GeoConfluences 2024 typology — estimated cargo traffic (Mt/year)
The straits and canals through which world maritime trade passes. A choke point is a place where a few kilometres of width command thousands of kilometres of route.
GéoConfluences 2024 typology, estimated cargo traffic in millions of tonnes per year. Tonnages are orders of magnitude: real flows vary sharply from year to year, and since 2023 more than ever.
A strait's value lies not in its traffic but in the absence of an alternative. Going round the Cape of Good Hope instead of through Suez costs about ten days; there is no way around Hormuz at all.
Roughly a fifth of the world's oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, 39 km wide at its narrowest. Since 2023 Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have diverted most container traffic to the Cape, while drought was cutting transits through the Panama Canal.