A quiet port, a loud atmosphere: Bandar Abbas running on fumes, not on paper.
Vessel density at the Iranian export terminal fell a further 22% WoW while tropospheric NO₂ over the adjacent refinery complex held flat — an implausible combination unless throughput is being rerouted onshore. Chinese-language shipping press is notably quiet.
- D-11 · 03 Apr AIS: aggregate vessel-hours at Bandar Abbas anchorage down -22.4% WoW, -41.1% vs 90-day trail.
- D-08 · 06 Apr Sentinel-5P NO₂ column steady at 218 µmol/m² (±4) — no corresponding decline. Nighttime radiance +7%.
- D-05 · 09 Apr OpenSky: three ████████ cargo rotations into ████████████, pattern unseen since Q3 2025.
- D-02 · 12 Apr Xinhua wire: silent on a tranche our Finnish desk expected; HS reports separately on █████████████.
- D-00 · 14 Apr Composite anomaly score crosses σ = 2.4. Historical base rate for headline within 10d: 63%.
What to watch next
- Reuters or Bloomberg headline from a Dubai dateline within 72 hours.
- Second-derivative spike in NO₂ over the ███████ inland corridor.
- OFAC SDN update — watch for entity names ending in ██████.