Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz reached its “lowest” level since May, Reuters reported on Sunday, just days after President Donald Trump insisted that the critical shipping waterway was “open” and under the full “control” of the United States.

According to shipping data reviewed by Reuters, an average of 10 commodity ships per day transited the strait over the past 10 days, a sharp drop from just a week prior. Six vessels transited the strait on Sunday, and only two on Saturday, “mostly using the Iranian route,” according to Reuters.

And yet, on Aug. 27, Trump declared that “the Strait of Hormuz is open,” and that “we have control.” A day before that, Trump again declared that “the Strait is open,” and that the United States was guiding “a lot of ships through the strait now,” adding that it was “a very functioning strait” with “a lot of oil pouring out.”

Trump has insisted that the Strait of Hormuz has been open since at least Aug. 10, when he claimed that the United States controlled the strait “100%.”

The cratering of traffic through the strait comes as average diesel prices reach their all-time high in the United States, eclipsing $5.85 per gallon for the first time in history last Friday, breaking the previous record set in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline has also reached record highs, eclipsing $4 every day in August for the first time in history, according to the American Automobile Association.

“On Sunday, one very large crude carrier and three bulk carriers laden with metals, grains or oilseeds entered the strait, Kpler data showed,” Reuters’ report reads.

“A tanker carrying refined products loaded from a Saudi port attempted to exit but was turned back, data from LSEG showed. There has been no VLCC exiting the strait since Wednesday, according to Kpler data.”

Trump humiliated after Strait of Hormuz traffic hits 'lowest' levels since May: report

Wait, what? The Strait is open?

13 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Wait, what? The Strait is open?

Wide open....don't let anyone tell you any different.....

I wonder if traffic is going down because companies are finding other routes? No data to really make a judgement.

Ok great, and at least finally the goblin of leftist doom Greta Thunberg will be happy. Oh? Sorry? Whats that? She's NOT happy?

Nope, she's moved on to the Next Big Thing🤣

"It is Shameful for the World to Ignore the Just Cause of the Sahrawi People, Greta Thunberg"

https://al24news.dz/en/it-is-shameful-for-the-world-to-ignore-the-just-cause-of-the-sahrawi-people-greta-thunberg/

26 minutes ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

Ok great, and at least finally the goblin of leftist doom Greta Thunberg will be happy. Oh? Sorry? Whats that? She's NOT happy?

Nope, she's moved on to the Next Big Thing🤣

"It is Shameful for the World to Ignore the Just Cause of the Sahrawi People, Greta Thunberg"

https://al24news.dz/en/it-is-shameful-for-the-world-to-ignore-the-just-cause-of-the-sahrawi-people-greta-thunberg/

Imagine being so obsessed with her.....

Rather than emphasising the number of vessels exiting via the Straits of Hormuz I would like to see the number of empty vessels entering!

That will give a much better picture wrt how the maritime industry and the export/importers view the current/future situation!

44 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

Imagine being so obsessed with her.....

So obsessed that I made ONE post mentioning her? Did you ever stop to think what MILLIONS of posts about a certain orange fella means?

Liberals🤣

This is so much the opposit of Trump live stating right now

Who is the liar?

1 minute ago, earlinclaifornia said:

This is so much the opposit of Trump live stating right now

Who is the liar?

If TRUMP is quoted anywhere in any publication/forum etc, it is obvious that he is the assumed liar until proven otherwise!

How come ? According to the never lying, always correct explaining and superb best and wisest president the world has ever seen, the Strait is in complete hands of the USA ! So, The Yanks are blocking the Strait to hurt the economies worldwide ! ?

4 hours ago, bannork said:

There has been no VLCC exiting the strait since Wednesday, according to Kpler data

Kpler is only counting the ships that exit with their identification signals on. Ships exiting at night with US escort have their signals turned off. About the total supply of oil from the Gulf, some is loaded in UAE territory outside the straits, while Saudi is loading around 6mn barrels/day in the Red Sea via pipeline from the Gulf. The problem is more about exports of LNG (gas), fertilizers and helium.

Edited 13 hours ago13 hr by placnx

4 hours ago, placnx said:

Kpler is only counting the ships that exit with their identification signals on. Ships exiting at night with US escort have their signals turned off. About the total supply of oil from the Gulf, some is loaded in UAE territory outside the straits, while Saudi is loading around 6mn barrels/day in the Red Sea via pipeline from the Gulf. The problem is more about exports of LNG (gas), fertilizers and helium.

17 million bbls just went through under escort. iranian inflation 84%

5 minutes ago, Yagoda said:

iranian inflation 84%

You must be so proud.

7 hours ago, scottiejohn said:

If TRUMP is quoted anywhere in any publication/forum etc, it is obvious that he is the assumed liar until proven otherwise!

Your opinion is based on what facts?

2 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

You must be so proud.

We are. Trump is winning!

