globaltraffic.earth

How dependent is India on South Africa?

In 2024, South Africa sold $12.1 billion to India, 1.8% of its imports, ranking 15th among its suppliers. Its share was 1.6% in 2019 and 0.86% in 1995. In 4 products it sells more than 50% of what India buys of them (in 2, more than 75%); what India buys from South Africa in those products (dominated value) adds up to $1.4 billion, 0.2% of its imports.

Summary

Share of its imports
1.8%
Value imported
$12.1billion
Rank among its suppliers
15th
Products where it sells over 50%
4
Products where it sells over 75%
2
Dominated value
$1.4billion
Share of total imports
0.2%

Trend

South Africa went from 0.86% to 1.8% of what India buys

Trend in shares

South Africa went from 0.86% to 1.8% of what India buys

Share (%)

  • South Africa 1.8%

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearValue (USD millions)ShareRank
19953070.86%28
19963891%24
19975941.5%21
19981,3643%14
19992,1223.9%10
20001,5283.3%12
20011,4743.3%12
20022,1124.2%9
20032,0813.3%14
20041,9172.3%15
20053,1792.7%14
20062,5261.4%22
20073,5591.5%21
20085,8531.8%19
20095,8252.1%14
20108,3472.3%14
201110,7962.3%17
20129,4331.9%19
20138,1411.8%19
20147,1981.6%21
20156,6771.7%18
20166,1501.7%19
20178,1891.8%18
20188,0691.6%20
20197,8241.6%19
20208,3652.2%13
202110,4971.8%16
202210,5181.5%19
202310,8941.6%15
202412,0861.8%15

Products where South Africa sells more than half

4 products, 0.2% of what it buys
ProductSupplierShareSecondValue
Manganese oreSouth Africa55.4%Gabon · 38.2%$597 million
Dissolving wood pulpSouth Africa58.7%Canada · 13.2%$521 million
Feldspar and fluorsparSouth Africa77.5%over 75%China · 8.3%$164 million
Chromium oreSouth Africa90.4%over 75%Albania · 4.9%$74 million

A product has a dominant supplier when a single country sells more than 50% of what is bought of it; we flag it separately above 75%.

Are there other suppliers in the world?

  • South Africa sells 50.5% of what the world exports of manganese ore; next come Gabon (25.8%), Ghana (8.5%) and Australia (7.7%). The rest of the world exported 5.5 times what India buys from South Africa.
  • South Africa sells 13.7% of what the world exports of dissolving wood pulp; next come Indonesia (20.7%), Brazil (12.6%) and United States (10%). The rest of the world exported 12.2 times what India buys from South Africa.
  • South Africa sells 16.4% of what the world exports of feldspar and fluorspar; next come Turkey (15.4%), China (10.7%) and Mongolia (10.5%). The rest of the world exported 8.3 times what India buys from South Africa.
  • South Africa sells 83.8% of what the world exports of chromium ore; next come Turkey (4.8%), Zimbabwe (4.2%) and Pakistan (1.5%). The rest of the world exported 20.1 times what India buys from South Africa.

Exports from the rest of the world already have buyers; the figure shows scale, not availability.

Seen from South Africa

South Africa’s 4th customer, 7.7% of its sales

India is South Africa’s 4th-largest customer, with 7.7% of its exports.

Sources and method

CEPII BACI and 1 more

Sources and licenses

Methodology

The data come from CEPII BACI (Etalab 2.0 licence), which reconciles what the exporting and the importing country report, in current USD, FOB. Data up to 2024.

Dependence is the share of a country’s imports (or exports) that each partner accounts for. It does not measure whether a product has a substitute or how much it would cost to change supplier.

The concentration index (HHI) adds up the square of each partner’s share, in percent: it runs from 0 to 10,000. Its equivalent is 10,000 ÷ HHI, the number of partners of the same size that would give that value.

Products are HS4 headings of the 1992 nomenclature (some combine different goods), with a floor of $1 million per product and country.

The EU is the 27 current members in every year; the United Kingdom is outside the EU throughout the series.

Re-exports: countries that act as redistribution hubs carry their notice and the figures are not corrected.