Strait Insider

The narrow places global trade has to squeeze through, explained — with maps, shipping context and a game or two.

Start here

If you want the short version: Hormuz is the only sea exit from the Persian Gulf and has no alternative. Bab el-Mandeb is the southern gate to Suez and its alternative is a 20-day detour round Africa.

The reason both being disrupted at once is worse than either alone: the pipelines that bypass Hormuz deliver crude to Red Sea terminals, and tankers loading there still have to pass Bab el-Mandeb. That interaction is the interesting part.

The questions people actually ask

Is the Strait of Hormuz open? and is Bab el-Mandeb open? are updated with attributed transit counts. Why does any of it move gasoline prices? covers the mechanism from crude to pump.

And if you would rather steer a ship through a strait than read about one, there is a browser game.

31 pages published across 2 straits.