{"id":87185,"date":"2026-04-28T09:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T09:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/87185\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T09:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T09:10:11","slug":"windward-strait-of-hormuz-traffic-drops-again-after-brief-rebound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/87185\/","title":{"rendered":"Windward: Strait of Hormuz traffic drops again after brief rebound"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the April 25 rebound,<\/a> transit activity slowed again on April 26, even though full AIS visibility was maintained across all crossings, according to Windward\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n

Maritime traffic across the Strait of Hormuz and nearby corridors remains active but uneven, with volumes continuing to fluctuate amid enforcement pressure and operational uncertainty. As explained, despite the dip in daily transits, overall vessel presence across the Gulf kept rising, suggesting a gradual rebuilding of broader system activity.<\/p>\n

At a glance<\/p>\n

Hormuz transit drops to 8 crossings, evenly split inbound and outbound, all with AIS active.
\nGulf vessel presence rises to 920, signaling continued system rebuild.
\nDark activity declines slightly to 117 events despite increased traffic.
\nChabahar cluster remains stable with 6 VLCCs and 1 Suezmax operating without AIS.
\nATEELA 1 provides active bunkering support, enabling sustained loitering.
\nVessel behavior reflects controlled but inconsistent movement under enforcement pressure.<\/p>\n

Hormuz transit slows after rebound\u00a0<\/p>\n

Transit activity through the Strait of Hormuz declined on April 26 following the previous day\u2019s rebound. A total of\u00a08 vessels crossed the Strait, evenly split between\u00a04 inbound\u00a0and\u00a04 outbound\u00a0transits. All crossings were conducted with\u00a0AIS active, maintaining zero dark transits for a second consecutive day.<\/p>\n

\"hormuz<\/a>Inbound and outbound crossings of the Strait of Hormuz, April 26, 2026. Source: Windward Maritime AI\u2122 Platform.<\/p>\n

Inbound traffic included\u00a0one Panama-flagged products tanker\u00a0and\u00a0three cargo vessels, with one\u00a0flagged to\u00a0Comoros\u00a0and two to\u00a0India. Routing split between corridors, with the\u00a0tanker transiting via the Northern Corridor\u00a0and smaller\u00a0cargo vessels moving through the Southern Corridor.<\/p>\n

Outbound traffic was fully routed through the Northern Corridor\u00a0and included\u00a0two bulk carriers\u00a0flagged to\u00a0Barbados\u00a0and\u00a0St. Kitts and Nevis, along with\u00a0two cargo vessels\u00a0flagged to\u00a0Panama\u00a0and\u00a0Comoros.<\/p>\n

Compared to April 25, this represents a clear\u00a0reduction in transit volume, indicating that\u00a0while movement has resumed, it remains sensitive to shifting operational conditions\u00a0rather than stabilizing into a consistent flow.<\/p>\n

Gulf activity continues to build\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall vessel presence across the Gulf increased further on April 26, reaching 920 vessels, an increase of 28 compared to the previous day. Panama\u00a0remained the leading flag state with\u00a0146 vessels, followed by\u00a0Iran\u00a0(100),\u00a0Comoros\u00a0(89),\u00a0Marshall Islands\u00a0(76),\u00a0Liberia\u00a0(71), and\u00a0the UAE\u00a0(71).<\/p>\n

Fleet composition included\u00a0156 bulk carriers, 146 product tankers, 83 crude tankers, 62 container ships, 43 LNG and LPG carriers, and 38 chemical tankers.<\/p>\n

At the same time,\u00a0dark activity declined slightly to 117 events, marking a modest\u00a05% reduction\u00a0despite the increase in overall vessel count.<\/p>\n

This divergence between rising traffic and easing dark behavior suggests a\u00a0short-term shift toward more visible operations, even as underlying deceptive practices remain embedded across the system.<\/p>\n

Chabahar cluster holds under supported loitering<\/p>\n

The tanker cluster east of Hormuz near Chabahar remains stable, reinforcing the persistence of\u00a0eastern positioning under enforcement pressure.<\/p>\n

Windward Multi-Source Intelligence confirms the continued presence of seven tankers in the anchorage area, consisting of six VLCCs and one Suezmax, all operating without AIS transmission. The vessels remain in fixed positions, with no indication of loading or\u00a0ship-to-ship transfer\u00a0activity, supporting the assessment of\u00a0sustained loitering\u00a0rather than active operations.<\/p>\n

A key supporting element is the presence of ATEELA 1, an Iran-flagged, sanctioned oil products tanker currently transmitting AIS in the area. The vessel is assessed to be functioning as a dedicated bunkering unit.<\/p>\n

ATEELA 1\u2019s role enables refueling and logistical support for the dark cluster, allowing large tankers to remain on station for extended periods\u00a0while awaiting clearance, routing changes, or future loading opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following the April 25 rebound, transit activity slowed again on April 26, even though full AIS visibility was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[102,196,4048,101,1429,2435,13383],"class_list":{"0":"post-87185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-strait-of-hormuz","8":"tag-hormuz","9":"tag-iran-war","10":"tag-maritime-traffic","11":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","12":"tag-tankers","13":"tag-trends","14":"tag-windward"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116481558245648489","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}