Since February 2026, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has had a major impact on global supply chains, last seen during 2020 when pandemic lockdowns seriously disrupted international movement of goods, material and components.

A potential deal between the US and Iran, including reopening the strategic waterway, will bring relief to businesses worldwide if it comes to fruition. However, even if the Strait of Hormuz is reopened imminently, a long recovery process will challenge finance teams and accountants with affected clients.

Supply chain issues directly impact finance teams

For accountants and auditors, the blockade’s supply chain issues create problems calculating inventory value when production has either slowed or stopped. 

Even if shipping traffic resumes soon, finance professionals will still face challenges, especially in relation to inventory management, reliance on the Middle East and Asia, asset damage, ongoing effects of delays, contract issues, and complex audits that are further complicated by oil price and foreign exchange uncertainty.  

James Crask, Global Supply Chain Practice Leader at Marsh Risk, says the blockade made many finance leaders realise they were “blind to the organisation’s dependency on the Middle East.”

“From our own data, 75% of suppliers located in the region generally appear at Tier 3 in the supply chains of multinational companies,” says Crask, meaning these suppliers are “three steps up the chain and invisible to most.” 

Crask says this makes it “very challenging for organisations to meaningfully understand the risks they are exposed to and forecast their impacts.”

While the effects of the closure vary between industries, Crask says that businesses that rely on “a high frequency of shipments and are dependent upon suppliers in Asia have been vulnerable, owing to the delays and longer transport times.”

“Our data shows that for every direct supplier a company may have, there will be a further 150 upstream connections in China alone, and if these supplies are arriving by ship, they will need to pass close to the affected region,” Crask explains. “Thankfully, the Red Sea and Suez Canal have not been significantly disrupted, but we know that when these critical pinch points are disrupted, they have outsized impacts on the global economy.”

Five key strategies to add resilience to supply chains

Gerald Edelman LLP offers five resilience strategies for finance leaders. As the world continues to face uncertain times and future supply chain disruptions remain likely, these strategies are informed by lessons that can be learned from the Strait of Hormuz blockade.

“From an accounting perspective, teams may need to reassess inventory valuations, update cost assumptions, review impairment risks and evaluate the impact of increased logistics expenses on margins,” says a Gerald Edelman representative. “Treasury teams are also monitoring foreign exchange volatility and commodity price fluctuations, particularly in energy-intensive sectors.”

1. The key priority is improving visibility and scenario planning. Finance leaders should model multiple outcomes based on different durations and severities of disruption, allowing management to make faster decisions as conditions evolve.
2. Cash flow forecasting should be updated more frequently, with particular focus on working capital, supplier payment terms and inventory management. Businesses may consider reviewing credit facilities and liquidity buffers to ensure they have sufficient resilience if disruptions persist.
3. Closer collaboration between finance, procurement and supply chain teams is essential. Real-time information sharing can help organisations identify cost pressures early and evaluate alternative sourcing, transportation routes or inventory strategies.
4. Many companies are accelerating investments in supply chain analytics and forecasting tools to improve responsiveness and reduce reliance on single suppliers, routes or regions.
5. Forecasts, budgets and margin assumptions may need repeated revisions as the true economic impact becomes clearer.

Post-conflict recovery and how to prepare for the future

Even if normal transit resumed immediately, supply chains would not return to normal overnight. Shipping networks operate on carefully synchronised schedules, and disruptions create knock-on effects that can take weeks or months to unwind, according to Gerald Edelman.

In the long term, financial analyst and founder of software developer Sheet Rows, Dinesh Kumar, advises accountants and financial teams to help businesses shift just-in-time supply chain strategies to ensure they are more robust and to increase the monitoring of solvency for companies along supply chains, which improves transparency.

Kumar says that speed is crucial for future supply chain disruptions: “Each day that the finance team fails to diagnose their exposure, it causes losses on profit margins – and the earlier this is caught, the greater the competitive advantage gained.”

Disruption is the new normal

Even if finance teams and accountants feel well insulated against the events in the Middle East, Crask points out that the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz “is just one of many geopolitical flashpoints on the map today.” 

He advises finance teams and accountants with affected clients to spend more time understanding and modelling geopolitical risks and how they could manifest as risks – or opportunities – for businesses.

Today's supply chains are already operating against a backdrop of geopolitical fragmentation, Red Sea disruptions and ongoing volatility in energy markets. As a result, many finance leaders are increasingly treating resilience as a core financial objective, according to Gerald Edelman. “This may prove to be one of the most lasting consequences of any Strait of Hormuz disruption.”