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

In 2024, an estimated $7 billion of Qatar’s trade passed through the Strait of Gibraltar, 6.4% of its seaborne trade. That is $4.1 billion of exports and $2.9 billion of imports. The partners with the most trade through it are Italy, Turkey and Spain.

Summary

Estimated value
$7billion
Of its seaborne trade
6.4%
Exports
$4.1billion
Imports
$2.9billion

Trend

Estimated value per year

Qatar’s estimated trade through the Strait of Gibraltar fell 30% between 2019 and 2024

Value in USD billions

  • Qatar 7

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearEstimated valueOf its seaborne trade
1995$644 million13.3%
1996$625 million10.9%
1997$1.4 billion18.2%
1998$899 million13.3%
1999$579 million7.9%
2000$1.4 billion9.4%
2001$1.6 billion10.4%
2002$1.7 billion10.9%
2003$1.5 billion8.4%
2004$1.4 billion6.1%
2005$3.1 billion9.2%
2006$3.9 billion8.2%
2007$6.1 billion9.6%
2008$7.9 billion8.9%
2009$6.4 billion10.9%
2010$9.8 billion11%
2011$16.4 billion13.8%
2012$19.4 billion12.6%
2013$18.1 billion11.8%
2014$11.4 billion7.7%
2015$11.5 billion11.8%
2016$8.8 billion11.4%
2017$8.7 billion10.3%
2018$9.4 billion9.1%
2019$10 billion10.7%
2020$6.9 billion10%
2021$15.5 billion13.5%
2022$24.4 billion15.7%
2023$20.3 billion14.4%
2024$7 billion6.4%

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. Qatar–Italy$2.9 billion · 41.8%
  2. Qatar–Turkey$864 million · 12.4%
  3. Qatar–Spain$703 million · 10.1%
  4. Qatar–France$490 million · 7%
  5. Qatar–United States$283 million · 4.1%
  6. Qatar–Belgium$200 million · 2.9%
  7. Qatar–Netherlands$198 million · 2.8%
  8. Qatar–Germany$181 million · 2.6%
  9. Qatar–United Kingdom$129 million · 1.9%
  10. Qatar–Egypt$104 million · 1.5%

What crosses it

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

  1. Natural gas and LPG$2.4 billion · 35.1%
  2. Refined petroleum$668 million · 9.6%
  3. Polyethylene$313 million · 4.5%
  4. Unwrought aluminum$286 million · 4.1%
  5. Valves and taps$222 million · 3.2%
  6. Cars$178 million · 2.6%
  7. Crude petroleum$141 million · 2%
  8. Transformers and power supplies$71 million · 1%
  9. Nitrogen fertilizers$69 million · 1%
  10. Open-chain hydrocarbons$69 million · 0.99%

Reference ports

Hamad Port (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