{"id":804633,"date":"2026-07-16T20:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T20:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/804633\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T20:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T20:15:15","slug":"iran-war-strait-of-hormuz-closure-cuts-off-crucial-commodities-for-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/804633\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran war: Strait of Hormuz closure cuts off crucial commodities for Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the US<\/a> hurled itself into a war alongside Israel against Iran<\/a> earlier this year, much of the rest of the world abruptly learned the significance of the phrase \u201cStrait of Hormuz\u201d.<\/p>\n

About a fifth of the world\u2019s pre-war oil supply passed through the narrow waterway, which Iran<\/a> promptly shut down with attacks on commercial shipping.<\/p>\n

\"Conceptual<\/p>\n

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most critical energy supply routes.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

But while the oil understandably gets the headlines, the strait is a key artery for multiple other critical commodities that affect everything from our porridge to our smartphones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re refining crude oil, you make 10 different products,\u201d supply chain expert David Leaney told nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree of those are fuel<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s everything else you might not know Iran is squeezing off from the world when it shuts the strait.<\/p>\n

Natural gas<\/p>\n

Qatar produces about 20 per cent of the world\u2019s natural gas – a vital exporter for much of the world.<\/p>\n

Iran, however, targeted Qatar\u2019s production facilities early in its rounds of retaliatory bombing against US-friendly Gulf states, and quickly put them out of action.<\/p>\n

Unlike most of the world, Australia could, with a sufficiently jaded eye, see this as a silver lining.<\/p>\n

Leaney said the removal of Qatar from the global gas market made our own extensive reserves that much more strategically important.<\/p>\n

This became particularly evident during fears of a fuel crisis in early weeks of the war, when Australia was able to drive good bargains for fuel in exchange for natural gas, particularly in south-east Asia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s why we don\u2019t really have a fuel problem,\u201d Leaney said.<\/p>\n

And given the precariousness of the situation in the Middle East, Leaney said, it could remain an Australian advantage for a long time yet.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Qatar) are pretty amazing at rebuilding stuff when they throw money at it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it could be a year or more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s natural gas reserves have been a strategic boon.\u00a0Glenn Campbell<\/p>\n

Helium<\/p>\n

\u201cHelium is not just useful for incredibly funny squeaky voices at parties,\u201d Leaney said.<\/p>\n

The gas is also necessary for hi-tech applications, including the construction of semiconductor chips and even the operation of MRI scans.<\/p>\n

While Australia doesn\u2019t directly import helium, Taiwan, and specifically the world-leading Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, does.<\/p>\n

And those chips go into products like smartphones and AI devices that Australia does have a great deal of use for.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t stop things today, but we\u2019ll see pressure on prices, manufacturing delays,\u201d Leaney said.<\/p>\n

\"Tawian\"<\/p>\n

TSMC in Taiwan imports helium through the Persian Gulf.\u00a0nna\\josh.hohne<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be running low on helium.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he estimated there was only a small, unlikely chance that Australia\u2019s MRI machines would be affected.<\/p>\n

Construction materials<\/p>\n

Think PVC and plastic piping, all the plumbing going into new projects around the country – a lot of it is oil refining byproduct.<\/p>\n

The same goes for some metals needed for construction, and even tar and bitumen for roads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe costs of construction is going pretty nuts,\u201d Leaney said.<\/p>\n

The impact of the Iran war is a bit trickier to gauge in Australia in this case, as the national construction industry, particularly as relates to housing, was already facing myriad setbacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cCapacity and costs of construction were already a challenge to development feasibility before the closure of the Straight of Hormuz, due to labour shortages, planning delays, finance costs, and infrastructure mixed in with material costs,\u201d Urbis national housing sector lead Mark Dawson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conflict adds another layer of inflationary pressure via the cost of fuel and derivative materials and uncertainty around logistics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dawson said the delivery of housing was getting \u201chit from both sides\u201d, as builders were faced with higher costs while buyers struggled against higher interest rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we know that Australia already had a housing delivery problem, linked to feasibility \u2013 driven by higher costs and challenges in achieving the revenues required to overcome them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now we have an extra dimension of volatility from the conflict in the middle east.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUncertainty, risk, delays, higher input costs, and flow-on to higher contingency will likely be factored into new development assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Urea<\/p>\n

Given Australia\u2019s status as a food exporter, this chemical – vital to the production of both fertiliser and the clean running of diesel engines – did attract some headlines early in the war.<\/p>\n

And again, 20 per cent of it passes through the Strait of Hormuz – or did.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Winter crop plantings like wheat may have been affected.\u00a0iStock<\/p>\n

But Leaney said Australia was yet to feel the full impact, even if our farmers know it\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n

Critical shortages of urea in the early stages of the war had an impact on farmers looking to plant winter crops – including stapes like wheat, barley, oats, and canola.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia is a big importer of fertiliser through the Persian Gulf,\u201d Leaney said.<\/p>\n

The growing impact would become more evident towards the end of the year, Leaney said, when smaller crop yields push prices up all the way to the supermarket<\/a> shelves.<\/p>\n

He said the government had been putting \u201ca lot of effort\u201d into securing additional urea supplies; not just for fertiliser but for diesel exhaust additive AdBlue, which runs diesel engines cleaner and more efficiently.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout diesel, the country stops,\u201d Leaney said, pointing to the fuel\u2019s ubiquity in bulk transport vehicles such as semi-trailers and trains<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the US hurled itself into a war alongside Israel against Iran earlier this year, much of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-804633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}