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We take a look at the customs data as released by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) for the year 2018. Just how much did we import and export during 2018 to and from Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan?
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Singapore vs South Korea vs Taiwan
While the main Asian trading partner for South Africa is China, and trade (both imports and exports) is dominated by South Africa's trade with China, as we showed yesterday, today we want to take a closer look at trade between South Africa and some of the other big markets in Asia. Note Singapore's numbers might be inflated due to the fact that it is a trading port and goods coming from there or heading there might end up at another destination in the end. So this could potentially inflate Singapore's trade numbers.
So of the three countries, South Africa only has a favorable trade balance (Exports to a specific country being more than imports from that country) with South Korea. The positive trade balance South Africa has with South Korea amounted to R11.095 billion during 2018. It recorded a negative trade balance of -R1.19 billion with Singapore and a negative trade balance of -R236 million with Taiwan.
So what exactly are we importing and exporting from and to these countries?
The summary below shows the trade balance per product group per country as recorded in 2018.
Singapore:
Singapore:
- Live animals: R 50 319 702
- Vegetables: R 661 967 884
- Animal or vegetable fats: R -56 359 702
- Prepared foodstuffs: R 244 383 172
- Mineral Products: R -2 161 003 780
- Chemicals: R 1 553 043 000
- Plastics & Rubber: R -562 700 440
- Raw hides & leather: R 18 486 758
- Wood Products: R -28 509 744
- Wood pulp & paper: R -175 566 891
- Textiles: R -3 623 962
- Footwear: R 3 017 356
- Stone & Glass: R 2 152 834
- Precious Metal: R 14 580 921
- Products Iron & Steel: R 360 741 193
- Machinery: R -991 301 123
- Vehicles aircraft & vessels: R 279 269 979
- Photographic & medical equipment: R -408 955 442
- Toys & Sport apparel: R 4 746 855
- Works of art: R 1 457 767
- Other unclassified goods: R 9 292 570
- Equipment Components: R -4 713 300
South Korea:
Taiwan:
So interesting to note that while South Africa had a large positive trade balance in mineral products with both Taiwan and South Korea, it has a large trade deficit with Singapore when it comes to Mineral Products.
- Live animals: R 39 885 134
- Vegetables: R 737 516 041
- Animal or vegetable fats: R -39 846
- Prepared foodstuffs: R 74 428 625
- Mineral Products: R 13 411 948 492
- Chemicals: R -29 409 090
- Plastics & Rubber: R -1 369 537 190
- Raw hides & leather: R 57 401 736
- Wood Products: R 3 480 162
- Wood pulp & paper: R -314 923 130
- Textiles: R -306 947 275
- Footwear: R -3 466 478
- Stone & Glass: R 24 323 852
- Precious Metal: R 292 828 785
- Products Iron & Steel: R 3 491 324 436
- Machinery: R -2 951 850 011
- Vehicles aircraft & vessels: R -1 468 781 460
- Photographic & medical equipment: R -184 842 175
- Toys & Sport apparel: R -125 715 068
- Works of art: R -14 779
- Other unclassified goods: R -3 072 646
- Equipment Components: R -278 858 663
Taiwan:
- Live animals:R 63 574 206
- Vegetables:R 640 403 323
- Animal or vegetable fats:R 3 121 748
- Prepared foodstuffs:R 50 601 008
- Mineral Products: R 4 181 210 243
- Chemicals: R -358 634 108
- Plastics & Rubber: R -1 388 202 864
- Raw hides & leather: R 26 690 799
- Wood Products: R -3 350 686
- Wood pulp & paper: R 98 812 363
- Textiles: R -466 712 312
- Footwear: R -16 476 842
- Stone & Glass: R -80 406 148
- Precious Metal: R 1 274 136 397
- Products Iron & Steel: R 564 389 518
- Machinery: R -4 452 685 095
- Vehicles aircraft & vessels: R 438 995 733
- Photographic & medical equipment: R -343 193 745
- Toys & Sport apparel: R -237 120 732
- Works of art: R -481 200
- Other unclassified goods: R -24 477 092
- Equipment Components: R-206 272 831
So interesting to note that while South Africa had a large positive trade balance in mineral products with both Taiwan and South Korea, it has a large trade deficit with Singapore when it comes to Mineral Products.