Red Sea Tanker Traffic Falls to Multi-Month Low After Houthi Threats

Tanker traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical chokepoint connecting the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, has fallen to a multi-month low amid escalating threats and attacks by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels.

On Sunday, only 11 tankers carrying commodities transited the strait, the lowest figure in months, according to shipping data cited by Reuters. The slowdown began about a week prior, following the Houthis' announcement of a blockade on Saudi shipments and their subsequent targeting of vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers.

These actions have led some Saudi and Western ship operators to reroute their vessels northward toward the Suez Canal or to perform U-turns before entering the Red Sea from the Bab el-Mandeb. Of the 11 ships that transited on Sunday, seven were oil tankers: three inbound and four outbound. Two of the inbound tankers were very large crude carriers (VLCCs) destined for the Saudi port of Yanbu to load crude oil, while the third inbound vessel was linked to Russia. The outbound tankers carried Saudi, UAE, and Russian crude to China, and one carried Saudi crude to Pakistan.

Maritime intelligence firm Windward noted that Yanbu port has seen a shift to entirely AIS-dark tanker operations, with vessels operating without active transponders to evade targeting. Despite signs of de-escalation emerging on Monday, this has not yet resulted in an increase in traffic through either the Bab el-Mandeb or the Strait of Hormuz.