Electronics trade globe
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Flows on the globe for the selected product, given the layers, by value
Key points
World exports of electronics and electrical equipment in 2024 totaled $3.4 tn, of which about $1 tn was microchips and semiconductors. The largest electronics exporter is China (31% of world volume). Taiwan leads in microchips (23%), followed by China (19%) and South Korea (14%).
Seaborne electronics shipments total about $1 tn a year. The key maritime chokepoint is the Strait of Malacca (~$254 bn), followed by the Suez Canal and Bab-el-Mandeb (~$230 bn each). Microchips hardly depend on straits: about 95% of their value is carried by air. According to the model, microchips depend primarily on air hubs: about $282 bn of their air shipments pass through Taipei, about $243 bn through Shanghai and about $187 bn through Seoul (Incheon).
Importance of straits and air hubs
Click “Close strait” or “Close hub” in the lists below, or select an object on the globe. The model shows how much trade passes through it and which countries depend on it most: importers are highlighted in red, exporters in orange. The more saturated the color, the larger the share of the country’s trade affected.
Straits and canals
Estimated value of seaborne shipments through each strait in the selected layer. The “Close strait” button shows whose trade depends on it.
Air hubs
Estimated value of air shipments of the selected commodity through each cargo hub. The “Close hub” button shows whose trade depends on it.
Click a flow, country, strait or hub on the globe
About the data
Data. Source: BACI (CEPII), a reconciled database of bilateral trade based on UN Comtrade, 2024 (accessed via OEC). The “Electronics and electrical equipment” layer is all of HS chapter 85: electrical machinery, equipment, consumer and industrial electronics, including chips and solar panels. The “Microchips and semiconductors” layer is headings 8541 (excluding solar cells and modules) and 8542 (integrated circuits).
What is shown. The globe shows the 70 largest sea flows, the 40 largest air flows (dashed lines with planes) and the 25 largest overland flows. Strait estimates cover all flows from $100 m for electronics (97% of world trade) and from $30 m for microchips (99%).
Mode of transport. Trade between neighboring countries (within Europe and North America, China with its neighbors, within Southeast Asia, etc.) is treated as overland. For other flows, the sea share is taken from Eurostat statistics on EU trade with distant countries for 2024: about 46% of the value of electronics and about 5% of microchips are carried by sea, the rest by air. Air shipments do not depend on straits.
Routes and importance of straits. A route is the shortest path between the countries’ main ports over the network of sea lanes. A strait’s importance for a country is the share of its shipments through the strait in its total imports or exports of the product group. When a strait is closed, the model looks for a detour and estimates how much longer it is (at an average vessel speed of 14 knots); if there is no detour, the shipment is considered cut off.
Air hubs. The globe shows the 17 largest international cargo airports from the ACI World ranking for 2024 (excluding the sorting hubs of express carriers in Memphis, Louisville and Cincinnati). An air flow runs from the main cargo airport of the exporting country to the airport of the importing country: for China this is Shanghai; for the United States, Los Angeles (Asia and Oceania), Miami (Latin America) or Chicago (other destinations). Flights longer than 9500 km transit via Anchorage, Dubai, Doha or Istanbul if this lengthens the route by no more than 15%. When a hub is closed, the shipment is rerouted via other airports in the country or neighboring hubs; for Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Qatar there is no comparable alternative. The distribution across hubs is a model estimate: there are no open data on the routes of individual air shipments.
Limitations. This is a computational model, not vessel-tracking data. Actual routes depend on shipping lines and transshipment at hubs (Singapore, Rotterdam, etc.). Re-exports via Hong Kong are shown as separate flows.
WhiteIndex. Electronics Trade Globe (October 2026). Data: BACI (CEPII) based on UN Comtrade, 2024; Eurostat.
All sources
BACI (CEPII) based on UN Comtrade, 2024
This text was translated automatically from Russian. Figures, years, names and sources are as in the original.
Exports of electronics and microchips in 2024: sea and air routes, the role of straits in world trade