The number of vessels sailing through the Strait of Hormuz was little changed on Monday compared with the weekend, hovering around five, preliminary ship-tracking data showed on Tuesday, below the 10-day average of around 14. Four of the vessels entered the strait and one exited, according to data from commodities firm Kpler, which noted that vessels sailing with their transponders turned off are not included in the count. Notably, no liquid tankers were among those transiting the waterway on Monday; of the vessels that entered, one was an empty handy-sized gas tanker that reached the strait via the Iranian route, while the other three were laden dry bulk carriers.
The subdued traffic follows a volatile period in the Gulf, with UKMTO reporting a tanker struck by an unknown projectile while transiting inbound through Hormuz on Saturday, and on Tuesday a Saudi oil tanker was reportedly stopped while transiting the strait’s southern corridor, according to Iranian media. Tensions escalated further after U.S. forces struck two Iranian launchers on Larak Island in the strait on Sunday, the first known American strikes on Iran since late July. By contrast, traffic at the other major regional chokepoint, the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, hit a three-day high of 27 vessel transits, with 14 entering and 13 exiting, five of them Aframax- or Suezmax-sized crude tankers, Kpler data showed.
Source: Al-Monitor (Reuters) — https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2026/09/strait-hormuz-commodity-vessel-transits-stay-single-digits-data-shows
Tags: Strait of Hormuz, Iran, Oil Shipping, Persian Gulf
