HOUSTON (Reuters) - Ship traffic has been halted at Texas City and Galveston, Texas, due to heavy sea fog which developed on Tuesday morning, said the Coast Guard.

Ship pilots stopped steering ships through the Texas City and Galveston channels to the Houston Ship Channel at about 10:30 a.m. local time (11:30 a.m. EST), the Coast Guard said.

Ships are still transitting the Houston Ship Channel from the Gulf of Mexico to the port of Houston, the nation's busiest petrochemical port, the Coast Guard said.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba)