Executive Summary: The Strait and narrow: Malacca, minerals, and the net-zero transition

Research evidence excerpt

Executive Summary: The Strait and narrow: Malacca, minerals, and the net-zero transition

Sustainability ● Global

July 2026

Executive Summary

More than 40m tonnes of Asia’s annual critical minerals imports

pass through Southeast Asia’s Strait of Malacca, a key shipping

route connecting the Indian and Pacific oceans. These minerals

are essential for the clean energy technologies that will deliver the

emissions reduction needed to achieve national net-zero targets.

We view the management of Asia’s critical minerals supply chain

in relation to its dependence on Malacca as an under-addressed

contributor to the pace of the global energy transition.

The Strait and narrow: Malacca, minerals, and the net-zero

transition

The Strait of Malacca is an essential trade route for the low-carbon economy. More than 40m

A chokepoint for both “old”

tonnes of Asian critical mineral imports pass through this corridor every year, used by cleanand “new” energy

technology manufacturers to produce electric vehicles, batteries, wind turbines, solar panels,

and other essential equipment for the net-zero transition.

Our analysis indicates that for four of six key transition minerals, around half or more of Asian

imports transit through Malacca, highlighting a concentrated physical dependency in the clean

technology value chain. The dependence is highest for manganese (76%), followed by cobalt

(59%), graphite (49%), and nickel (48%).

China drives much of Asia’s critical mineral import demand and dominates processing capacity.

We find a positive relationship between APAC’s share of refining at the mineral level and the

degree of Malacca dependence for imports of that mineral, suggesting that where Asia has the

most refining capacity, Malacca exposure tends to be higher.