ZEWAY › Hormuz
Is the Strait of Hormuz open?
Closed as of 28 September 2026. 1 ship crossed on the latest day IMF PortWatch has published, against a pre-crisis normal of 85 a day. The Gulf tanker dark index, DARKCON, is 2 of 5, Shadow Tide. Every line below carries its own date; the live board refreshes while it is open.
Hormuz tonight
The flap is set by the count; the remarks are typed by hand and dated.Remarks, as typed: IRGC PASSAGE BAN SINCE 28 FEB · PORTWATCH 20 SEP: ONE TRANSIT; CENTCOM CLAIMS ~60 CROSSINGS ON 24 SEP, REUTERS COUNTED NINE · PETROLINE OFF SINCE THE 11 SEP STRIKES, A LOW-RATE RESTART REPORTED 22 SEP IS UNCONFIRMED AND NO YANBU CARGO HAS LOADED; HABSHAN–FUJAIRAH IS THE ONE BYPASS RUNNING, 1.5M BPD · SIX VLCCS LOADED ~12M BBL AT RAS TANURA AND JU’AYMAH 21 SEP, THE BUSIEST DAY SINCE BEFORE THE WAR; FOUR CAME IN BALLAST 15–17 SEP, AND 25 OF 26 INBOUND BALLASTERS 12–20 SEP SHOWED NO DESTINATION (KPLER) · TWO TANKERS HIT 21 SEP · ARAGHCHI’S SEVEN-DAY REOPENING PLAN OF 25 SEP REJECTED BY WASHINGTON, PER NBC 28 SEP · POLYMARKET ODDS OF NORMAL TRAFFIC BY 31 DEC 24%
The other gates it loads
What Hormuz turns away lands on the Red Sea and the Cape.Remarks, as typed: HOUTHIS HOLD PERIM ISLAND AND THE YEMENI RED SEA COAST · SAUDI-LINKED HULLS TARGETED · PORTWATCH COUNT STILL NEAR NORMAL, WHICH IS WHY THE STATUS IS SET BY HAND · NORMAL IS THE FEB 2025–FEB 2026 MEDIAN, A YEAR THAT ALREADY CARRIED THE RED SEA DIVERSION, SO LOAD FLATTERS
Remarks, as typed: CANAL OPEN AND TOLLS UNCHANGED · TRAFFIC DOWN WITH THE RED SEA · THE DETOUR IS THE CAPE, AND MOST ASIA-EUROPE LOOPS ARE ALREADY ON IT · NORMAL IS THE FEB 2025–FEB 2026 MEDIAN, A YEAR THAT ALREADY CARRIED THE RED SEA DIVERSION, SO LOAD FLATTERS
DARKCON tonight
Tankers going dark is the pattern before a run, a hidden cargo or a hit.More tankers than usual sailed without lights last night — 1.8 times the rate for other ships in the same water. That is the pattern before a Hormuz run, a hidden cargo, or a hit. How the index is made, and every night on record.
What the markets expect
Polymarket, as the page shipped.| Hormuz traffic back to normal by 31 Dec? | 24% | $13.4M | 31 DEC |
| US announces end of the Iranian blockade by 31 Dec? | 60% | $30.3M | 31 DEC |
| A commercial ship hit or seized in the Gulf today? | 31% | $33K | TODAY 2000Z |
| Bab el-Mandeb effectively closed by 31 Dec? | 18% | $15.0M | 31 DEC |
| East-West pipeline officially restarts by 30 Sep? | 29% | $883K | 30 SEP |
| Houthis seize an oil tanker by 31 Oct? | 27% | — | 31 OCT |
Prediction-market prices on Polymarket as the page shipped; the live board reads them again every half hour.
How the flap is set
Four states, never a guess.Each chokepoint is a flight. SHIPS is how many crossed on the latest published day, NORMAL the median of the year before Hormuz shut, February 2025 to February 2026, LOAD one against the other. For Suez, Bab el-Mandeb and the Cape that year already carried the Red Sea diversion, so their LOAD reads high and their remarks say so. DETOUR is what avoiding the chokepoint costs in days. WAR RISK is the hull premium as a multiple of the pre-war rate, where one is quoted. The status flap is set by the count; Bab el-Mandeb is set by hand while ships are being hit. Remarks scroll; hover to hold one. WHO NEEDS IT, under each row, is the trades that depend on that gate, so a flap change reads straight into a market. Under that, the last fourteen published days as bars against NORMAL, and the day the flap last changed. The Turkish Straits row reads PortWatch's own Bosporus count directly, its NORMAL the median of the same pre-crisis year the other rows use.
The log
Gulf and Red Sea events, newest first, each with its source.Transit counts © IMF PortWatch via straits.live; the status, remarks and detours are the desk's. Numbers bound 28 SEP 2026; the typed blocks were last edited 28 SEP 1930Z. The live board refreshes its feeds every half hour while open; this page is rewritten at every bind.