LONDON - Only three ships risked crossing the Strait of Hormuz April 8, highlighting the extreme caution about using the key waterway even though both the US and Iran have said the strategic chokepoint would reopen.

Apart from the three ships which transited the strait after a two-week ceasefire in the Middle East war was announced overnight, only a handful of other vessels are on course to do the same, according to ship tracking website MarineTraffic.

That does not imply a major change, with an average of eight commodities carriers transiting the strait daily since March 1, according to maritime data provider Kpler.

More than 800 ships are stuck in the Gulf, according to maritime intelligence company Lloyd’s List Intelligence, and traffic in the strait has fallen by around 95 percent.

“Everybody on the shipping side is obviously nervous,” Lloyd’s List editor-in-chief Richard Meade told AFP.

For crews who have been stuck for weeks aboard ships, the agreement between the US and Iran is the first sign of hope.

“The ceasefire definitely soothes our nerves, hoping it stays this way. The crew is finally taking a breather,” an off-duty captain of a ship, whose crew is stranded off Qatar, told AFP.

Leaving the Gulf now “would not be advisable” without coordination with the United States and Iran, Mr Jakob Larsen, chief safety and security officer at shipping association Bimco, told AFP.

He was echoing the advice from other shipping industry voices who say the situation is still too uncertain for any major moves.

“We still don’t know if the area has really become safe to pass through,” the Japanese Shipowners’ Association told AFP on April 8.