Strait of Malacca

Geographical location

The Malacca Strait is a strait between the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia and the northeast coast of Sumatra. It connects the Andaman Sea with the Strait of Singapore, the South China Sea and the Karimata Street (the latter on the Java Sea ). From the city -state of Singapore in the south to the northern coastal area of ​​Sumatra, the distance is about 800 km and a width between 50 and 300 kilometers. At the southern end, between Singapore, the Indonesian Riau Islands and the east coast of Sumatra numerous passages with some significantly smaller in width and at the shallowest point a depth of approximately 25 meters.

Economic Importance

The most economically important are the ports of Port Klang in the immediate vicinity of the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur and the city state of Singapore. The Strait of Malacca is daily with about 2,000 transiting ships, one of the busiest waterways in the world. Between 20 and 25% of the passengers carried by the maritime world trade scope this strait happens.

Through the construction of ever larger ships, the Malacca Straits could develop in the foreseeable future to a bottleneck for the design of ships. Malakkamaxschiffe that fully exploit the depth of the transit, but are only in the planning stage; Panamax, Suezmax.

Again and again, there were plans for a direct water communication across the isthmus of the Malay peninsula of southern Thailand, around the Gulf of Thailand with the Andaman Sea by a navigable canal to connect ( " Kra - channel " or " Thai - channel"). Such a connection would depreciate the value of the Strait of Malacca ( ​​and the port of Singapore) massively and make its use largely dispensable. Experts estimate the cost of construction of such a channel up to 28 billion dollars.

A certain relief of the waterway is expected by the construction of China's oil and gas pipeline along the Silk Road to the junction of Xinjiang.

Fishing industry is operating on Jermal platforms.

Strategic importance

Due to the high shipping traffic for import, export and supply of energy in the Asian countries, especially China, the Strait of Malacca has great strategic importance. In security terms, China is faced with the " Malacca dilemma " because the U.S. could easily block this lifeline for China's economy and energy in case of conflict. However, other Asian countries such as India, Japan, South Korea and the ASEAN members, but also Europe and the U.S. economically dependent on the free passability of the Straits of Malacca. Due to this importance, the Strait of Malacca is also considered the " aorta of the Indo- Pacific ".

Also according to their importance, especially for the oil trade, she was long one of the most pirate infested waterways. On 9 January 2004 the tanker Cherry 201 was hijacked, for example. After long negotiations ransom four sailors were shot by the pirates. The security policy issue of piracy is now regarded however as successfully.