China maintains as Namibia's top export market in September

WINDHOEK -- China maintained its dominance as Namibia's largest export destination, with a share of 44.5 percent of all goods exported, followed by South Africa which accounted for 16.3 percent of total exports, according to the country's statistics agency.

The trade statistics bulletin released Thursday by the agency, outlined the monthly developments of Namibia's trade-in merchandise with the rest of the world during the period of September 2020.

According to Namibia Statistics Agency Statistician-General, Alex Shimuafeni, the composition of goods exported remained the same mainly comprising of minerals such as non-ferrous metals, metalliferous ores and metal scrap, non-metallic mineral manufactures, as well as non-monetary gold.

"Fish remained the only non-mineral products among the top five list of exports. On the other hand, the import basket comprised mainly of non-ferrous metals, petroleum and petroleum products; metalliferous ores and metal scrap, vehicles and inorganic chemicals," he added.

Shimuafeni said the September trade figures indicate that total re-exports decreased by 7.7 percent month-on-month and increased by 61.8 percent year-on-year to register 4 billion Namibia dollars ($256 million) from 4.4 billion recorded in Aug, 2020 and 2.5 billion in Sept, 2019.

The non-ferrous metals took the largest share of re-exports, constituting a share of 61.1 percent of total re-exports mainly to China. The non-ferrous metals which were re-exported were mostly sourced from Zambia and DRC, he said.