According to maritime intelligence platform Signal, the number of traceable daily voyages entering and leaving the Gulf increased from just one or two ships during most of the conflict to eight vessels by July 1, based on a seven-day moving average.
But the number of ships moving through with their transponders off is believed to be considerably higher. One study estimated that as many as 40 ships a day transited the strait over the past week.
Before the 2026 Iran war, the Strait of Hormuz typically saw 120 to 140 vessel transits per day, with some sources citing an average of 138 crossings daily.
That’s right. And then we had a war. Were you aware?
And, by the way, with only a handful of ships going through a day, oil is pretty much the same today as it was one year ago.
Opening the Strait is a good thing. Making the Strait inconsequential to international commerce while Iranian Jihadi’s have influence over it is even better, don’t you think? Because Trump has done the latter.
But but but
Hormuz traffic may or may not return to “ historic averages” as demand destruction has resulted from supply disruption.
China is essentially the only one buying Iranian oil, and purchases have not yet returned to prewar as China has been drawing on its billion barrel reserves
Existing pipeline alternatives to the Strait ramped up for their flow and others are under construction. New energy markets have opened up in the Americas, with the US and Venezuela offering geopolitically stable sources of supply