Malacca Strait
Above baseline, and past its peak.
Above normal +24% against its 2019–2023 baseline
Reading for — 6 days ago. Figures are a 30-day mean, so one quiet day does not move them.
Two years of daily transits
Month by month
| Month | Transits/day | vs baseline |
|---|---|---|
| October 2026 | 232 | +27% |
| September 2026 | 219 | +20% |
| August 2026 | 212 | +16% |
| July 2026 | 225 | +23% |
| June 2026 | 221 | +21% |
| May 2026 | 218 | +19% |
The 18 months before that
| Month | Transits/day | vs baseline |
|---|---|---|
| April 2026 | 221 | +21% |
| March 2026 | 220 | +21% |
| February 2026 | 238 | +31% |
| January 2026 | 244 | +34% |
| December 2025 | 242 | +32% |
| November 2025 | 238 | +30% |
| October 2025 | 242 | +33% |
| September 2025 | 241 | +32% |
| August 2025 | 237 | +30% |
| July 2025 | 237 | +30% |
| June 2025 | 233 | +28% |
| May 2025 | 236 | +29% |
| April 2025 | 232 | +27% |
| March 2025 | 226 | +24% |
| February 2025 | 222 | +21% |
| January 2025 | 228 | +25% |
| December 2024 | 227 | +24% |
| November 2024 | 220 | +21% |
Record high 246.8/day (January 2026), record low 137.2/day (August 2021), on the 30-day mean since January 2019.
Source
Daily transit counts derived from satellite AIS positions by IMF PortWatch, covering 2841 days from 1 January 2019.
Source: IMF PortWatch, https://portwatch.imf.org. PortWatch is published under IMF terms rather than CC BY 4.0, unlike the rest of the data on this site: the figures here are derived and transformed, and the underlying series is not republished.
Busier than it was, quieter than it was in January
Malacca connects the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and is one of the highest-volume routes in this set. It runs about a fifth above its 2019–2023 baseline — but its record high was January 2026, and every month since has been lower.
Against last year it is slightly down. Both statements are true and they measure different things: the elevation is real and several years old, the easing is recent.
The 2021 step
The largest single move in the record is November 2021, when the daily average jumped from 147 to 191. The route had been running unusually quiet through 2021 — its record low is August that year — and the recovery came fast.
What a high count here does not tell you
More transits is not the same as more cargo, and this page does not convert one into the other. Vessel counts do not carry tonnage, draft or cargo value, and a route can get busier with smaller ships.