2 minutes ago, josephbloggs said:

You must be so proud.

well its better than destroying their civilization. sometimes, like japan learned, its better to wave the white flag. iran apparently doesnt have a hirohito though.

iranians can be cool folks, at least the ones here are. iran should emulate japan and throw themselves at our feet

10 hours ago, Purdey said:

I wonder if traffic is going down because companies are finding other routes? No data to really make a judgement.

Yanbu had seen a doubling of tanker traffic, until about July 19, and has seen tanker traffic basically collapse, after 4 tankers were hit, with a 40% drop. Saudi Arabia has switched to the SUMED pipeline, which routes through Egypt, from Ain Sokhna to Sidi Kerir on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, with vessels then sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to Asian destinations. One confirmed fixture has a Korean energy major paying $18.5 million to load 280,000 metric tons, equivalent to approximately $9 per barrel or approximately 8 to 9% of total transport cost. Excepting Chinese, HK and Russian vessels, all tankers through the Red Sea have gone dark. The Houthis are now basically blockading Yanbu and the war is spreading. There has been an increase in ship to ship transfers in the Sea of Oman, to mitigate going through the Straits of Hormuz. Saudi Aramco continues to supply crude to Asian refineries via ship-to-ship deliveries off Fujairah, allowing buyers to take delivery without dispatching their own vessels through the strait.

Road freight from Jeddah to the UAE has gone through the roof, qith rates quadrupling. Saudi 'Tangs are doing rather well.

Now everyone focuses on oil coming out of the Gulf (and gas, as well as oil byproducts such as Urea). The UAE, especially Jebel Ali, developed into a major redistribution hub for cargo moving between Asia, the Gulf and East Africa. Large container ships from Europe, India and China will call at Jebel Ali, where freight is consolidated/deconsolidated in the UAE before being shipped onward to Mombasa or Dar es Salaam. So the shipping is going increasingly direct to Africa. But the whole reason for the success of Jebel Ali was the lower costs shipping using bigger ships. So now, shipping costs to East Africa have now increased.

10 hours ago, josephbloggs said:

Imagine being so obsessed with her.....

Actually he's laughing at an autistic woman. One of the reasons why Greta Thunberg is active in her various causes is her autism. Autism can cause obsessive compulsive behaviour. It can drive conspiracy obsession. I suspect most of the people on this forum obsessed with conspiracy theories are undiagnosed autistics.

It is so well known that she is autistic, diagnosed when she was 11, that I do not believe that the person or persons operating the account "SunnyinBangrak" did not realise this, and that, in effect, they are mocking the disabled, with the use of emoticons, Sure, disagree with people with autism, but why get off mocking them. I suppose he laughs at Down Syndrome kids and paraplegics.

Of course, may he was ignorant, and now he is informed, he has the opportunity to modify his posting, and retract mocking people with autism. It is a condition serious enough that Donald Trump directed RFK and the FDA to find a cure before the end of his administration, reminiscent of Roosevelt's drive to develop the first polio vaccine.

This hasn't been talked about much but it may be one of the most consequential revelations of the US's war on Iran: the fact that China has effectively replaced OPEC as the global price setter for oil.

It isn't me saying it but Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosnef, the largest oil producer in Russia - itself a member of OPEC+

(https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/russias-sechin-says-china-not-opec-calls-shots-global-energy-markets-2026-09-04/)

And Sechin isn't alone in saying so: many Western analysts - such as Javier Blas, Bloomberg's top energy analyst - are essentially saying the same thing

(see https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/2067153947257930227?s=20)

How so? Well, China has demonstrated during the Iran war an extraordinary ability to simply walk away from the market and slash its oil imports by millions of barrels per day - during a months on end.

At peak, they slashed imports by 5.5 million barrels per day, the equivalent of India's total consumption. They can, quite literally, switch an entire India's worth of demand on and off, at will.

This is mainly because they have immense strategic oil reserves, estimated to stand at 1.4 billion barrels.

(https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=67504)

4 times bigger than the US's (the world's second largest inventory).

In a nutshell, prices being, as everyone knows, set by supply and demand, China now controls the demand side in a bigger way than OPEC controls the supply side. So, as Sechin puts it, they now call the shots.

All the more given that OPEC is weaker than it's ever been with the recent loss of the UAE, the largest producer ever to walk out.

This is what effectively saved the world's economy during the Iran war: analyst after analyst predicted that the closure of Hormuz would make oil prices skyrocket to stratospheric levels, like $200-$300 a barrel.

(https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Wild-Oil-Price-Forecasts-Some-Predict-350-if-Strait-of-Hormuz-Is-Blocked.html).

However, Hormuz is still closed and prices sit at... $91 a barrel, after briefly peaking at around $110 in April.

(https://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-chart).

China almost single-handedly made this happen with their flexibility on the demand side: what Hormuz made the world lose in supply, China basically cut in demand, which stabilized prices.

Long story short, as the saying goes: "never let a good crisis go to waste." China used this one to effect a friendly takeover of the most powerful cartel on earth - without even joining it.