Ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz falls to about 13 daily crossings, maritime monitors say

Maritime monitoring posts on May 20 said daily ship crossings in the Strait of Hormuz had fallen to about 13, a fraction of the level analysts and international agencies have described as normal before the 2026 disruption. The figure circulated on social media as traders, shipowners and oil-market participants tracked whether vessel movements through the Gulf’s main export lane were stabilizing or falling again. Public dashboards and industry trackers do not all use the same methodology, but they broadly show traffic running far below pre-crisis levels. The Strait remains one of the world’s most important energy chokepoints, carrying roughly 20 million barrels a day of oil and oil products in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. ### Where did the 13-crossings figure come from? A May 20 post from a market-monitoring account said there were 13 daily crossings through the Strait, comparing that with roughly 140 daily transits before the crisis. The post attributed the count to vessel-tracking work based on automated identification system, or AIS, signals and port-notification data, a standard way shipping analysts monitor traffic in near real time. (iea.org) Clarksons Research, one of the best-known shipping-data providers, has published similar crisis-era counts and described pre-conflict traffic at about 125 daily vessel transits. In a May briefing surfaced through its Shipping Intelligence Network, Clarksons said Strait of Hormuz vessel transits were averaging 9 per day in May so far, versus 13 per day in April, 7 per day in March and 125 pre-conflict. (hormuzmonitor.com) ### Why do different trackers show different “normal” numbers? UNCTAD used Clarksons Research Shipping Intelligence Network data in a March 10 analysis and said the average during Feb. 1-27 was 129 ships a day before the military escalation that began on Feb. 28. That provides one documented benchmark from an international agency using commercial tracking data. (sin.clarksons.net) The variation between roughly 125, 129 and about 140 usually reflects different definitions rather than a dispute over whether traffic is depressed. Some trackers count all completed transits by cargo ships and tankers, some refer to inbound and outbound movements separately, and some use different pre-crisis windows. IMF PortWatch says it monitors disruptions to maritime trade flows with real-time data sourced from the United Nations Global Platform, while the WTO’s Strait of Hormuz Trade Tracker says it follows shipments of crude oil, natural gas, fertilizer-related products and agricultural goods using AXSMarine data. (unctad.org) ### Why does the Strait matter so much to oil and gas markets? The International Energy Agency said in a February 2026 factsheet that about 20 million barrels a day of crude oil and oil products were shipped through the Strait in 2025, equal to around 25% of global seaborne oil trade. The agency also said about 19% of global LNG trade passes through the waterway, largely from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. (portwatch.imf.org) The U.S. Energy Information Administration gave a similar estimate, putting Hormuz oil transit at 20.9 million barrels a day in the first half of 2025. UNCTAD said the Strait carries around one quarter of global seaborne oil trade and significant volumes of liquefied natural gas and fertilizers. ### How far below normal are current transit levels? Clarksons said in one May update that traffic had averaged 14 per day over the prior week, compared with 125 per day before the conflict. (iea.org) Windward, another maritime-intelligence provider, said seven vessels transited the Strait on May 19, listing the inbound and outbound ships it identified that day. UNCTAD’s March analysis showed how abruptly the drop began. (eia.gov) Its chart, based on Clarksons data, showed an average of 129 ships a day before Feb. 28, then daily readings of 20, 10, 3, 6, 5, 5 and 4 in the first week after the escalation. ### What should readers watch next? IMF PortWatch continues to update its Strait monitoring data, and the WTO-AXSMarine tracker publishes commodity-flow indicators tied to Hormuz shipments. (sin.clarksons.net) Clarksons Research has also been issuing regular transit briefings, including daily and weekly comparisons for March, April and May. May 21 dashboards and briefings were still describing traffic as far below pre-conflict levels, with some services reporting only single-digit or low-teens daily crossings. (unctad.org) The next hard check on the May 20 figure will come from those recurring tracker updates and any fresh vessel listings published by Clarksons and other maritime monitors. (sin.clarksons.net) (portwatch.imf.org)