How dependent is the United States on South Africa?

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%.

• South Africa sells 37.2% of what the world exports of platinum; next come Russia (8.7%), Germany (6.8%) and United Kingdom (6.6%). The rest of the world exported 6.6 times what the United States buys from South Africa.
• South Africa sells 16.1% of what the world exports of granulated blast-furnace slag; next come China (19.8%), Japan (19.1%) and Germany (7.5%). The rest of the world exported 7.7 times what the United States 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 45.1 times what the United States buys from South Africa.
• South Africa sells 6.7% of what the world exports of finished cattle leather; next come Italy (15.3%), Thailand (10.4%) and China (8.8%). The rest of the world exported 45.3 times what the United States buys from South Africa.
• South Africa sells 1.8% of what the world exports of base metals, silver or gold clad with platinum; next come South Korea (24.2%), Malaysia (21%) and Japan (20.9%). The rest of the world exported 63.1 times what the United States buys from South Africa.

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

The United States is South Africa’s 2nd-largest customer, with 9.2% of its exports.

• Trade between the United States and South Africa
• Who does the United States rely on?
• Who does South Africa rely on?
• Dependence of the United States on Canada
• Dependence of the United States on China
• Dependence of the United States on Mexico
• Dependence of the United States on Ireland
• Dependence of the United States on Chile
• Dependence of the United States on Switzerland
• Dependence of the United States on Brazil
• Dependence of the United States on Indonesia
• Dependence of the United States on Australia
• Dependence of the United States on Vietnam
• Dependence of the United States on Colombia
• Dependence of the United States on India
• Dependence of the United States on Peru
• Dependence of the United States on the Dominican Republic
• Dependence of the United States on Thailand
• Dependence of the United States on Japan
• Trade profile of the United States
• Trade profile of South Africa
• 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.