Shipping Chokepoint Monitor
Daily ship traffic through the 28 narrow straits and canals that world trade depends on, from Hormuz and Suez to Panama and Malacca, measured from satellite tracking and updated as the IMF publishes it.
01All 28 Chokepoints
Average ships a day over the latest seven days of data, against the same seven days a year earlier and against the first ten months of 2023, before attacks in the Red Sea began rerouting world shipping. Click a column to sort, or a row to chart it below.
| Chokepoint | Ships a day | vs a year ago | Last 120 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suez Canal | 44 | +4% | |
| Panama Canal | 28 | -14% | |
| Bosporus Strait | 47 | -53% | |
| Bab el-Mandeb Strait | 26 | -26% | |
| Malacca Strait | 215 | -11% | |
| Strait of Hormuz | 4 | -95% | |
| Cape of Good Hope | 86 | -6% | |
| Gibraltar Strait | 124 | -11% | |
| Dover Strait | 175 | +3% | |
| Oresund Strait | 41 | -12% | |
| Taiwan Strait | 227 | -3% | |
| Korea Strait | 196 | -10% | |
| Tsugaru Strait | 44 | +1% | |
| Luzon Strait | 103 | +61% | |
| Lombok Strait | 38 | +0% | |
| Ombai Strait | 8 | -26% | |
| Bohai Strait | 148 | -11% | |
| Torres Strait | 8 | -18% | |
| Sunda Strait | 34 | +5% | |
| Makassar Strait | 56 | +10% | |
| Magellan Strait | 4 | +16% | |
| Yucatan Channel | 51 | +9% | |
| Windward Passage | 13 | -16% | |
| Mona Passage | 11 | +3% | |
| Balabac Strait | 10 | +4% | |
| Bering Strait | 3 | +94% | |
| Mindoro Strait | 57 | +71% | |
| Kerch Strait | 0 | -100% |
Red: down 20% or more. Blue: up 20% or more. Counts are ships broadcasting their position (AIS) as they cross each chokepoint; ships that switch their transponders off are missed, which matters most in war zones.
02The Map
Circle size shows how busy each chokepoint is; colour shows the change on a year earlier. A pulsing ring marks traffic down by half or more. Click a circle to chart it.
03Explore a Chokepoint
Average ships a day, by week, since 2019
Daily transits, last 120 days
04The Strait of Hormuz in 2026
In the latest week of data, PortWatch saw an average of 4 ships a day crossing the Strait of Hormuz, -95% on the same week a year earlier, and 1 tanker a day against 37.
Roughly a fifth of the world's oil passes through this strait between Iran and Oman in normal times, about 20 million barrels a day according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, along with more than a fifth of global LNG trade, mostly from Qatar. Before the war, PortWatch typically counted around 60 ships a day.
| Feb 28, 2026 | U.S. and Israeli strikes on IranPortWatch counted 57 transits that day. Two days later the Revolutionary Guards declared the strait closed, and by March 4 the count was zero. |
| Apr 8, 2026 | CeasefireA temporary ceasefire began, but the strait stayed effectively shut through the spring while the U.S. Navy blockaded Iranian shipping. |
| Jun 17, 2026 | U.S.-Iran memorandumIran agreed to reopen the strait gradually and the U.S. to lift its blockade of Iranian ports. Traffic climbed to 51 transits on June 24, the high point since the war began. |
| Jul 14, 2026 | Blockade reimposedThe U.S. reimposed its blockade of ships going to and from Iranian ports, and traffic fell back into single digits. |
| Aug 31 - Oct 2026 | Fighting resumesStrikes resumed on August 31 and two supertankers were hit. Saudi Arabia shut its East-West pipeline on September 10 after drone attacks, and a new campaign against tankers began on September 23. By mid-October the International Maritime Organization had counted more than 100 incidents and at least 24 seafarer deaths since the war began. |
The oil market felt it immediately. Brent crude was about $72 a barrel on February 27, the day before the strikes, and closed above $115 in late April. It has swung with every ceasefire and attack since.
05The Red Sea Detour
Since late 2023, attacks on shipping by Yemen's Houthi movement have pushed much of the traffic between Asia and Europe away from the Suez Canal and around the southern tip of Africa, a detour the IMF says adds 10 or more days per voyage. The chart compares the three route markers, each scaled so its early-2023 average equals 100.
In the first two months of 2024, the IMF found Suez trade volume down 50% on a year earlier and Cape of Good Hope transits up 74%. Egypt's canal revenue fell from a record $10.2 billion in 2023 to $4.1 billion in 2025. In 2026 the Hormuz crisis sent some traffic back through Suez, but the Red Sea grew more dangerous again: the Houthis announced a blockade of Saudi Arabia in July and seized Yemen's Red Sea coast and islands in the strait itself in September.
