ORBIS

Chokepoint · South Africa

Cape of Good Hope

OpenUpdated October 1, 2026

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland at the southwestern end of Africa, about 50 km south of Cape Town. It is not a strait. Ships sailing between Europe and Asia pass it in open sea when they avoid the Suez Canal. Since January 2024, more cargo has gone around the cape than through Suez.

Ship counts from IMF PortWatch · Oil flows from the US Energy Information Administration

The Cape Peninsula seen from the International Space Station, with Cape Town at top left, False Bay at top right and Cape Point at the far tip Map showing where the Cape of Good Hope is
The Cape Peninsula from the International Space Station, May 2019. Cape Point is at the far right. NASA, public domain.
Africa's southern tip
150 km
away, at Cape Agulhas
Rotterdam to Singapore
+6,500 km
around the cape instead of through Suez
Oil a day, Apr–Jun 2026
9.4 million
barrels, 6.2 million in 2023
Cargo ships a day
89
Last four weeks; 49 a day in 2023
Country
South Africa

Where is the Cape of Good Hope?

The Cape of Good Hope sits at the end of the Cape Peninsula, about 50 km south of Cape Town. Cape Point, with its lighthouse, is about 2 km to the east. Many people think the Cape of Good Hope is Africa's southern tip. It is not. That is Cape Agulhas, about 150 km to the east-southeast. The International Hydrographic Organization puts the boundary between the Atlantic and Indian oceans there. Off the coast, the cold Benguela current flows north up the west coast and the warm Agulhas current flows south-west down the east coast.

Map of the Cape Peninsula and the coast to Cape Agulhas, with Cape Town, False Bay and the route ships follow around the cape SOUTH AFRICA Atlantic Ocean Indian Ocean False Bay Cape Town Cape of
Good Hope Cape Agulhas Usual route 150 km
Map of the Cape Peninsula and the coast to Cape Agulhas, with Cape Town, False Bay and the route ships follow around the cape SOUTH AFRICA Atlantic Ocean False Bay Cape Town Cape of
Good Hope Cape Agulhas 150 km
The usual route of ships rounding the cape (approximate)

How many ships sail around the Cape of Good Hope?

In the four weeks to October 4, IMF PortWatch counted about 89 cargo ships and tankers a day sailing around the cape, against 49 in 2023. The count almost doubled after the Houthis began attacking ships in the Red Sea in late 2023. It averaged 49 ships a day in 2023 and 89.5 in 2025. Since January 2024, more cargo has gone around the cape than through the Suez Canal. In January 2024, 124 million tonnes went around the cape and 57 million through Suez.

Container ships went from about 6 a day in 2023 to about 20 a day from 2024 to mid-2026. In September 2026 it fell to about 16 a day, as Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and COSCO moved some services back to Suez. Most of these ships pass South Africa without stopping at its ports.

Ships around the cape each day

Weekly average, January 2023 to October 2026

02550751001252023202420252026Dec 2023Shipping lines avoid the Red Sea 0255075100125202420252026Dec 2023Shipping lines avoid the Red Sea
2023 average, 49 a dayIMF PortWatch counts cargo ships and tankers from ship tracking data. Ships with their transponders off are not counted.

How much oil goes around the Cape of Good Hope?

About 6.2 million barrels a day of crude oil and oil products went around the cape in 2023. That rose to 9.1 million in the first half of 2025, about 11% of all oil carried by sea. It reached 9.4 million in April to June 2026. Most of the crude goes east to Asia. In the first half of 2025, 5.2 million barrels a day went to Asia, and more than 40% of that to China. The oil comes mostly from South America and Mexico (29%), West Africa (28%) and the United States (23%). Liquefied natural gas also set a record around the cape in April to June 2026.

Oil through each chokepoint

Early 2025Apr–Jun 2026
  1. Strait of Malacca16.6
  2. Cape of Good Hope9.4
  3. Bab el-Mandeb8.1
  4. Suez Canal5.8
  5. Strait of Hormuz4.9
  6. Danish straits4.7
  7. Turkish Straits4.1
  8. Panama Canal3.2
Million barrels a day, January to June 2025 and April to June 2026. US Energy Information Administration.

Why is the sea around the cape dangerous?

Strong winds and freak waves make these waters dangerous. By tradition, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias called it the Cape of Storms. King John II of Portugal renamed it the Cape of Good Hope. Historians disagree about this story. The winds include the dry south-easterly that Cape Town calls the "Cape Doctor". Off the east coast, waves running against the fast Agulhas current can build into freak waves up to 20 meters high. A deep trough forms in front of them. A 1980 study by oceanographer Eckart Schumann found that almost every ship damaged this way was sailing south-west with the current. South Africa's shipwreck database lists about 2,800 wrecks. In 2024, storms off South Africa knocked hundreds of containers off ships, including the CMA CGM Belem and MSC Antonia.

Ships lost or damaged off South Africa

  • Birkenhead, 1852A troopship wrecked at Danger Point. 193 of about 643 people survived.
  • Waratah, 1909A passenger liner that vanished between Durban and Cape Town with 211 people aboard.
  • World Glory, 1968A tanker that broke in two off Durban. 24 of its 34 crew died.
  • Neptune Sapphire, 1973A freak wave tore off about 61 meters of the bow on its first voyage.
  • Ultra Galaxy, 2024A cargo ship that ran aground and broke apart in a storm on the west coast.

Does South Africa gain from the extra ships?

Not much. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, ships may pass through South Africa's waters, and no fee may be charged for passage. Most ships do not stop. Sales of fuel to ships in South Africa fell from about 130,000 tonnes a month in 2023 to about 80,000 in 2024. Port Louis in Mauritius sold a record 929,043 tonnes in 2024. Shipping lines cited red tape, congestion and a lack of facilities in South Africa. The World Bank's ranking of container ports, published in June 2026, put Cape Town last of 400 ports and Durban 398th. But Durban improved more than any other port in the world.

World Bank ranking of 400 container ports

  • Cape Town400th, last
  • Durban398th, and the world's most improved port
  • Ngqura380th
  • Port Elizabeth314th
World Bank Container Port Performance Index, 2025 data, published June 2026.

The cape over the years

  1. 1488Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias rounds the cape in a storm without seeing it and spots it on the way home. He dies in a storm off the cape in 1500.
  2. 1497Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama rounds the cape on November 22 and reaches India in May 1498.
  3. 1652Jan van Riebeeck of the Dutch East India Company lands on April 6 to sell food to passing ships, the start of Cape Town.
  4. 1806Britain takes the Cape from the Dutch at the Battle of Blaauwberg on January 8 and keeps it under a treaty in 1814.
  5. 1967–75The Suez Canal is closed for eight years. Oil companies build supertankers too big for the canal to carry Gulf oil around the cape.
  6. 2024After Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, more cargo goes around the cape than through the Suez Canal from January.

Other chokepoints

All 10 chokepoints →
Disrupted Suez Canal Traffic is recovering but still well below 2023. 41 ships a day, against 74 in 2023. Disrupted Bab el-Mandeb Houthis hold the Yemeni shore and attack Saudi-linked ships. 27 ships a day, against 74 in 2023. Open Strait of Malacca Fewer tankers since Hormuz closed. 225 ships a day, against 220 in 2023.
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