International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez has urged ships to avoid transiting the Strait of Hormuz and trading in the region as attacks on commercial vessels continue to escalate.
He warned that safe shipping operations cannot resume until the underlying causes of the conflict are addressed.
Dominguez said in an interview on Friday that the organization's advice remained unchanged: ships should avoid transiting the Strait of Hormuz and trading in the region. Dominguez noted the situation continues to escalate in the region, adding that more than 110 vessels have been hit since the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran began in late February, while at least 24 seafarers have been confirmed dead.
Attacks on commercial vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz have intensified recently, with the security situation continuing to deteriorate, according to the IMO.
A total of 12 attacks on vessels were reported in the strait and nearby waters between Oct 5 and 11, the highest weekly figure since the conflict began. On Oct 11 alone, six vessels came under attack.
Dominguez expressed concern that too many shipowners and operators continued to take risks despite the dangers.
He warned that prolonged disruption to shipping could have wider consequences beyond the maritime sector, leading to an even bigger impact on global economy, supplies of energy sources and food security.
IMO chief urges ships to avoid Strait of Hormuz amid escalating attacks
IMO chief urges ships to avoid Strait of Hormuz amid escalating attacks
As demand for inference computing rises, Chinese companies are fighting through bottlenecks by upgrading technologies.
Lanxin Computing in south China's Shenzhen City has developed chips that can run large models on all-in-one AI computers.
"In inference computing, the key factor now is token-generation efficiency. With the rapid growth of AI agents, demand is surging across government services, healthcare, finance and other sectors. Our products are currently in short supply," said Xie Shengluo, co-founder of Lanxin Computing.
Electricity supply for chips is also facing pressure. In high-power applications at computing centers, conventional silicon-based solutions are increasingly challenged by energy losses and heat management.
Wan Yuxi, director of Shenzhen Pinghu Laboratory, leads a team that has developed a gallium nitride crystal film on an 8-inch silicon carbide substrate. It can substantially improve both efficiency and power-delivery capacity when used to charge GPUs.
"Previously, the efficiency of the silicon-based gallium nitride devices we used was only around 85 percent. Devices made using our new platform can raise that to around 95 percent. What does that mean? It means by 2035, we estimate that AIDCs (AI computing data centers) in China alone could require as much electricity as the output of five Three Gorges hydropower stations. After a technology upgrade, the energy losses alone could be reduced by an amount equivalent to the electricity generated by half a Three Gorges station," said Wan.
Chinese companies upgrade inference computing technologies to meet AI demands
