How dependent is Sierra Leone on China?

and 82 more

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%.

• China sells 31.7% of what the world exports of sorting and crushing machines; next come Germany (10%), United Kingdom (6.5%) and Italy (6.3%). The rest of the world exported 366.9 times what Sierra Leone buys from China.
• China sells 29.7% of what the world exports of steel structures; next come Germany (8.4%), Poland (4.7%) and Turkey (4.4%). The rest of the world exported 1,456.5 times what Sierra Leone buys from China.
• China sells 7.5% of what the world exports of trucks; next come Mexico (19.7%), United States (11.3%) and Germany (7.6%). The rest of the world exported 6,597.2 times what Sierra Leone buys from China.
• China sells 7.1% of what the world exports of diesel and other locomotives; next come United States (32.2%), Spain (18.1%) and South Korea (11.1%). The rest of the world exported 65.3 times what Sierra Leone buys from China.
• China sells 50.6% of what the world exports of rubber and plastic footwear; next come Vietnam (16.4%), Indonesia (6%) and Germany (3.8%). The rest of the world exported 946.7 times what Sierra Leone buys from China.
• China sells 46.2% of what the world exports of cameras and broadcast equipment; next come Vietnam (13.1%), Taiwan (4.4%) and India (4.3%). The rest of the world exported 16,008 times what Sierra Leone buys from China.
• China sells 20.3% of what the world exports of cables and wire; next come Mexico (11.1%), United States (6%) and Germany (5.3%). The rest of the world exported 7,093.3 times what Sierra Leone buys from China.
• China sells 17.1% of what the world exports of tomato preserves; next come Italy (39.6%), United States (8%) and Spain (7.6%). The rest of the world exported 323.6 times what Sierra Leone buys from China.
• China sells 17% of what the world exports of control panels; next come Germany (11.9%), Mexico (10.9%) and United States (8.5%). The rest of the world exported 4,461.9 times what Sierra Leone buys from China.
• China sells 27.6% of what the world exports of coated flat steel; next come South Korea (10.3%), Germany (7.2%) and Belgium (4.8%). The rest of the world exported 2,635.2 times what Sierra Leone buys from China.

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

Sierra Leone is China’s 143rd-largest customer, with 0.02% of its exports.

• Trade between Sierra Leone and China
• Who does Sierra Leone rely on?
• Who does China rely on?
• Trade profile of Sierra Leone
• Trade profile of China
• All countries

Sources and licenses

• CEPII BACI · Licence Ouverte Etalab 2.0
• Natural Earth · Public domain

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.