At sea
Shipping chokepoints
A handful of narrow passages carry much of the world’s trade. This layer shows how many ships have been passing through each, compared with that strait’s own recent normal.
What you see
- Each chokepoint IMF PortWatch tracks, marked by how its last week compares with the three months or so before it.
- Click one for the last 7 days as a share of normal (by tanker tonnage or ship count), a 30-day chart, and any disruption PortWatch has recorded.
- Switch on ships alongside to watch the traffic itself.
Where the data comes from
- IMF PortWatchDaily transit estimates built from AIS by the IMF and the University of Oxford.
PortWatch publishes weekly, so the latest day shown is often a week or more old. TAKIP reads it every 6 hours.
Good to know
- Transits are estimated from AIS by PortWatch, not counted at the strait.
- Normal is the strait’s own recent past, so after a long disruption the lower level becomes the new normal.
Goes well with
Live ship trackerShips at sea right now on a free live map, from AIS: cargo ships, tankers, ferries, fishing boats and warships, with speed, heading and destination.
World news on the mapBreaking news placed on a live map: reports from news wires and public Telegram channels pinned to the places they name, beside GDELT’s coded events.
Undersea cablesThe undersea cables that carry the internet between continents, on a map with where each one lands, under live ships, outages and more.