How traffic through the Strait of Hormuz shrank to a trickle – a visual deep dive | CNN

As the war in Iran enters its tenth week with no clear end in sight, shipping traffic in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz has been completely reshaped, heavily disrupting global markets and supply chains for oil, natural gas, fertilizer and other essential products. Before the United States and Israel launched their attacks on Iran in late February about 3,000 vessels typically passed through the Strait of Hormuz each month, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence. Oil tankers passing through accounted for an estimated 15 million barrels per day of crude and other oil product exports, data from the analytics firm Kpler shows, amounting to about one-fifth of the world’s oil trade. But since the war began, traffic has been reduced to a trickle, with just 191 vessels recorded crossing in the entire month of April, according to Kpler data. “The disruption is both rapid and unprecedented,” said Dimitris Ampatzidis, a maritime risk and compliance manager at Kpler. Two US-flagged vessels successfully transited through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, the US military said. But overall, traffic through Hormuz in the last two months has run at about 5% of the pre-war average,