06What Flows Through Them
Oil is the cargo that turns a chokepoint problem into a global price shock. These are the U.S. Energy Information Administration's estimates of crude oil and petroleum products moving through each route.
| Route | 2023 | 2024 | First half 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strait of Malacca | 24.0 | 22.5 | 23.2 |
| Strait of Hormuz | 21.8 | 20.7 | 20.9 |
| Cape of Good Hope | 6.2 | 9.3 | 9.1 |
| Danish straits | 5.0 | 4.9 | 4.9 |
| Suez Canal and SUMED pipeline | 8.8 | 4.8 | 4.9 |
| Bab el-Mandeb | 9.3 | 4.1 | 4.2 |
| Turkish straits (Bosporus) | 3.5 | 3.6 | 3.7 |
| Panama Canal (fiscal years) | 2.2 | 2.0 | 2.3 |
Million barrels a day. Source: EIA, World Oil Transit Chokepoints (updated March 2026). Saudi and UAE pipelines can carry about 4.7 million barrels a day around Hormuz, a fraction of what normally sails through it.
By trade value, the Suez Canal normally carries about 12-15% of world trade (UNCTAD) and the Panama Canal about 5% of world maritime trade (Panama Canal Authority). When the container ship Ever Given blocked Suez for six days in March 2021, about 425 ships queued and an estimated $9.6 billion of goods a day were held up.
07The Other Pressure Points
| Panama Canal | Drought, twiceA 2023 drought lowered Gatun Lake, the reservoir that feeds the locks, and the canal cut daily transits from a normal 38-40 to 32 and then reduced booking slots further, down to 20 a day by January 2024. In 2026 an El Niño dry spell brought new limits: 34 transits a day from early September and 32 from September 15, with a record $5.3 million paid for a single slot on September 1. |
| Kerch Strait | Closed by RussiaThe strait between Crimea and Russia links the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea. Russia halted passage on July 10, 2026, after Ukraine struck 13 vessels in the Sea of Azov, and PortWatch has seen almost no traffic since. |
| Taiwan Strait | Busy, watchedOne of the busiest waterways on earth, and the one that would matter most in a crisis over Taiwan. China staged a blockade-style exercise in December 2025 and began coast-guard patrols that radio passing cargo ships in 2026, but traffic has not been disrupted. |
08Frequently Asked Questions
What is a shipping chokepoint?
A narrow strait or canal that a large share of world shipping must pass through, such as the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal or the Strait of Malacca. Because there is no easy alternative route, closing or slowing one quickly raises shipping costs, delays cargo and moves commodity prices.
How much oil goes through the Strait of Hormuz?
About 20 million barrels a day in 2024 and the first half of 2025, roughly a fifth of world oil consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. More than a fifth of global LNG trade, mostly from Qatar, also passes through it.
Is the Strait of Hormuz closed?
Iran declared it closed on March 2, 2026, after U.S. and Israeli strikes, and traffic has been a fraction of normal for most of the time since. The board above shows the latest satellite count; because many ships now cross with transponders off, actual traffic is higher than satellites see.
Why are ships going around Africa instead of through the Suez Canal?
Attacks on shipping by Yemen's Houthi movement in the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb strait since late 2023 made the Suez route too risky for many shipowners. Going around the Cape of Good Hope adds 10 or more days to a voyage between Asia and Europe, according to the IMF.
How often is this page updated?
The data comes from IMF PortWatch, which publishes daily transit counts from satellite ship tracking, usually a few days behind. This page checks for new data every day.
09Method and Sources
Transit counts are from IMF PortWatch, which detects ships crossing each chokepoint from satellite AIS position data (UN Global Platform). A ship is counted once per crossing. Seven-day averages, year-on-year changes, the early-2023 baseline (January to October 2023) and the weekly series are computed by DaveManuel.com from PortWatch's daily figures. PortWatch revises recent days, so the latest week can change slightly.
- Sources: UN Global Platform; IMF PortWatch (daily chokepoint transits and chokepoint locations)
- U.S. Energy Information Administration: World Oil Transit Chokepoints
- IMF: Red Sea attacks disrupt global trade (March 2024) and UNCTAD (January 2024)
- Hormuz 2026: The New Arab, Al Jazeera, World Oil/Bloomberg, Reuters via gCaptain, Maritime Executive, gCaptain and escorted-transit estimates from United Against Nuclear Iran (an advocacy group)
- Red Sea, Suez and Panama: FDD Long War Journal, Bloomberg via gCaptain, Seatrade Maritime, Al Jazeera
- Kerch and Taiwan: Euromaidan Press, citing Reuters, The Defense Post
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