{"id":879427,"date":"2026-10-13T15:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=879427"},"modified":"2026-10-13T15:24:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T13:24:18","slug":"south-africa-has-a-new-number-one-best-friend-after-23-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/879427\/south-africa-has-a-new-number-one-best-friend-after-23-years\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa has a new number one best friend after 23 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

China has emerged as South Africa’s largest trade partner, after Europe held the title for over 23 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) noted the change in its Q2 quarterly bulletin and said that China now accounts for over a quarter of the country’s trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“China has steadily climbed the rankings over the past two decades, moving from sixth place in 2003 to first in 2026,” it said. “Its trade weight increased sharply from only 3.1% in 1999 to 28.6% in 2026.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same period, the Reserve Bank said that Europe’s position in South Africa’s global trade portfolio had contracted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Over the same period, the euro area\u2019s trade weight fell to 26.01% from 35.7%, moving it to second place,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While China may have become South Africa’s largest trading partner by volume, Europe remains the main destination for the country’s exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is due to Chinese imports far outweighing the total goods exported to the country, with the SARB describing the trading relationship between the two countries as “highly uneven.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“South Africa imports a lot more manufactured products from China than it exports,” the Reserve Bank noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the 2026 revision, China supplied 35.7% of South Africa\u2019s manufactured imports but received only about 5.9% of South Africa\u2019s manufactured exports.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some South African industries have sounded the alarm over Chinese and broader Asian imports threatening local manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 2026, vehicle parts manufacturer Metair said South Africa’s automotive industry was under pressure from Chinese brands entering the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Most of the increase in vehicle sales was attributable to imports from Chinese and Indian automotive brands, which continue to put pressure on the locally manufactured vehicle market,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese vehicle brands have become increasingly popular in South Africa, including manufacturers such as Chery and BYD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s largest trade partners<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The SARB noted several other countries and areas which account for large portions of its international trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the majority of South Africa’s imports come from China, Europe and the US still account for a large amount of the goods entering the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For exports, Europe and the US account for the largest share of South Africa’s international sales, with China trailing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside these three major economic zones, countries such as India, Japan, and the UK are major trade partners of South Africa, according to the SARB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second quarter of 2026, South Africa’s trade surplus narrowed due to the rising value of goods brought into the country compared to the value of exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reserve Bank said oil prices contributed to the narrower trade surplus, due to higher global prices and a weaker rand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The terms of trade deteriorated notably over the same period as the rand price of imported goods and services increased much more than that of exports, largely due to the sharp increase in the realised rand prices of crude oil and refined petroleum products,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While South Africa’s trade margin narrowed, the value of one of the country’s key exports, gold, increased sharply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reserve Bank said this was largely due to an increase in the total quantity of gold that South Africa was able to export.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The value of net gold exports increased sharply in the second quarter of 2026 as the physical quantity of net gold exports rose significantly,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gold prices fell sharply in the second quarter of 2026, after a strong rally for the precious metal and other commodities at the start of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lower price for the key South African export was also due to a stronger dollar and a slight easing of tensions in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The lower gold price reflected a stronger US dollar, a temporary easing in geopolitical tensions and expectations that US interest rates would remain elevated for longer, among other factors,” the SARB said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Europe has been South Africa’s largest trade partner for years, but has recently been replaced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":816083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2110004138469638586","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2235884267231972","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[423,361,26028,3619],"class_list":["post-879427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-china","tag-europe","tag-metair","tag-sarb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879427"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":879637,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879427\/revisions\/879637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}