Maersk, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, said Thursday that one of its commercial vessels was able to successfully pass through the Strait of Hormuz thanks to a “very well executed mission” by the U.S. Navy.

Maersk confirmed earlier in the week that Alliance Fairfax, a U.S.-flagged ship operated by Farrell Lines, a subsidiary of Maersk Line Ltd., or MLL, completed its transit through the narrow waterway and the Persian Gulf without incident on Monday, accompanied by the U.S. military.

In doing so, the vessel became one of a relatively small number of ships to have safely passed through the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Israeli-led war against Iran started on Feb. 28.

Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc said the company had deliberately taken a “very cautious approach” during the Middle East crisis, opting not to take any crossings despite several of its ships being left stranded in the region.

“In this case here, we were approached by the U.S. government and the U.S. Navy specifically saying that they wanted to take some ships out,” Clerc told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Thursday.

“We went through intense preparation together with them, looked at all the aspects of the mission and whether we could stand-in for the safety of the crew if we were sending the ship along in that operation,” he continued.

“So, a very well executed mission by the U.S. military. And thank God for that, because then it means that the ship is free, and the crew now can get back to doing the work that they want to do and are supposed to do — rather than be stuck in the Gulf,” Clerc said.

The mission came about as the U.S. military sought to deliver on President Donald Trump’s short-lived “Project Freedom,” an initiative designed to free ships that had been stranded by Iran’s closure of the strait, a narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

U.S. Central Command said via social media on Monday that two U.S.-flagged merchant vessels had successfully transited through the Strait of Hormuz, adding that U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers were operating in the region.

Trump subsequently called off “Project Freedom” on Tuesday, however, saying in a social media post that the movement of ships through the key maritime chokepoint would be paused to see whether the U.S. and Iran could agree to bring an end to the conflict.

Maersk’s CEO said the company still has eight ships trapped in the Persian Gulf, noting this is a small number relative to its size.

“But this is obviously a situation where eventually we’re going to need to find a solution for all of these ships,” Clerc said.

“Some of them are supposed to stay in the Gulf and work there to move cargo inside the Gulf, but for most of them, they are trapped, and we would like to be able to employ them outside the Gulf, rather than have them stuck there,” he added.

Maersk also reported underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $1.75 billion for the first three months of the year, in line with a consensus estimate compiled by LSEG. It marked a 35% decline from the same period a year earlier.

— CNBC’s Chloe Taylor contributed to this report.