China pouring exports into Africa faster than anywhere else

Exports to continent jump 25% year on year to $157b as orders from the US slump

- 

BEIJING — Africa has become a new hot spot for Chinese exports as US President Donald Trump's tariffs redraw trade for the world's biggest manufacturing nation.

With a 25 per cent year-on-year jump to US$122 billion (S$157 billion), growth in sales to the continent of 1.5 billion people has far outpaced other major markets in 2025 while orders from the US slumped. China's exports to Africa so far in 2025 are more than for the whole of 2020 and on track to exceed US$200 billion for the first time.

Although the trading relationship shows no sign of becoming less lopsided, with China running a far wider surplus with Africa than in 2024, Beijing is cracking open its domestic market while seizing the chance to meet the continent's infrastructure needs.

"Chinese exporters have done a genuinely impressive job of diversifying into emerging markets in recent years, including in Africa," said Mr Christopher Beddor, deputy China research director at Gavekal Dragonomics. "The weaker yuan this year has probably also made Chinese exports more competitive in African countries."

The trade war has supercharged a boom that was years in the making, spearheaded by President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative unveiled in 2013. And as Chinese companies snapped up contracts to build everything from railways to industrial parks across the continent, the demand for the machinery and materials to complete these projects followed in 2025.

Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt are the biggest African buyers of Chinese products. Construction machinery was among China's fastest growing exports to Africa in the first seven months, surging 63 per cent year on year.