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How much of New Zealand’s trade passes through the Strait of Malacca and Singapore?

In 2024, an estimated $6.3 billion of New Zealand’s trade passed through the Strait of Malacca and Singapore, 8.3% of its seaborne trade. That is $3.8 billion of exports and $2.4 billion of imports. The partners with the most trade through it are Malaysia, India and Saudi Arabia.

Summary

Estimated value
$6.3billion
Of its seaborne trade
8.3%
Exports
$3.8billion
Imports
$2.4billion

Trend

Estimated value per year

New Zealand’s estimated trade through the Strait of Malacca and Singapore fell 36% between 2019 and 2024

Value in USD billions

  • New Zealand 6.3

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearEstimated valueOf its seaborne trade
1995$2.3 billion9.9%
1996$2.7 billion10.5%
1997$2.6 billion10.7%
1998$2.4 billion11.2%
1999$2.5 billion10.5%
2000$2.9 billion11.8%
2001$2.9 billion11.3%
2002$2.9 billion11%
2003$3.4 billion10.8%
2004$3.9 billion10.3%
2005$4.8 billion11.5%
2006$5.6 billion13.1%
2007$6.4 billion12.7%
2008$8.6 billion15.1%
2009$5.9 billion13.7%
2010$7.7 billion14.5%
2011$10.5 billion16.5%
2012$10.6 billion16.3%
2013$10.4 billion15.4%
2014$11.6 billion16%
2015$8.7 billion14.3%
2016$8.3 billion13.9%
2017$9.6 billion14.4%
2018$10.4 billion14.5%
2019$9.9 billion14.3%
2020$8.2 billion12.9%
2021$9.8 billion12.1%
2022$10 billion11.6%
2023$9.2 billion11.5%
2024$6.3 billion8.3%

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. New Zealand–Malaysia$1.8 billion · 28.5%
  2. New Zealand–India$1.1 billion · 17.6%
  3. New Zealand–Saudi Arabia$887 million · 14.1%
  4. New Zealand–United Arab Emirates$720 million · 11.5%
  5. New Zealand–Bangladesh$452 million · 7.2%
  6. New Zealand–Sri Lanka$231 million · 3.7%
  7. New Zealand–Indonesia$202 million · 3.2%
  8. New Zealand–Italy$127 million · 2%
  9. New Zealand–Oman$121 million · 1.9%
  10. New Zealand–Kuwait$80 million · 1.3%

What crosses it

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

  1. Powdered and condensed milk$1.6 billion · 25.9%
  2. Butter and milk fats$371 million · 5.9%
  3. Refined petroleum$287 million · 4.6%
  4. Ferrous scrap$208 million · 3.3%
  5. Meal from other oilseeds$161 million · 2.6%
  6. Cheese$155 million · 2.5%
  7. Nitrogen fertilizers$149 million · 2.4%
  8. Lamb and goat meat$113 million · 1.8%
  9. Malt extract and food mixes$99 million · 1.6%
  10. Other food preparations$90 million · 1.4%

Reference ports

Auckland (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