Al Jazeera – Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera
· collected 2026-08-27 · by Hanna Duggal, Marium Ali, Mohamed Hussein
Six months into the United States-Israel war on Iran, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz continues to drive one of the worst maritime shipping disruptions in decades.
asserted
closure → continue → decades
Traffic through the 33km (21-mile) chokepoint has fallen from more than 100 vessels a day to just five, disrupting the flow of oil, gas and goods worldwide.
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Traffic → fall → oil
Al Jazeera visualises how a crisis in one narrow passage has disrupted an industry that carries about 80 percent of the world’s trade.
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that → visualise → trade
About 80 percent of goods move by sea
Almost everything people buy, from the fuel in their cars to the grain in their bread, has likely spent time on board a vessel at sea.
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people → move → sea
About 80 percent of world trade by volume moves by sea at some point, making maritime shipping essential to the global economy, according to UNCTAD, the UN’s trade and development body.
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shipping → move → UNCTAD
Not all ships are created equal.
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ships → create → ?
Different vessels are built for various purposes, from moving oil to the goods we rely on every day.
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we → build → goods
- Oil tankers are among the largest ships and carry energy products such as crude oil, refined petroleum, and chemicals.
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tankers → carry → oil
Most crude oil is transported by Very Large Crude Carriers, or VLCCs, which can access a wide range of ports and carry about two million barrels of crude.
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which → transport → crude
- Container ships transport consumer goods such as phones and clothing in stacked steel boxes known as containers.
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ships → transport → containers
Some are enormous, measuring more than 400m (1,312 feet) long and carrying more than 20,000 containers.
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Some → measure → containers
- Dry bulk carriers transport raw materials like grain, coal and iron ore.
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carriers → transport → grain
Lloyd’s List estimates they made about 7,000 Hormuz transits a year, or about 20 a day, before the war.
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they → estimate → war
- General cargo ships carry mixed goods like steel and machinery, while Ro-Ro ships transport wheeled cargo such as cars, trucks and heavy machinery.
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ships → carry → cars
It is one of three main gateways in the Middle East, carrying more than one-third of global seaborne crude oil and nearly one-third of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) flows, along with significant volumes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and refined petroleum products.
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It → carry → gas
“That’s probably the first time we’ve really seen a major constriction of a choke point,” Richard Matthews, director of consultancy and research at Gibson Shipbrokers, a London-based shipbroking and maritime advisory service, told Al Jazeera.
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Matthews → ’ → Jazeera
He explained that what makes the Strait of Hormuz different from other chokepoints is “there is no alternative maritime route.
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Strait → explain → chokepoints
There are some pipelines, but there’s no alternative, which is why it’s been so significant in terms of cargo volume.
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it → be → volume
Ports along the Gulf are where much of the region’s energy begins its journey to the rest of the world.
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much → begin → world
What used to pass through the Strait of Hormuz?
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What → use → Hormuz
According to UNCTAD data, the week before the Iran war began, average flows of crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz accounted for roughly 38 percent of the global total, LPG was 29 percent and LNG was 19 percent.
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LNG → accord → total
Crude exports from the Gulf region have dropped by nearly half (47 percent) compared with before the war, down from about 17 million barrels a day in 2025 to roughly nine million bpd as of August 2026.
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exports → drop → August
According to Reuters, analysts estimate that five to seven million barrels of Gulf oil a day are currently being disrupted.
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barrels → accord → oil
Direct exports of crude oil moving via the strait have fallen to an average of just 2.2 million bpd, according to Kpler, a data and analytics company that tracks global commodity markets and trade flows.
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that → move → markets
The chart below shows the combined crude oil shipments from the Gulf’s largest oil-producing countries – Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and Kuwait – dropping sharply since the start of the war from roughly 400 million barrels in February to about 200 million barrels in July.
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shipments → show → July
From 100 ships daily to five
Before the war, about 100 ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz each day, more than half of them tankers, carrying tens of millions of barrels of oil.
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ships → pass → oil
That collapsed within days of the February 28 US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
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That → collapse → Iran
After the IRGC announced the strait’s closure on March 2, traffic fell to an average of five vessels a day and stayed there through the April ceasefire and the US blockade of Iranian ports.
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traffic → announce → ports
A June 17 interim agreement lifted the daily average to 20, still only one-fifth of normal traffic, before the US resumed its blockade on July 14 and traffic sank back to five per day.
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traffic → lift → day
Today, the strait remains, in effect, closed.
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strait → remain → effect
From July 15 to August 23, an average of about five vessels a day passed through, marking an almost 95 percent decrease from pre-war traffic levels.
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average → pass → levels
What little traffic remains consists mostly of tankers operating under naval escort or with their tracking systems switched off.
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systems → remain → escort
The map below shows how the number of vessels passing through the strait plummeted during the first four days of the war.
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number → show → war
Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz functioned as one shared waterway, with ships using standard shipping lanes mainly through the centre of the strait, supported by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
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ships → function → Organization
These routes were chosen based on port schedules, contracts and safety.
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routes → choose → schedules
The little traffic now moving through the strait runs through a workaround, with the waterway split into two distinct paths after Iran and Oman agreed to temporary shipping routes, using their respective territorial waters to help vessels pass through.
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vessels → move → waters
Iranian authorities insist ships use its northern route, which runs along its coastline near Larak and Qeshm islands and connects directly to Iranian ports and terminals.
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which → insist → ports
But in April, the US military placed a naval blockade on Iranian ports to stop roughly two million barrels of Iranian oil from reaching the rest of the world.
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military → place → world
Which countries rely most on Middle East oil?
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countries → rely → oil
For people and businesses further down the chain, the disruption is being felt through the rising cost of essentials.
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disruption → feel → essentials
…and 26 more, not listed.
