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How much of South Korea’s trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz?

In 2024, an estimated $74.2 billion of South Korea’s trade passed through the Strait of Hormuz, 8.9% of its seaborne trade. That is $9 billion of exports and $65.2 billion of imports. The partners with the most trade through it are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Summary

Estimated value
$74.2billion
Of its seaborne trade
8.9%
Exports
$9billion
Imports
$65.2billion

Trend

Estimated value per year

South Korea’s estimated trade through the Strait of Hormuz rose 18% between 2019 and 2024

Value in USD billions

  • South Korea 74.2

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearEstimated valueOf its seaborne trade
1995$8.9 billion5.5%
1996$11.4 billion6.5%
1997$13.1 billion7.2%
1998$9.2 billion6.1%
1999$11.7 billion6.7%
2000$20.6 billion9.6%
2001$18.1 billion9%
2002$17.3 billion8.1%
2003$22.4 billion9.2%
2004$28 billion9%
2005$38.9 billion10.7%
2006$50.3 billion11.7%
2007$60.2 billion12.2%
2008$83.6 billion13.8%
2009$56.7 billion12%
2010$73.2 billion12.1%
2011$102.8 billion13.5%
2012$110.5 billion14.5%
2013$105.8 billion14.2%
2014$104.1 billion13.4%
2015$68.4 billion10.6%
2016$54.9 billion9.2%
2017$67.9 billion10.1%
2018$77.8 billion10.8%
2019$62.7 billion9.2%
2020$39.8 billion6.7%
2021$52.5 billion6.8%
2022$84.4 billion9.3%
2023$74.3 billion9%
2024$74.2 billion8.9%

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. South Korea–Saudi Arabia$20.8 billion · 28%
  2. South Korea–United Arab Emirates$18.5 billion · 24.9%
  3. South Korea–Qatar$14.5 billion · 19.6%
  4. South Korea–Iraq$10.1 billion · 13.7%
  5. South Korea–Kuwait$9.5 billion · 12.8%
  6. South Korea–Bahrain$578 million · 0.78%
  7. South Korea–Iran$105 million · 0.14%

What crosses it

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

  1. Crude petroleum$45.7 billion · 61.6%
  2. Refined petroleum$10.8 billion · 14.6%
  3. Natural gas and LPG$7 billion · 9.5%
  4. Cars$2.4 billion · 3.2%
  5. Unwrought aluminum$646 million · 0.87%
  6. Auto parts$499 million · 0.67%
  7. Trucks$348 million · 0.47%
  8. Water heaters and industrial dryers$336 million · 0.45%
  9. High-voltage switches and fuses$257 million · 0.35%
  10. Transformers and power supplies$237 million · 0.32%

Reference ports

Busan (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