Strait of Malacca
The Indian Ocean–Pacific corridor and the busiest oil chokepoint on earth by volume. It narrows to about 1.5 nautical miles at the Phillips Channel near Singapore, which is also the world's largest bunkering port.
How much moves through it
About 29% of total maritime oil flows — the highest-volume oil chokepoint in the world.
What a disruption here moves
Standing structural relationships, not forecasts. We name the direction and the mechanism, and link the published index where you read the current value — we do not quote a number we cannot cite.
The Sunda and Lombok alternatives are navigable but materially longer, and Lombok also forgoes Singapore's bunkering and repair infrastructure.
- Port & chokepoint transit tracking · IMF PortWatch
This is the highest-volume oil chokepoint in the world and the main artery for Northeast Asian crude imports, so disruption reaches Chinese, Japanese and Korean input costs directly.
- Spot prices (Brent, WTI) · U.S. Energy Information Administration
Singapore is the world's largest bunkering port; congestion here transmits into fuel logistics for voyages that never planned to call there.
- Bunker price assessments · Ship & Bunker
Intra-Asia and Asia–Europe services share this water, so added sea days tighten capacity across both trades at once.
- World Container Index · Drewry
- Freightos Baltic Index (FBX) · Freightos / Baltic Exchange
- Ocean freight rate data · Xeneta
How a problem here propagates
- The detours — Sunda and Lombok — are navigable but materially longer, and Lombok pushes ships away from Singapore's bunkering and repair infrastructure as well as adding sea days.
- Singapore's role as the dominant bunkering port means congestion here transmits into fuel logistics for voyages that never intended to stop.
- Northeast Asian crude and LNG imports concentrate through this water, so a disruption reaches Chinese, Japanese and Korean industrial input costs directly.
The detours that actually exist
- Sunda Strait and Lombok Strait — both add sea days, and Lombok forgoes Singapore's bunkering and repair infrastructure.
Recent movement on this corridor
- 3 days agoWatchSingapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia plan coordinated response to box ship firesThe Loadstar
- 3 days agoWatchLittoral states reaffirm commitment to safe Malacca and Singapore StraitsContainer News
- 4 days agoWatchMalacca Strait States Will Keep Waters ‘Free, Open and Safe’gCaptain
- 4 days agoWatchMalacca Strait littoral states stand firm on freedom of navigationSeatrade Maritime News
- 4 days agoWatchContributions needed for Malacca Strait Aids to Navigation FundSeatrade Maritime News
Other global chokepoints
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