Shipping
Where ships are and are not going: transits through the chokepoints and calls at the world’s gateway ports, each against its normal, from the positions ships broadcast.
Chokepoints binding
3
2 on watch, of 10
Gateway port calls
−18%
Last 7 days on a year earlier
Ports read
23
Of 23 gateways
Data to
Oct 30
PortWatch, weekly
Chokepoints
Transits a day, latest seven days against the 2019–2023 normal for the same week| Passage | State | Transits a day | Normal | Against normal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panama | Open | 27.3 | 32.9 | −17% |
| Gibraltar | Open | 131.6 | 130.8 | +1% |
| Bosphorus | Binding | 44.4 | 101.1 | −56% |
| Suez | Watch | 43 | 64.2 | −33% |
| Bab el-Mandeb | Binding | 27.3 | 63.5 | −57% |
| Hormuz | Binding | 4.4 | 85.1 | −95% |
| Malacca | Open | 202.7 | 181 | +12% |
| Taiwan Strait | Open | 247 | 239.5 | +3% |
| Cape of Good Hope | Open | 92 | 45.5 | +102% |
| Danish straits | Watch | 38.7 | 50 | −23% |
State compares transits a day over the latest 7 days of PortWatch data with the same 7 calendar days averaged over 2019–2023: Binding at half of normal or less, Watch from a fifth to a half below, Open within a fifth of normal or above it.
IMF PortWatch · PortWatch data to Nov 1, 2026 · read Nov 9, 5:46 AM EST · All 28 passages on World
Calls at the gateways, 13 weeks
All 23 ports below, calls a dayIMF PortWatch port activity · read Nov 9, 5:48 AM EST · data to Oct 30, 2026
Gateway ports
Latest seven days, Oct 24, 2026 to Oct 30, 2026| Port | Calls a day | Against normal | On a year | Cargo, 7 days | On a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Asia | |||||
| ShanghaiChina | 67.3 | −43% | −49% | 8.1M t | −43% |
| NingboChina | 45.6 | −10% | −27% | 12.7M t | −20% |
| Shenzhen (Shekou)China | 5.7 | −44% | −37% | 3.1M t | −25% |
| QingdaoChina | 30.0 | −6% | −7% | 7.1M t | −13% |
| TianjinChina | 29.1 | −12% | −12% | 12.5M t | +7% |
| Hong KongChina | 33.3 | −29% | −23% | 3.9M t | +17% |
| BusanSouth Korea | 46.6 | −18% | −16% | 2.4M t | −13% |
| KaohsiungTaiwan | 30.9 | −15% | −3% | 3.7M t | +19% |
| South and Southeast Asia, Gulf | |||||
| SingaporeSingapore | 115.0 | −4% | −8% | 17.5M t | +10% |
| Port KlangMalaysia | 30.3 | −3% | −16% | 2.0M t | −11% |
| ColomboSri Lanka | 11.6 | +36% | −9% | 686K t | +10% |
| Nhava Sheva (Mumbai)India | 25.0 | +36% | +116% | 3.1M t | +35% |
| Jebel AliUAE | 4.0 | −81% | −84% | 767K t | −84% |
| Europe and Mediterranean | |||||
| RotterdamNetherlands | 74.1 | −19% | −11% | 5.6M t | −19% |
| AntwerpBelgium | 49.0 | −20% | −11% | 4.4M t | −7% |
| HamburgGermany | 14.7 | −27% | −8% | 1.9M t | −11% |
| PiraeusGreece | 9.9 | −31% | −34% | 1.1M t | −15% |
| Tanger MedMorocco | 12.6 | +2% | +6% | 2.6M t | +5% |
| Americas | |||||
| Los Angeles–Long BeachUnited States | 11.3 | +14% | +32% | 3.9M t | +13% |
| New York–New JerseyUnited States | 9.7 | −9% | −1% | 1.8M t | −2% |
| SavannahUnited States | 6.4 | +5% | −2% | 1.1M t | −5% |
| HoustonUnited States | 23.6 | +21% | +23% | 4.7M t | +10% |
| SantosBrazil | 13.1 | −14% | −17% | 2.0M t | −24% |
Cargo is PortWatch’s estimate of imports plus exports in metric tonnes, modelled from how deep each ship sits in the water. Normal is the same seven calendar days averaged over 2019–2023; a year earlier is 364 days back, so weekdays line up.
What ship positions can and cannot say
Every large ship broadcasts its position (AIS). PortWatch, run by the IMF with the University of Oxford, turns those positions into daily transits and port calls and estimates cargo from each ship’s draught. That makes a blockade, a diversion or a port slowdown visible within days, where customs figures take months.
It counts ships, not the value of what they carry. A quiet week can be weather, a holiday or a data gap, and PortWatch revises its latest week as late positions arrive. Read a state that holds for several weeks, not a single reading.
Open Calls
Dated forecasts on this subject, scored in public when they resolve- 66%Will Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) report China's full-year 2026 rare earth permanent magnet exports at 60,000 metric tons or more?
- 36%Will Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) report China's full-year 2026 rare earth permanent magnet exports at 61,600 metric tons or more, matching its own forecast?
- 6%Will China's Ministry of Commerce publish an announcement lifting or suspending its January 2026 ban on exports of dual-use items to Japan by 1 April 2027?
- 40%Will Lynas Rare Earths' quarterly report for the three months to 31 March 2027 show combined dysprosium and terbium production of 10 metric tons or more?