Chokepoint Report — week of 20 July 2026
Vessel movements through the world's maritime chokepoints, 20 July to 26 July 2026. Every transit below was detected from live AIS positions and screened against OFAC, EU, UN and UK sanctions lists.
7,319 transits recorded across 10 chokepoints. 106 involved a vessel on a sanctions list.
Traffic by chokepoint
| Chokepoint | Transits | Vessels | vs last week |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Channel | 2,688 | 1,710 | -5% |
| Turkish Straits | 1,210 | 852 | -4% |
| Strait of Malacca | 1,143 | 889 | +34% |
| Danish Straits | 955 | 832 | -9% |
| Cape of Good Hope | 332 | 295 | +63% |
| Suez Canal | 316 | 304 | +3% |
| Panama Canal | 265 | 219 | +14% |
| Strait of Hormuz | 263 | 167 | +16% |
| US Gulf | 123 | 118 | +5% |
| Bab el-Mandeb | 24 | 23 | — |
No week-on-week figure is shown for Bab el-Mandeb — weekly volumes there are too small for a percentage change to mean anything.
Sanctioned vessels
| Chokepoint | Transits | Distinct vessels |
|---|---|---|
| Suez Canal | 41 | 41 |
| Danish Straits | 19 | 18 |
| Strait of Hormuz | 16 | 12 |
| Strait of Malacca | 13 | 11 |
| Turkish Straits | 9 | 9 |
| English Channel | 6 | 5 |
| Cape of Good Hope | 1 | 1 |
| Bab el-Mandeb | 1 | 1 |
Direction of travel
Through the English Channel: 1,365 southbound, 1,323 northbound.
AIS gaps
1,099 voyage legs from 1,099 vessels included a period with no AIS signal. A gap is not itself evidence of wrongdoing — coverage is imperfect and transponders fail — but it is the pattern sanctions-evading operators use, and it is why we track it.
Cargo movements
Draught changes indicating 1,910 discharged, 1,142 loaded, inferred from AIS-reported draught against each vessel's laden and ballast baseline.
Method: transits are detected by tracking vessels across zone boundaries in live AIS data. Sanctions status is matched on IMO and MMSI against the published lists and refreshed daily. Figures are what we observed; AIS coverage is not complete, so treat them as a floor rather than a census.