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How much of Kuwait’s trade passes through the Strait of Gibraltar?

In 2024, an estimated $9.5 billion of Kuwait’s trade passed through the Strait of Gibraltar, 10.7% of its seaborne trade. That is $6.6 billion of exports and $2.9 billion of imports. The partners with the most trade through it are France, Italy and Egypt.

Summary

Estimated value
$9.5billion
Of its seaborne trade
10.7%
Exports
$6.6billion
Imports
$2.9billion

Trend

Estimated value per year

Kuwait’s estimated trade through the Strait of Gibraltar rose 10% between 2019 and 2024

Value in USD billions

  • Kuwait 9.5

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearEstimated valueOf its seaborne trade
1995$4.5 billion31.2%
1996$5.6 billion32.8%
1997$4.8 billion29.3%
1998$4.1 billion29%
1999$3.8 billion23.7%
2000$5.7 billion23.8%
2001$4.8 billion22.4%
2002$4.8 billion21.6%
2003$5.7 billion20.5%
2004$7.6 billion20.7%
2005$9.1 billion19%
2006$11.1 billion17%
2007$12.8 billion16.4%
2008$16.2 billion14.9%
2009$9 billion14.1%
2010$12.8 billion14.8%
2011$16.5 billion14.1%
2012$20.3 billion15.4%
2013$21.5 billion16.3%
2014$19.3 billion16.4%
2015$11.8 billion15%
2016$9.4 billion14%
2017$10.1 billion12.6%
2018$9.1 billion9.1%
2019$8.6 billion9.7%
2020$5.4 billion8.6%
2021$6.6 billion7.5%
2022$10.6 billion8.5%
2023$12.6 billion11.2%
2024$9.5 billion10.7%

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. Kuwait–France$3.4 billion · 35.8%
  2. Kuwait–Italy$1.1 billion · 12.1%
  3. Kuwait–Egypt$856 million · 9%
  4. Kuwait–Turkey$621 million · 6.5%
  5. Kuwait–United Kingdom$575 million · 6.1%
  6. Kuwait–Spain$432 million · 4.6%
  7. Kuwait–United States$396 million · 4.2%
  8. Kuwait–Netherlands$311 million · 3.3%
  9. Kuwait–Ukraine$291 million · 3.1%
  10. Kuwait–Slovakia$286 million · 3%

What crosses it

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

  1. Refined petroleum$6.3 billion · 66.5%
  2. Cars$483 million · 5.1%
  3. Crude petroleum$90 million · 0.95%
  4. Seamless steel pipes$65 million · 0.68%
  5. Chocolate$63 million · 0.67%
  6. Barley$62 million · 0.65%
  7. Furniture$60 million · 0.63%
  8. Cheese$57 million · 0.6%
  9. Polyethylene$56 million · 0.58%
  10. Cyclic hydrocarbons$50 million · 0.52%

Reference ports

Shuaiba (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