What South Africa buys, and from whom.
South Africa imported USD 68bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, down 4 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 13 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.
Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.
The twenty countries South Africa imports most from.
A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what South Africa is best placed to make itself, see Made here: South Africa.
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1
China
Share of South Africa's imports31 per centChangedown 6 per cent on 2022USD 21bnin 2024 -
2
Germany
Share of South Africa's imports10 per centChangeup 8 per cent on 2022USD 6.7bnin 2024 -
3
India
Share of South Africa's imports7 per centChangedown 1 per cent on 2022USD 4.5bnin 2024 -
4
United States
Share of South Africa's imports6 per centChangedown 8 per cent on 2022USD 4.3bnin 2024 -
5
Japan
Share of South Africa's imports3 per centChangedown 7 per cent on 2022USD 2.0bnin 2024 -
6
Italy
Share of South Africa's imports3 per centChangedown 6 per cent on 2022USD 1.9bnin 2024 -
7
France
Share of South Africa's imports3 per centChangedown 9 per cent on 2022USD 1.7bnin 2024 -
8
Thailand
Share of South Africa's imports2 per centChangeup 13 per cent on 2022USD 1.6bnin 2024 -
9
United Kingdom
Share of South Africa's imports2 per centChangedown 8 per cent on 2022USD 1.5bnin 2024 -
10
Spain
Share of South Africa's imports2 per centChangedown 13 per cent on 2022USD 1.2bnin 2024 -
11
Netherlands
Share of South Africa's imports2 per centChangeup 10 per cent on 2022USD 1.1bnin 2024 -
12
Eswatini
Share of South Africa's imports2 per centChangeup 6 per cent on 2022USD 1.1bnin 2024 -
13
Vietnam
Share of South Africa's imports2 per centChangedown 3 per cent on 2022USD 1.0bnin 2024 -
14
Sweden
Share of South Africa's imports1 per centChangeup 48 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 968min 2024 -
15
Poland
Share of South Africa's imports1 per centChangeup 7 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 913min 2024 -
16
Belgium
Share of South Africa's imports1 per centChangedown 13 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 825min 2024 -
17
Austria
Share of South Africa's imports1 per centChangeup 19 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 808min 2024 -
18
Brazil
Share of South Africa's imports1 per centChangedown 13 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 787min 2024 -
19
South Korea
Share of South Africa's imports1 per centChangedown 26 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 750min 2024 -
20
Taiwan
Share of South Africa's imports1 per centChangedown 19 per cent on 2022Lane pageunder the lane thresholdUSD 666min 2024
What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.
Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.
Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to South Africa with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.
Share is China's part of everything South Africa imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.
Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.
A record of trade, not a shopping list.
What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.
Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.