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How dependent is the United Arab Emirates on Hong Kong?

In 2024, Hong Kong sold $14.5 billion to the United Arab Emirates, 4.7% of its imports, ranking 5th among its suppliers. Its share was 1.5% in 2019 and 5.3% in 1995. In 3 products it sells more than 50% of what the United Arab Emirates buys of them (in 1, more than 75%); what the United Arab Emirates buys from Hong Kong in those products (dominated value) adds up to $846 million, 0.27% of its imports.

Summary

Some of these goods may have been produced in another country: countries record origin in different ways.

Share of its imports
4.7%
Value imported
$14.5billion
Rank among its suppliers
5th
Products where it sells over 50%
3
Products where it sells over 75%
1
Dominated value
$846million
Share of total imports
0.3%

Trend

Trend in shares

Hong Kong went from 5.3% to 4.7% of what the United Arab Emirates buys

Share (%)

  • Hong Kong 4.7%

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearValue (USD millions)ShareRank
19951,1935.3%9
19961,2755.3%8
19971,2804.9%9
19981,0783.8%10
19999183.2%10
20001,0583.3%10
20011,1413.2%10
20021,3953.3%10
20031,7473.4%10
20041,9733%10
20059901.3%20
20062,0892%14
20071,3021.1%23
20081,6981%19
20092,7552%14
20102,7261.7%18
20113,8422%14
20122,0940.85%25
20132,6281.3%18
20143,0871.4%17
20153,6961.8%14
20163,1441.5%15
20173,8131.4%14
20184,5591.8%14
20193,9861.5%12
20202,2801%24
20212,0270.71%35
20222,6550.78%34
20234,8561.2%19
202414,5174.7%5

Products where Hong Kong sells more than half

ProductSupplierShareSecondValue
Precious metal scrapHong Kong75.3%over 75%Germany · 8.7%$541 million
Nitrogen heterocyclic compoundsHong Kong70.4%China · 16.1%$300 million
PearlsHong Kong68.4%Switzerland · 22.2%$5 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?

  • Hong Kong sells 3.7% of what the world exports of precious metal scrap; next come United States (22.2%), Indonesia (15.7%) and Belgium (5.5%). The rest of the world exported 49.5 times what the United Arab Emirates buys from Hong Kong.
  • Hong Kong sells 0.36% of what the world exports of nitrogen heterocyclic compounds; next come China (26.6%), Switzerland (17.1%) and Ireland (13.8%). The rest of the world exported 315.5 times what the United Arab Emirates buys from Hong Kong.
  • Hong Kong sells 7.9% of what the world exports of pearls; next come Japan (31.4%), Australia (14.3%) and Indonesia (12.3%). The rest of the world exported 191.4 times what the United Arab Emirates buys from Hong Kong.

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

Seen from Hong Kong

The United Arab Emirates is Hong Kong’s 3rd-largest customer, with 10.1% of its exports.

Sources and method

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.