Chokepoint Report — week of 27 July 2026
Vessel movements through the world's maritime chokepoints, 27 July to 2 August 2026. Every transit below was detected from live AIS positions and screened against OFAC, EU, UN and UK sanctions lists.
7,500 transits recorded across 10 chokepoints. 108 involved a vessel on a sanctions list.
Traffic by chokepoint
| Chokepoint | Transits | Vessels | vs last week |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Channel | 2,815 | 1,751 | +5% |
| Turkish Straits | 1,224 | 855 | +1% |
| Danish Straits | 1,032 | 858 | +8% |
| Strait of Malacca | 956 | 754 | -16% |
| Cape of Good Hope | 456 | 414 | +37% |
| Suez Canal | 305 | 288 | -3% |
| Strait of Hormuz | 294 | 193 | +12% |
| Panama Canal | 276 | 218 | +4% |
| US Gulf | 107 | 101 | -13% |
| Bab el-Mandeb | 35 | 27 | — |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Turkish Straits | 24 | 17 |
| English Channel | 21 | 15 |
| Suez Canal | 18 | 18 |
| Strait of Hormuz | 15 | 11 |
| Danish Straits | 14 | 14 |
| Strait of Malacca | 10 | 10 |
| Bab el-Mandeb | 3 | 3 |
| Cape of Good Hope | 3 | 3 |
Direction of travel
Through the English Channel: 1,425 southbound, 1,390 northbound.
AIS gaps
936 voyage legs from 936 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 785 discharged, 730 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.