Chokepoint Report — week of 14 September 2026
Vessel movements through the world's maritime chokepoints, 14 September to 20 September 2026. Every transit below was detected from live AIS positions and screened against OFAC, EU, UN and UK sanctions lists.
Coverage note. Our transit coverage was reduced 18–21 September while we reconfigured data collection. Counts for this period are incomplete.
1,295 transits recorded across 9 chokepoints. 17 involved a vessel on a sanctions list.
Traffic by chokepoint
No week-on-week comparison this issue. Our AIS coverage was materially lower in the previous week (14,283 position records this week against 0 the week before), so any percentage change would measure our own data collection rather than shipping activity. The counts below are what we observed; the comparison returns once both weeks are comparable.
| Chokepoint | Transits | Vessels | vs last week |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Channel | 573 | 527 | — |
| Strait of Malacca | 275 | 270 | — |
| Turkish Straits | 211 | 198 | — |
| Cape of Good Hope | 68 | 68 | — |
| Suez Canal | 55 | 55 | — |
| Panama Canal | 54 | 53 | — |
| Danish Straits | 38 | 38 | — |
| Strait of Hormuz | 21 | 21 | — |
Sanctioned vessels
| Chokepoint | Transits | Distinct vessels |
|---|---|---|
| Suez Canal | 6 | 6 |
| Turkish Straits | 5 | 5 |
| English Channel | 2 | 2 |
| Strait of Hormuz | 2 | 2 |
| Strait of Malacca | 2 | 2 |
Direction of travel
Through the English Channel: 304 northbound, 269 southbound.
AIS gaps
9 voyage legs from 9 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 406 discharged, 405 loaded, inferred from AIS-reported draught against each vessel's laden and ballast baseline.
Method: a transit is a vessel observed on one side of a strait and later on the other, with the strait itself — its lanes, anchorages, canal and terminal ports — counted as neither. Port calls and ferry crossings at the strait are not transits. 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. Figures published before 20 September 2026 used a looser definition and are not comparable.