The world's chokepoints
The points where the industrial world narrows to a single passage: straits and canals, submarine cables, pipelines, rail gauge breaks, one spaceport. Grouped by nature, each with the measured flow that runs through it, dated and sourced.
20 chokepoints across 5 natures.
Maritime10
Suez CanalEgyptAtlantic Council (issue brief), 2025solide≈ 50 ships/day at the 2023 rate (~ 26,000/year)85↗Strait of MalaccaAsie du Sud-EstWikipedia (citant Freeman, The Straits of Malacca, 2003)estimation≈ 245 ships/day (~ 90,000/year)78↗Strait of HormuzGolfe PersiqueU.S. EIA (Today in Energy), 2025solide≈ 20.5 million barrels/day58↗Panama CanalPanamaAtlantic Council (citant IMF), 2025solide≈ 34 ships/day (36 at full capacity, ~ 24 in drought)48↗Cape of Good HopeSouth AfricaClarksons Research ; IMF PortWatch 2024solide≈ 89 ships/day (~ 32,000/year), sharply up since late 202348↗Taiwan StraitTaiwanBloomberg ; MarineTraffic 2022estimation≈ 238 ships/day (~ 87,000/year)43↗Bosphorus and DardanellesTurkeyUNCTAD, Review of Maritime Transport 2024solide≈ 92 ships/day (~ 34,000/year)31↗Bab-el-MandebRed SeaU.S. EIA (Today in Energy), 2024solide≈ 6.2 million barrels/day before 202429↗Lombok and Sunda StraitsIndonesiaU.S. EIA, World Oil Transit Chokepointssolide≈ 68 ships/day combined (Lombok ~ 36, Sunda ~ 32, ~ 25,000/year)28↗Strait of GibraltarSpainREMPEC 2023estimation≈ 135 ships/day (~ 49,000/year)28↗Energy3
Druzhba pipelineBelarusIEA, Oil Market Report 2024solide≈ 200,000 barrels/day to Hungary and Slovakia (southern branch)29↗Sabine Pass LNG terminalUnited StatesU.S. EIA 2024solide≈ 82,000 tonnes/day of LNG (~ 30 Mt/year), nameplate capacity29↗Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipelineTurkeybp ; IEA 2024solide≈ 620,000 barrels/day (2023)28↗Digital3
Cable landing, MarseilleFranceTeleGeographyestimation≈ 160 Tbit/s of capacity (~ 1,700 PB/day), 16 cables33↗Red Sea submarine cablesRed SeaTeleGeography, Submarine Cable Report 2024solideno daily rate publicly sourceable28↗Luzon Strait (Bashi Channel)PhilippinesTeleGeographyestimationno daily rate publicly sourceable28↗Land3
Lobito CorridorAngolaU.S. Department of State 2024solide≈ 730 tonnes/day (~ 265,000/year)48↗Malaszewicze-Brest gauge breakPolandUTLC ERA ; presse ferroviaire 2023estimation≈ 46 trains/day (~ 17,000/year)28↗Khorgos dry portKazakhstanestimation, secteur ferroviaire 2023estimation≈ 24 trains/day (~ 8,700/year, all destinations)28↗Space1
Guiana Space Centre, KourouFranceESA ; CNES 2024solideno daily rate publicly sourceable28↗