Strait of Malacca: Live Map, Shipping Status and News

Updated 15:15 UTC · 29 Oct 2026

MonitorWorld's chokepoint model rates the Strait of Malacca GREEN (normal) with a disruption score of 0/100 as of 15:15 UTC. The strait between Malaysia and Sumatra is the world's busiest oil chokepoint: the US EIA estimates that 23.2 million barrels a day passed it in the first half of 2025, 29% of all oil moved by sea. A record 102,525 ships transited it in 2025.

GREEN

Status (our chokepoint model)

as of 15:15 UTC

0/100

Disruption score

as of 15:15 UTC

Media reports, past 7 days

as of 15:15 UTC

~2.7 km

Narrowest channel

Phillips Channel, Singapore Strait

[ fig. 1 ] STRAIT OF MALACCAStatus greenMain route (approx.)Conflict events (UCDP)

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Strait of Malacca news: latest reports

No media reports about the strait in the past 7 days.

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Key context

Why the Strait of Malacca matters

The strait is the shortest route between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. In the first half of 2025 it carried an estimated 23.2 million barrels of oil a day, more than the Strait of Hormuz (20.9 million), and slightly more than 70% of that was crude oil (EIA, updated March 2026). Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Iraq supplied nearly 60% of the crude, and China took 48% of the import volumes.

Traffic keeps rising: Malaysian Marine Department data show 102,525 transits by ships over 300 gross tonnes in 2025, up 8.7% from 94,301 in 2024 (reported by Seatrade Maritime). Container ships between Asia and Europe, crude tankers from the Gulf and bulk carriers all share the same lanes, which narrow to about 2.7 km in the Phillips Channel off Singapore.

Piracy and sea robbery

The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy (ReCAAP) counted 108 incidents in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore in 2025, the most since 2007; 107 were in the Singapore Strait and one in the Strait of Malacca (ReCAAP ISC). The number fell sharply in 2026: 21 incidents in the two straits in January to June, against 80 a year earlier, and 23 in January to September (SAFETY4SEA).

Malacca and the 2026 Iran war

Most crude that passes Malacca starts in the Persian Gulf, so the restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz since the war began on 28 February 2026 reach Asia through this strait. The strait itself is open, and our model rates it on threat level, navigational warnings and disruption signals, not on cargo volumes. For the Gulf side, see the Strait of Hormuz map; for tanker routes and sanctions, the oil tanker tracker.

All 13 chokepoints right now

Chokepoint	Status	Score
Suez Canal	YELLOW	30
Strait of Malacca	GREEN	0
Strait of Hormuz	RED	70
Bab el-Mandeb	YELLOW	40
Panama Canal	GREEN	0
Taiwan Strait	YELLOW	20
Cape of Good Hope	GREEN	15
Strait of Gibraltar	GREEN	15
Bosporus Strait	YELLOW	25
Korea Strait	GREEN	0
Dover Strait	GREEN	15
Kerch Strait	RED	70
Lombok Strait	GREEN	0

Questions and answers

Where is the Strait of Malacca?

Between the Malay Peninsula (Malaysia) and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It runs about 800 to 900 km from the Andaman Sea in the north-west to Singapore in the south-east, where it joins the Singapore Strait and the South China Sea.

Why is the Strait of Malacca so important?

It is the shortest sea route between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, so oil from the Persian Gulf and goods between Europe, the Middle East and East Asia pass through it. The US EIA estimates 23.2 million barrels of oil per day used the strait in the first half of 2025, 29% of all oil moved by sea and more than any other chokepoint.

How many ships pass through the Strait of Malacca?

A record 102,525 transits of ships over 300 gross tonnes in 2025, the first year above 100,000 and 8.7% more than the 94,301 of 2024, according to Malaysian Marine Department data compiled by the Nippon Maritime Center (reported by Seatrade Maritime). That is about 280 ships a day.

How wide is the Strait of Malacca?

The navigable channel is narrowest in the Phillips Channel of the Singapore Strait, at about 2.7 km (1.7 miles), as reported by Reuters in April 2026. The main strait is much wider, but shallow water limits the deepest ships.

Is the Strait of Malacca dangerous? What about piracy?

ReCAAP counted 108 piracy and armed robbery incidents in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore in 2025, the most since 2007; 107 of them were in the Singapore Strait and one in the Strait of Malacca. In the first half of 2026 the count fell to 21. Our chokepoint model rates the strait GREEN (normal) today.

What is the Malacca dilemma?

A term used since the early 2000s for China's dependence on the strait: most of its imported oil arrives through it, so a blockade there would hit China's economy. The EIA says China took 48% of the oil import volumes passing the strait in the first half of 2025. China has built pipelines through Myanmar and from Russia and Central Asia partly to reduce that risk.

What are the alternatives to the Strait of Malacca?

The Sunda Strait and the Lombok Strait through Indonesia, or a longer route around the archipelago. Tankers too deep for Malacca already use Lombok. An oil pipeline also carries Middle Eastern crude from Myanmar to south-west China.

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Sources

MonitorWorld chokepoint model: status (green / yellow / red) and a 0-100 disruption score from a threat baseline, navigational warnings and AIS disruption signals. A risk rating, not an official notice.
The GDELT Project (DOC 2.0 API): media reports, matched by keyword. Headlines link to the publisher; MonitorWorld does not verify them.
MonitorWorld news digest: headlines from public news feeds (Reuters, AP, BBC, Al Jazeera and others), severity rated by our model. Each headline links to the publisher.
UCDP Candidate Events Dataset: Uppsala Conflict Data Program, CC BY 4.0. Candidate (preliminary) events to 31 Dec 2024, not live. Fatalities are UCDP best / low / high estimates.
U.S. Energy Information Administration, World Oil Transit Chokepoints: oil flow per chokepoint from 2020 to the first half of 2025 (last updated 3 March 2026). Public domain.
ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre: piracy and armed robbery incidents against ships in Asia, 2025 annual report and 2026 updates. Cited, not republished.

Page built 15:15 UTC, 2026-10-29. Full list: data sources and method.