How Many Ships Normally Pass Through the Strait of Hormuz? (Baseline vs Today)
Explainer · Published 23 Oct 2026 · The ~88/day baseline used in every SITREP is defined in the methodology
Before the war, roughly 85 to 107 commercial ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz every day, depending on which ships you count; this site uses about 88 a day as its baseline. On 22 October 2026 Windward logged 13, about 15% of normal. Just over half of the normal traffic was tankers, with the rest split between container ships, bulk carriers, LPG and LNG carriers and general cargo. This page sets out where each baseline figure comes from, how the number moved through 2024 and 2025, and how to read today’s count against it.
Status as of 13 Nov 2026: Closed, Day 258. 10 transits on 12 Nov 2026 vs ~88/day pre-crisis. Brent $95.18. Full SITREP →What is the pre-crisis baseline, and where does ~88 come from?
There is no single official count of Hormuz transits, so every baseline is a choice about which vessels to include. The figures most often quoted:
| Source | Ships per day | What is counted | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lloyd’s List Intelligence | 107 | Cargo-carrying vessels over 10,000 dwt (about 10.3 million dwt a day) | Pre-war average, stated 1 Mar 2026 |
| IMF PortWatch, via EconoFact | 103 | Trading-ship arrivals, satellite AIS (140 a day including support craft and fishing boats) | Week before 28 Feb 2026 |
| Al Jazeera, citing Kpler and Lloyd’s List | ~100 | All merchant ships; “more than half of them tankers”; dry bulk about 20 a day | Pre-war, 27 Aug 2026 |
| IMF PortWatch annual, via globalmilitary.net | 85.5 | AIS-derived transit calls; 31,218 in 2025, 6% below 33,345 in 2024 | Calendar 2025 |
| IMF PortWatch, via hormuz.now | 84.8 | Tankers, container, dry bulk, general cargo and ro-ro; 47.6 of them tankers (56%) | 365 days to 27 Feb 2026 |
| straits.live | ~85 | AIS-broadcasting crossings (PortWatch) | “Typical” pre-crisis day |
| Windward (glossary) | 70–80 | Commercial vessel crossings, Windward’s own vessel-level series | “Typical daily average” |
| This site | ~88 | Windward pre-war daily average of commercial transits, rounded; consistent with the 85–95 band most sources fall in | 2025 |
The spread is not a disagreement about the sea. Lloyd’s List excludes ships under 10,000 dwt and Iranian-linked vessels, which removes the small coastal tankers and dhows that PortWatch’s 140 includes; PortWatch’s 103 counts a single busy week in February, while its 2025 average of 85.5 includes the quiet winter months. The site’s ~88 sits in the middle, matches the Windward series that supplies the daily count, and is used as the denominator for every “% of normal” figure so that the ratio is at least consistent day to day. The methodology notes it as an approximation.
What kinds of ships made up the normal traffic?
Tankers dominate. PortWatch’s pre-crisis average of 84.8 commercial transits a day included 47.6 tankers, about 56%; Al Jazeera’s reconstruction puts it at “more than half”. Those tankers carried about 20 million barrels a day of crude, condensate and refined products in 2024, roughly 20% of world petroleum liquids consumption and more than a quarter of seaborne oil trade, 84% of it bound for Asia (EIA, 16 Jun 2025). Gas carriers are the next most strategic group: around a fifth of world LNG trade, almost all of it Qatari, left through the strait, together with Gulf LPG exports. Dry bulk carriers ran at about 7,000 transits a year, or 20 a day, carrying grain, ore and other bulk cargoes to and from Gulf ports (Lloyd’s List, via Al Jazeera). Container ships, serving Jebel Ali, Khalifa Port, Dammam and Hamad, and general cargo and ro-ro vessels made up the balance.
That mix matters for reading the closure. Since September, the small number of ships still moving has been skewed first towards tankers in the US-overseen night shuttle and then, in hormuz.now’s AIS-visible sample for mid-October, towards bulk carriers and general cargo: 21 of 26 crossings in one seven-day window were cargo ships, none were LNG or LPG carriers. The oil keeps moving on fewer, larger hulls; the containerised and gas trades are the ones that have simply stopped.
How did traffic move through 2024 and 2025?
PortWatch’s series shows a strait that was already quieter than its reputation. Transit calls totalled 33,345 in 2024 and 31,218 in 2025, a 6% fall, and 2025 had a pronounced seasonal shape: 70.5 a day in January, a spring peak of 102–103 a day in April through June, 88–95 through late summer, then a slide to 67.4 in November and 55.5 in December (globalmilitary.net, citing IMF PortWatch). The week before the war then rebounded to 103, which is why February-anchored baselines run high and annual ones run low. Any claim that traffic is “down 90%” or “down 95%” depends on which of those two is the starting point.
How many ships are passing through today?
The 23 October SITREP carries Windward’s vessel-level count of 13 transits on 22 October, 7 inbound (6 AIS-visible, 1 dark) and 6 outbound, about 15% of the ~88 baseline. The October range so far is 6 to 18 a day. AIS-only counts are lower still: hormuz.now’s seven-day average was 3.4 to 3.7 crossings a day, around 4% of baseline, and PortWatch reported 4 on 18 October. The gap between 13 and 4 is the dark fleet, explained in who tracks ships in Hormuz. In barrels the picture is different again: Vortexa put crude outflow at 10.57 million barrels on 20 October, about 62% of the pre-war crude figure, which is why the SITREP reports hulls and barrels on separate lines.
How to use the baseline
Quote a transit count and its baseline together, with the source of each: “13 transits on 22 Oct 2026 (Windward) against ~88/day pre-crisis (Windward 2025 average)”. If you need an AIS-only comparison, use PortWatch’s 84.8 or 85.5 against PortWatch’s current figure rather than mixing series. The daily dataset publishes the baseline in its metadata so every row can be re-based, and the status rubric in the methodology turns the ratio into the Closed / Restricted / Open label used on the homepage: below 22 ships a day is Closed, 22 to 65 Restricted, 66 or more Open.
Frequently asked questions
How many ships go through the Strait of Hormuz per day normally?
Roughly 85 to 107 commercial ships a day before the 2026 war, depending on the vessel sizes counted: IMF PortWatch averaged 85.5 a day across 2025, Lloyd’s List Intelligence quotes 107 cargo-carrying vessels over 10,000 dwt, and this site uses ~88. About 56% of normal transits were tankers.
How many ships are passing through the Strait of Hormuz now?
Windward logged 13 transits on 22 October 2026, about 15% of the ~88/day baseline; AIS-only trackers saw 3 to 4 a day in the same week. The status line at the top of this page carries the latest figure.
How much oil normally goes through the Strait of Hormuz?
About 20 million barrels a day of crude, condensate and products in 2024, around 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption and more than a quarter of seaborne oil trade, plus roughly a fifth of global LNG trade, according to the US Energy Information Administration.