China’s imports from Africa rose to US$116.8 billion last year, up 6.9 per cent compared to 2023, driven by gold demand and agricultural products, which slightly narrowed the continent’s trade deficit.
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The increase tapered Africa’s trade gap with China to about US$62 billion from US$64 billion in 2023, according to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, as African countries called for more imports of their processed products, rather than raw materials.
At last year’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said his country had seen an increase in bilateral trade with China but it wanted “to narrow the trade deficit and address the structure of our trade”.
Increased investment in new mineral sites, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Guinea, Zambia and Zimbabwe, helped to boost African exports last year.
The DRC supplies more than 60 per cent of the cobalt China uses in its electric vehicle battery industry, while Zimbabwe has attracted billions of dollars from Chinese companies for the processing of lithium, another essential material for EVs.
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