Shipowners Offer Six Months' Extra Pay to Recruit Crews for Hormuz Strait
Miles Bennett
Sinokor Group, the world's largest supertanker owner, is offering crew members six months' extra pay for a single Hormuz Strait round trip — a bounty that signals just how dangerous the passage has become.
How does the bonus work?
Sinokor's offer: complete one ≈30-day round trip — load crude in Saudi Arabia or Iraq, sail to the Gulf of Oman — and receive a bonus equal to six months' salary.
This means → for an ordinary seaman earning about $1,500/month, one voyage pays an extra ≈$9,000. For a captain earning up to $15,000/month, the bonus can reach $90,000.
Other companies offer less. Sources say some owners add up to 60 days' pay on a 30-day contract — roughly a third of Sinokor's package.
How dangerous is the strait right now?
UN International Maritime Organization data: since conflict erupted in late February, at least 59 merchant ships have been attacked in and around the Persian Gulf, killing 17 crew members.
Sinokor's offer went out last weekend — before Monday's latest round of attacks. In plain terms = the risk was already severe when the bonus was issued, and it has since escalated further.
Bloomberg ship-tracking shows a visible drop in Hormuz transit traffic, but some vessels are going dark — switching off satellite transponders — so the true count is hard to pin down.
With that much money on the table, will crews go?
Pradeep Chawla, president of maritime training body GlobalMET: "Many seafarers are choosing to disembark, but companies are still finding people willing to sail."
Ordinary seamen have the legal right to leave the vessel rather than enter a danger zone, and be replaced. This means → refusing is a protected choice; owners cannot compel anyone.
This reflects a deeper imbalance: even doubled bonuses fail to convince some crew, yet owners stand to earn millions of dollars per Hormuz round trip, and insurers are sharply raising transit premiums. The greatest physical risk falls on those with the least bargaining power.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.