Hormuz Cargo Ship Transits Fall to Five as Gulf Shipping Slows

Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has dropped sharply: Kpler counted five cargo ship transits last Saturday, down from 31 at the end of the previous week, and recorded none on Sunday. The decline puts a major oil and liquefied natural gas route under pressure and complicates planning for operators moving cargo between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

The figures reflect recorded movements, not necessarily every vessel at sea. Some ships may have switched off their automatic identification system (AIS), which transmits vessel identity and position, for security reasons. That means the actual number of passages could be higher than Kpler’s count. Even with that caveat, the recorded change is large: five passages in a day compared with more than 130 commercial ships daily before the conflict began in February.

Recorded passages reveal a steep drop

The decline followed reports that three vessels belonging to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) had been attacked. Gulf Times reported the announcement on November 12, 2026. The resulting security concerns have weighed on operators’ willingness to send vessels through the strait, where ships carrying energy products share a narrow, strategically important passage.

Kpler’s Saturday count included an empty very large crude carrier (VLCC) entering the strait with its AIS switched off. A large gas carrier flagged in India also entered, using the Iranian route. Separately, a small tanker carrying Iranian-origin fuel oil exited the strait. These movements show that traffic has not stopped completely, but the mix of vessels and cargoes recorded was limited.

For dispatchers and charterers, the distinction between a recorded transit and an actual transit matters. With AIS signals missing, a tracking system can show less activity than is taking place. At the same time, the lack of a complete count does not remove the operational uncertainty: vessel locations may be harder to monitor, and operators still have to assess whether a route is suitable for a particular ship and cargo.

Energy flows depend on a narrow route

About one-fifth of global crude oil and liquefied natural gas transportation passes through the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, so a sustained slowdown can affect the movement of energy cargoes from Gulf producers toward international markets. The available figures do not quantify delayed cargoes, waiting times or changes in freight rates.

The gap between the recent counts and the pre-conflict level gives shipping teams a clear measure of how much recorded activity has contracted. It does not, by itself, show how many vessels are waiting, whether cargoes have been rerouted, or how long individual voyages are taking. Those details would be needed to assess the full effect on vessel availability and delivery schedules.

The wider security situation remains unsettled. Talks between the United States and Iran have made no progress, and the two sides have set out opposing conditions tied to maritime movements. That leaves ship operators without a clear signal that normal passage levels are about to return. For cargo planners, the immediate task is to account for uncertainty in route access and vessel tracking when arranging shipments through the area.

Bab el-Mandeb also sees fewer transits

Traffic has eased at Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. Kpler recorded 49 commercial cargo ship transits last weekend, compared with 55 at the end of the previous week. That decline is smaller than the drop reported at Hormuz, but it adds another point of pressure along routes used to move goods through the region.

The Houthi group in Yemen announced a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia on July 20. Security risks subsequently increased, and recent tracking data showed no detectable Saudi oil shipments. The figures provided do not establish whether shipments were suspended, rerouted or simply absent from the tracked movements.

Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb serve different legs of regional shipping, but changes at both can make route planning harder for carriers and cargo owners. Current transit counts show reduced recorded activity at each passage, while missing AIS signals limit visibility at Hormuz. The next practical indicators are whether Kpler records a sustained rise in daily passages and whether Saudi oil shipments become detectable again.