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How much of Egypt’s trade passes through the Cape of Good Hope?

In 2024, an estimated $25.7 billion of Egypt’s trade passed through the Cape of Good Hope, 19.6% of its seaborne trade. That is $4.6 billion of exports and $21.1 billion of imports. The partners with the most trade through it are China, India and the United Arab Emirates.

Summary

Estimated value
$25.7billion
Of its seaborne trade
19.6%
Exports
$4.6billion
Imports
$21.1billion

Trend

Estimated value per year

Egypt’s estimated trade through the Cape of Good Hope rose 13,772,486% between 2019 and 2024

Value in USD billions

  • Egypt 25.7

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearEstimated valueOf its seaborne trade
1995$00%
1996$00%
1997$00%
1998$00%
1999$00%
2000$34 thousand0%
2001$8 thousand0%
2002$14 thousand0%
2003$29 thousand0%
2004$8 thousand0%
2005$89 thousand0%
2006$96 thousand0%
2007$37 thousand0%
2008$100 thousand0%
2009$43 thousand0%
2010$3 million0%
2011$223 thousand0%
2012$58 thousand0%
2013$112 thousand0%
2014$1 million0%
2015$239 thousand0%
2016$1 million0%
2017$690 thousand0%
2018$2 million0%
2019$187 thousand0%
2020$51 thousand0%
2021$634 thousand0%
2022$2 million0%
2023$564 thousand0%
2024$25.7 billion19.6%

Partners whose trade crosses it

Estimated value of its trade with each partner that crosses the chokepoint; the percentage is the share of all its trade through the chokepoint, not of the pair’s trade.

  1. Egypt–China$10 billion · 39%
  2. Egypt–India$2.6 billion · 10.1%
  3. Egypt–United Arab Emirates$2.5 billion · 9.8%
  4. Egypt–Indonesia$1.2 billion · 4.8%
  5. Egypt–Russia$1.2 billion · 4.6%
  6. Egypt–South Korea$980 million · 3.8%
  7. Egypt–Kuwait$856 million · 3.3%
  8. Egypt–Iraq$739 million · 2.9%
  9. Egypt–Malaysia$643 million · 2.5%
  10. Egypt–Thailand$556 million · 2.2%

What crosses it

The products with the highest estimated value in 2024, with their share of the total through the chokepoint.

  1. Refined petroleum$1.6 billion · 6.1%
  2. Cars$886 million · 3.5%
  3. Palm oil$827 million · 3.2%
  4. Wheat$600 million · 2.3%
  5. Synthetic filament yarn$524 million · 2%
  6. Frozen beef$422 million · 1.6%
  7. Copper wire$419 million · 1.6%
  8. Semi-finished steel$394 million · 1.5%
  9. Iron ore$380 million · 1.5%
  10. Hot-rolled flat steel$372 million · 1.5%

Reference ports

Alexandria (80%) and Ain Sokhna (20%)

Each port with the weight it receives from the country’s trade, based on where its GDP is generated and which coast is closest.

Other chokepoints it uses

Sources and method

Sources and licenses

Methodology

We estimate the value crossing each chokepoint from BACI trade that travels by sea according to our mode heuristic, split between each country’s ports by where its GDP is generated and which coast is closest, and routed over our own sea network. It is an estimate, not a count of ships. It covers 99.9% of seaborne trade. The approach follows Verschuur, Lumma and Hall (Nature Communications, 2025). Data up to 2024.

All maritime chokepoints