Taiwan Strait live traffic
South China Sea ↔ East China Sea
Normal traffic
226 transits on 13 September · 7-day average 229.4 per day
IMF PortWatch counts ships that complete a transit, from satellite AIS. Latest published day: 13 September 2026 (5 days behind today); the series is updated weekly. Next release expected around 22 September. Methodology
Daily transits since 2019 · IMF PortWatch
Bars: transits per UTC day. Line: 7-day average. Numbered markers: events from the timeline below.
Vessel types last 30 days · IMF PortWatch
On 13 Sep: Tankers 39 · Container ships 92 · Dry bulk 74 · General cargo 16 · Ro-ro 5
Timeline what moved the numbers
- 2
- 1
Latest news via Google News
- 17 Sep 2026, 09:42 UTC Taiwan's Coast Guard confirms donation of patrol vessel to Philippines Focus Taiwan
- 17 Sep 2026, 09:05 UTC The submarine Hai Lung could take part in the sinking of a ship during Taiwan's most important live-fire exercises zona-militar.com
- 17 Sep 2026, 08:55 UTC VESSEL REVIEW | Oceanus 1 – Taiwan's Co-Asia Marine Technology acquires cable layer with 8,000-tonne capacity Baird Maritime
- 17 Sep 2026, 07:48 UTC Taiwan Coast Guard plans 2027 visit to Philippines Taiwan News
- 17 Sep 2026, 07:46 UTC Taiwan, US push ahead with ‘Hellscape’ drone strategy to deter China attack Taiwan News
- 17 Sep 2026, 06:07 UTC Taiwan Coast Guard Plans Visit to Philippines as China Pressure Grows Bloomberg.com
- 17 Sep 2026, 04:01 UTC Taiwan donates retired patrol vessel to Philippines Taiwan News
- 16 Sep 2026, 10:03 UTC Can Taiwan Build Drones? Part 2 ChinaTalk | Jordan Schneider
Collected automatically from news media by keyword filters and not verified by StraitTraffic. Dated events that explain the numbers are in the timeline.
Vessels right now and our own transit count
Positions received in the last 30 minutes from shore-based AIS receivers, and transits counted by StraitTraffic from those signals. Independent of the official statistics above.
Shore receivers reach only part of this area, so the map shows only some of the vessels and StraitTraffic does not count transits here. Use the official statistics above for traffic levels.
About Taiwan Strait traffic
The Taiwan Strait, about 180 kilometres wide between mainland China and Taiwan, is the main north–south corridor for ships moving between the South China Sea and the ports of Shanghai, Korea and Japan. With more than two hundred transits a day it carries a large share of the world's container trade, and any military activity around Taiwan shows up quickly in the counts.
How transits are counted
A transit is counted when a vessel is seen south of the strait, then inside the band between Pingtan and Hsinchu, and then north of it, or the reverse. Coastal traffic between Chinese ports that stays on one side is not counted. Official daily totals come from IMF PortWatch.
10 passages in the last 24 hours could not be confirmed and are excluded from the counts.