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

In 2024, an estimated $3.4 billion of Mauritania’s trade passed through the Cape of Good Hope, 42.2% of its seaborne trade. That is $1.5 billion of exports and $1.9 billion of imports. The partners with the most trade through it are China, the United Arab Emirates and Japan.

Summary

Estimated value
$3.4billion
Of its seaborne trade
42.2%
Exports
$1.5billion
Imports
$1.9billion

Trend

Estimated value per year

Mauritania’s estimated trade through the Cape of Good Hope rose 2,146% between 2019 and 2024

Value in USD billions

  • Mauritania 3.4

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearEstimated valueOf its seaborne trade
1995$782 thousand0.1%
1996$1 million0.1%
1997$2 million0.1%
1998$1 million0.1%
1999$769 thousand0.1%
2000$3 million0.3%
2001$6 million0.5%
2002$9 million0.7%
2003$8 million0.5%
2004$10 million0.5%
2005$24 million1.1%
2006$121 million4.1%
2007$24 million0.7%
2008$42 million0.9%
2009$36 million0.9%
2010$46 million0.9%
2011$116 million1.7%
2012$80 million1%
2013$69 million0.8%
2014$70 million0.8%
2015$19 million0.3%
2016$31 million0.5%
2017$46 million0.6%
2018$61 million0.8%
2019$150 million1.8%
2020$90 million1.4%
2021$174 million2.2%
2022$163 million1.8%
2023$151 million1.8%
2024$3.4 billion42.2%

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. Mauritania–China$1.9 billion · 57.3%
  2. Mauritania–United Arab Emirates$673 million · 20%
  3. Mauritania–Japan$203 million · 6%
  4. Mauritania–Australia$120 million · 3.6%
  5. Mauritania–Indonesia$116 million · 3.5%
  6. Mauritania–India$115 million · 3.4%
  7. Mauritania–Malaysia$84 million · 2.5%
  8. Mauritania–South Korea$43 million · 1.3%
  9. Mauritania–Singapore$24 million · 0.71%
  10. Mauritania–Thailand$20 million · 0.58%

What crosses it

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

  1. Iron ore$995 million · 29.6%
  2. Refined petroleum$604 million · 18%
  3. Copper ore$188 million · 5.6%
  4. Palm oil$123 million · 3.7%
  5. Prepared shellfish$112 million · 3.3%
  6. Meat and fish meal$73 million · 2.2%
  7. Cars$62 million · 1.8%
  8. Rayon fabric$46 million · 1.4%
  9. Other iron or steel articles$44 million · 1.3%
  10. Tea$41 million · 1.2%

Reference ports

Nouadhibou (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.

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