Kpler

On 16 August, Kpler counted five commodity-vessel crossings of the strait of Hormuz, down from more than 130 daily before the war. The reading placed its vessel data at the centre of whether reduced traffic reflected a closed route or an incomplete view of movements.

Its figures also exposed why a single transit total cannot settle the question. On the same date, S&P Global Commodity Insights reported one crossing while Kpler reported five, with neither dataset disclosing an identical vessel universe. For Kpler, the value lies in supplying a defined Independent count that readers can compare with official claims and rival trackers, rather than presenting a definitive measure of all shipping.

On 31 May, Kpler put Chinese seaborne crude imports at 6.78 million barrels a day, their lowest May reading in nearly a decade. The figure gave traders a demand-side explanation for the narrowing Brent-Dubai spread while Hormuz disruption remained unresolved.

For Kpler, this episode showed the wider use of its cargo data beyond route monitoring. Its import estimate connected refinery buying and stored crude stocks with a benchmark spread watched by oil markets. The same data could therefore challenge a simple reading that every Gulf price move came from shipping risk alone.