Red Sea Traffic Hits Lowest in Months After Houthi Aramco Strikes
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- Bab el-Mandeb traffic fell to 11 commodity vessels on Sunday — the lowest in months — after Yemeni Houthis attacked Saudi oil installations along the Red Sea coast, according to Kpler shipping data.
- Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group struck sites belonging to Saudi state oil company Aramco in Jizan and Yanbu on Saturday, as the Tehran-aligned group moved to blockade Saudi exports.
- Strait of Hormuz transit stayed below 10 vessels per day over the weekend despite US and Iran having paused strikes, with three Iranian-linked oil product tankers exiting on Sunday.
- Hong Kong-flagged VLCC New Explorer exited the Red Sea carrying 2 million barrels of Saudi and Emirati crude bound for China's Ningbo port — the third Chinese VLCC to transit Bab el-Mandeb.
- A Russian-linked oil tanker and two VLCCs heading to Yanbu to load Saudi crude were among the seven oil tankers passing through Bab el-Mandeb, while another vessel carried roughly 750,000 barrels of Saudi crude toward Pakistan.
- Saturday's Hormuz transit showed only three vessels passing with transponders switched off, including a VLCC heading to Qatar to load oil and an LPG tanker going to UAE's Ruwais port.
Why it matters: Houthi strikes on Saudi Aramco sites are squeezing both major chokepoints at once: Bab el-Mandeb traffic hit its lowest in months while Hormuz stayed below 10 vessels daily despite a US-Iran strikes pause. Saudi crude keeps moving — VLCCs like the New Explorer still exit — but switch-off transponders show shippers hedging against escalation in the broader conflict.
