Strait of Hormuz vessel transits fall to three amid Gulf conflict

Three ships. That’s how many vessels crossed through the Strait of Hormuz on September 16, according to maritime intelligence firm Kpler. To put that in perspective, the pre-conflict average for this waterway, which handles roughly a fifth of global oil supply, was somewhere between 100 and 140 vessels per day.

The number represents a steep drop from 12 transits the day before and sits well below the recent 10-day average of approximately 17. The Strait hasn’t just gotten quieter. It’s gone nearly silent.

What actually crossed

Of the three vessels that made the passage, only one did so in anything resembling normal fashion. That was an empty Supramax dry bulk carrier using the Iranian-approved northern route, meaning it carried no cargo and stayed close to Iranian waters.

The other two were tankers running dark. Their AIS transponders, the tracking systems that broadcast a vessel’s identity and position, were switched off entirely.

Traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea was similarly depressed, with only 21 crossings recorded on the same day.

The conflict driving the shutdown

The near-total collapse in Hormuz traffic stems from an intensifying cycle of violence across the Gulf. Saudi air strikes targeting Yemen and retaliatory assaults by Houthi forces against Saudi infrastructure have created a corridor of active conflict that now effectively brackets the Arabian Peninsula’s major shipping lanes.

Maritime traffic through the Strait has suffered persistent disruptions since early 2026, but the trajectory has been sharply downward. Going from a pre-conflict baseline of 100-plus daily transits to single digits represents something close to a functional blockade, even if no party has formally declared one.

The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the broader Indian Ocean. At its narrowest point, it spans about 21 miles, with shipping lanes in each direction only two miles wide. There is no alternative route for oil exported from Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, or the UAE that doesn’t involve this passage or extraordinarily expensive overland pipeline alternatives with limited capacity.

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