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

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. Malta–China$2.8 billion · 50.5%
2. Malta–South Korea$1.9 billion · 35.3%
3. Malta–Japan$201 million · 3.6%
4. Malta–Taiwan$154 million · 2.8%
5. Malta–Singapore$86 million · 1.6%
6. Malta–Thailand$61 million · 1.1%
7. Malta–Indonesia$49 million · 0.89%
8. Malta–India$46 million · 0.82%
9. Malta–Malaysia$41 million · 0.74%
10. Malta–Tanzania$35 million · 0.64%

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

1. Cargo and cruise ships$3.8 billion · 68.2%
2. Dredgers and floating cranes$642 million · 11.6%
3. Refined petroleum$226 million · 4.1%
4. Fish fillets$148 million · 2.7%
5. Natural gas and LPG$102 million · 1.8%
6. Stamps and banknotes$78 million · 1.4%
7. Cars$52 million · 0.93%
8. Electric motors and generators$21 million · 0.39%
9. Air conditioners$21 million · 0.38%
10. Other food preparations$18 million · 0.32%

Valletta (100%)

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

• See Cape of Good Hope
• Malta trade

Other chokepoints it uses

• Strait of Gibraltar · 58%
• Strait of Malacca and Singapore · 40%
• Strait of Dover · 11%
• Suez Canal · 7%
• Bab-el-Mandeb Strait · 6%

Sources and licenses

• CEPII BACI · Licence Ouverte Etalab 2.0
• World Bank, Global Shipping Traffic Density · CC BY 4.0 (route network derived by this site)
• World Port Index (NGA) · Public domain (US Government work)
• Natural Earth · Public domain
• Kummu et al., gridded GDP · CC BY 4.0 (split between ports done by this site)

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.