Blog: 10 February 2017 (SA's exports for 2016 on interactive map)

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In today's blog we take a look at South Africa's exports for 2016 on an interactive map, showing where South Africa exports the majority of their goods. We hope readers find this map informative and useful.
China calling the shots
It's a while known fact that South Africa imports a lot goods from China (every second item one touches has a sticker or label stating "Made in China". But when South Africans are asked where does South Africa's exports go the answer is not as obvious? Or is it. The map below shows a variety of countries and the contribution they make to South Africa's total exports for 2016. The thinner the line the lower the percentage of total exports of South Africa. The relative contribution of the countries are shown with colour coded lines too.
As the map shows that over 9% of South Africa's total value of goods exported are exported to China, making China South Africa's largest export market in 2016. Coming in a close second and third is Germany (with 7.54%) and the United States (with 7.35%) the other countries shown in the map includes:

United Kingdom 4.6%, 
India 4.6%,
Japan 4.2%, 
Netherlands 2.6%,
Italy 1.2%,
Australia 0.9%,
Thailand and Singapore 0.6%
Saudi Arabia 0.52%, 
Brazil 0.50%
Russia 0.38% 
 Interesting to note is where South Africa's "BRICS"partners lie on the list of export countries for South Africa. Not a large amount is exported to Brazil and Russia, with only China and India making up large contributions to South Africa's exports. One wonders what other benefit South Africa gains from being part of BRICS? As it is clearly not promoting South African exports to Russia and Brazil. Is it a case of one way traffic, where they (Brazil and Russia) benefit by exporting to South Africa, and South Africa not really exporting to them? This question we will take a look at when we do a similar map for imports into South Africa.

Total exports for South Africa in 2016 amounted to just over R1trillion (to put that amount into perspective, it is worth almost one third of South Africa's total economy).

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