The Strait of Malacca is one of the busiest straits in the world, with ships running from end to end. The United States has a presence in Singapore in the southeast of the Strait of Malacca, and the Changi Naval Base can accommodate U.S. aircraft carriers.
There are many islands in Southeast Asia, and there are many straits, among which the Lombok Strait and the Makassar Strait can be compared with the Strait of Malacca?
Photo - Changi Naval Base
Let's first take a look at the basic situation of the four straits in Southeast Asia: the Strait of Malacca, the Sunda Strait, the Lombok Strait, and the Makassar Strait.
【Strait of Malacca】
The Strait of Malacca is located between Sumatra Island and the Malay Peninsula, with a northwest-southeast trend, connecting the Indian Ocean in the west and the South China Sea in the east, with a length of about 1,080 kilometers. The Strait of Malacca is about 37 km to 370 km wide, with the narrowest point at the southern end being only 2.8 km. The water depth of the Strait of Malacca is about 25 to 150 meters, and the sediment on both sides of the strait continues to silt into the strait, plus the historical shipwrecks, there are 37 places where the shalf is more than 23 meters, and cargo ships of more than 200,000 tons cannot pass.
The volume of cargo traffic in the Strait of Malacca is three times that of the Suez Canal and five times that of the Panama Canal, and about 100,000 ships pass through the Strait of Malacca every year, which is worthy of being the world's first strait for goods entering and leaving the strait.
【Tatsumi Other Straits】
The Sunda Strait is located between Sumatra and Java, connecting the Indian Ocean and the Java Sea from north to south, with a southwest-northeast trend, about 150 kilometers long and 25 kilometers to 110 kilometers wide. The average water depth of the Sunda Strait is more than 200 meters, and the maximum depth is 1,759 meters, but there are several volcanic islands in the northeast, and the water depth is only 25 meters to 80 meters, which can pass ships below 200,000 tons.
【Lombok Strait】
The Lombok Strait is located between Bali and Lombok, connecting the Indian Ocean and the Java Sea from north to south, with a length of about 80.5 kilometers from north to south and a width of about 35 kilometers to 65 kilometers. The average water depth of the Lombok Strait is more than 200 meters, and the deepest is 1,306 meters, making it a deep-water waterway.
【Makassar Strait】
The Makassar Strait is located between Kalimantan and Sulawesi, connecting the Java Sea and the Sulawesi Sea from north to south, with a length of about 800 kilometers from north to south and a width of about 120 kilometers to 398 kilometers. The average water depth of the Makassar Strait is about 967 meters, and the water depth on the east side is 930 meters to 3,392 meters.
Indonesia (hereinafter referred to as Indonesia) intends to move its capital from the island of Java to the province of East Kalimantan in the east of Kalimantan, roughly on the west coast of the Makassar Strait, and named Nusantara (Nusantara), which means "archipelago".
If Indonesia can successfully move its capital, the Makassar Strait will inevitably become full of ships and quickly prosper.
On the east-west shipping lane, cargo ships of 200,000 tons and above do not go through the Strait of Malacca and Sunda, but through the Lombok Strait and the Makassar Strait.
In the north-south shipping lane, Australia's iron ore also goes through the Lombok Strait and the Makassar Strait, and then passes through the Balabac Strait, through Luzon Island in the Philippines, and comes to the coast of China.
Let's take a look at Indonesia.
Indonesia accounts for three and a half of the four straits in Southeast Asia, but the current distribution of cargo throughput is uneven, the Strait of Malacca carries most of the goods, and Indonesia's development in the Strait of Malacca is far less than that of Singapore and Malaysia.
There are about 49 island countries in the world, and there are thousands of island countries such as the Philippines, Cuba, Maldives, etc., which are called the countries of a thousand islands. Indonesia has about 17,508 large and small islands, and it is truly a country of 10,000 islands.
Indonesia covers an area of about 1,913,600 square kilometers, which is not particularly large, but five of the world's top 13 islands are wholly or partially occupied by Indonesia, including Papua Island (786,000 square kilometers), Kalimantan Island (748,100 square kilometers), Sumatra Island (473,500 square kilometers), Sulawesi Island (174,600 square kilometers), and Java Island (126,700 square kilometers). All the islands on the mainland combined, are not as big as Java.
With the increase in China's trade volume with East Africa and South Africa, the capacity of Indonesia's relevant sea areas will be greatly increased. If Indonesia can make good use of the Sunda Strait, Lombok Strait, and Makassar Strait to speed up the construction of ports and supporting facilities on the island, Indonesia will also become a maritime transportation center.