Visible commodity shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains sharply reduced. Preliminary tanker-tracking data from Kpler showed that only three commodity vessels transited the strait outbound over the past day, including one Panamax oil tanker.
According to the data cited by Reuters, that was down from four vessels recorded on Monday and far below the 10-day moving average of roughly 15 transits. That puts current observable traffic about 80% below its recent 10-day average.
The figures do not include ships that have switched off their AIS positioning systems to avoid detection or reduce the risk of becoming attack targets. As a result, the observable data may not capture the full scale of actual traffic.
Shipowners and energy exporters have become more cautious about navigating the Strait of Hormuz as hostilities in the Middle East re-escalated this month. Market concerns have been driven by strikes on tankers, threats from the Iran-aligned Houthis in the Red Sea, and the temporary shutdown of Saudi Arabia’s East-West onshore pipeline.
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia partially restored service on the East-West route, which allows the kingdom to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and export crude from the Red Sea port of Yanbu. That route is seen as a key alternative while security risks in the strait remain elevated.
By contrast, observable traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait appears more stable. Kpler data compiled for Reuters showed 22 commodity vessels moving in either direction there, compared with an average of about 26 vessels per day over the past 10 days between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Daily Hormuz traffic for commodity vessels with AIS switched on has remained in single digits for several days. At the same time, the oil market is watching diplomacy closely, as U.S. and Iran representatives are holding discussions on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week.
