Bab el-Mandeb Strait
The southern gate to the Red Sea, between Yemen and Djibouti. Suez is only useful to a ship that can get through here first, which is why the two are effectively a single routing decision.
How much moves through it
Down from 9.3 million b/d in 2023 — more than half the traffic left in a single year. LNG flows have been near zero since 2024.
What a disruption here moves
Standing structural relationships, not forecasts. We name the direction and the mechanism, and link the published index where you read the current value — we do not quote a number we cannot cite.
The strait sits within the Joint War Committee's listed areas, so transits are priced per voyage rather than absorbed into normal operating cost.
- Listed Areas (Hull War, Piracy, Terrorism and Related Perils) · Joint War Committee, Lloyd's Market Association
Avoiding this strait means giving up Suez, which puts the voyage around the Cape of Good Hope and adds ten days or more each way.
- Port & chokepoint transit tracking · IMF PortWatch
Diversion here is the same commercial event as a Suez diversion: capacity absorbed by distance tightens the Asia–Europe trade.
- World Container Index · Drewry
- Freightos Baltic Index (FBX) · Freightos / Baltic Exchange
- Ocean freight rate data · Xeneta
Every diverted service ties up its ships for longer, reducing usable capacity across the network without a single vessel leaving the fleet.
How a problem here propagates
- Bab el-Mandeb and Suez are one decision, not two: a carrier avoiding this strait has already given up the canal, so disruption here shows up in Suez transit counts.
- It sits inside the Joint War Committee's listed areas, so hull war-risk premiums and crew-hazard terms are priced per transit rather than absorbed in normal operating cost.
- Vessel-tracking and canal-transit counts move within days of an incident, well before any freight index prints — this is the leading indicator for Asia–Europe cost.
The detours that actually exist
- Cape of Good Hope, with the same ten-days-each-way penalty as a Suez diversion.
Recent movement on this corridor
- 4 days agoWatchIMO Sounds Alarm as Somali Pirates Hold More Than 90 SeafarersgCaptain
- 4 days agoDisruptionHouthi strike hits Saudi VLCC off YanbuSplash 247
- 4 days agoWatchIMO warns piracy surge leaves more than 90 seafarers captiveSplash 247
- 7 days agoWatchMSC extends Himalaya Express to Egypt and Saudi ArabiaContainer News
- Aug 21, 2026WatchSanctioned tanker hijacked in Gulf of AdenSplash 247
- Aug 20, 2026WatchExplainer: Is there any Saudi Arabia’s quiet pivot?Container News
- Aug 20, 2026WatchSanctioned tanker hijacked in Gulf of AdenSeatrade Maritime News
- Aug 20, 2026DisruptionSanctioned Shadow Fleet Tanker Hijacked in Gulf of Aden and Diverted Toward SomaliagCaptain
- Aug 17, 2026WatchRed Sea transits: selectivity rules for liners as the arithmetic changesThe Loadstar
- Aug 14, 2026DisruptionRed Sea safety conditions sufficient for full return: Maersk CEOJournal of Commerce
- Aug 14, 2026WatchExplainer: Why Berbera isn’t the next Djibouti, yet?Container News
- Aug 14, 2026WatchExplainer: When the ship becomes the targetContainer News
Other global chokepoints
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