A US military blockade of Iranian ports, now fully in force, is sending shockwaves through global energy markets, pushing oil prices to levels not seen in years and inflicting broad economic pain on import-dependent nations. The disruption, rooted in the conflict that began in late February following US-Israeli strikes on Iran, has transformed an already tense geopolitical situation into a full-blown energy emergency.

The scale of the supply shock is stark. The International Energy Agency (IEA), the Paris-based body that monitors global energy flows, has estimated that world oil supply fell by approximately 10.1 million barrels per day in March — roughly one-tenth of total global output — as a direct consequence of the Iranian crisis. That kind of reduction, if sustained, places enormous upward pressure on prices at every point in the supply chain, from crude extraction to consumer fuel costs.

The effects are already measurable in hard data. South Korea, a major energy importer that relies heavily on Middle Eastern crude, recorded its steepest monthly rise in import prices in more than 28 years in March. The country's import price index surged 16.1 percent from February, the sharpest monthly gain since January 1998. Dubai crude — South Korea's oil benchmark — soared 87.9 percent month-on-month to $128.52 per barrel in March. In won terms, crude import prices rose 88.5 percent, a record high. The Bank of Korea, the country's central bank, attributed the spike directly to the Middle East conflict, compounded by a weakening Korean won against the US dollar. Raw material prices jumped 40.2 percent, while intermediate goods rose 8.8 percent.

Economists warn the pain is unlikely to be short-lived. A Bank of Korea official cautioned that even after active hostilities end, disruptions to raw material supply chains are unlikely to be resolved quickly. Import prices are a key driver of broader inflation, filtering through production costs into consumer prices across the economy.

The crisis underscores how deeply interconnected global energy markets remain, and how a military action in one region can rapidly translate into economic hardship thousands of kilometres away. With uncertainty over the Middle East situation still high, governments and central banks worldwide are now grappling with inflationary pressures that few had anticipated at the start of the year.