Africa has emerged as a major growth hub for Chinese exports, with Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt leading the demand surge that has reshaped Beijing’s trade outlook amid U.S. tariffs.
Bloomberg reports that Chinese exports to Africa jumped 25% year-on-year to reach $122 billion so far in 2025, already surpassing the continent’s entire 2020 trade volume with China and on course to top $200 billion for the first time.
China emerged as Nigeria’s largest sources of imports in the first quarter of 2025, showing a significant concentration of imports from a handful of global economies.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data reveals the leading countries of origin for goods and services imported into Nigeria during this period.
The Chinese exported N4.66 trillion to Nigeria during the period.
The data shows that this is down from N14.14 trillion the country did in Q4 2024. Its current Share of Total Imports stood at 30.19%.
What China Is Exporting to Africa
Construction machinery ranked among China’s fastest-growing exports to Africa in the first seven months of 2025, surging 63% year-on-year. According to Bloomberg. Shipments of passenger cars more than doubled, while steel product exports rose in high double digits. African nations have also stepped-up imports of Chinese solar panels, which climbed 60% in the 12 months through June, according to climate think tank Ember.
Despite these gains, Africa’s share of China’s total exports remains modest at about 6%, roughly half the level for the United States.
US-China trade tension fueling shift
The shift is being fueled by the escalating U.S.–China trade war, which has pushed Chinese firms to seek new outlets for their goods.
President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched in 2013, has laid the foundation for this boom, as Chinese companies continue winning contracts for large-scale projects across the continent.
Shipments of passenger cars more than doubled from a year earlier and some steel products expanded in high double digits. At the same time, Africa’s share of China’s total exports remains modest at about 6%, roughly half the level for the US.
Some goods destined for the US are possibly being diverted through Africa, according to Gavekal’s Beddor, a tactic known as transshipment.
Rising protectionism in Washington has given extra incentive for Africa to buy from Beijing. A number of goods from more than 30 nations on the continent that had duty-free access to American markets granted under the African Growth and Opportunity Act are now being subjected to a range of tariffs by the Trump administration.
In the first half of 2025 alone, Africa inked $30.5 billion in construction contracts with China, according to a July report from Griffith University in Australia and the Green Finance & Development Center, founded at Shanghai-based Fudan University. That’s five times the amount during the same period last year and the most among all regions included in Xi’s infrastructure initiative, according to Bloomberg.
And in a counterpoint to Trump, Xi said in June that China is removing levies on imports from all African nations with which it has diplomatic ties.
During the same month, the government in Beijing allowed imports of agricultural products from Ethiopia, Congo, Gambia, and Malawi, bringing to 19 the number of African countries with access to China’s market.
In Africa, China could bring know-how and its vast industrial machine to a continent struggling with costly logistics and held back by its patchy infrastructure, with less than half of the population having reliable electricity access.
African nations have been ordering more solar panels from China, with imports of the clean-energy technology surging 60% in the 12 months through June, according to climate think tank Ember.
What you should know
This emerging trend suggests that Africa is increasingly tilting towards Eastern markets, particularly China and India, in its trade relations.
This shift could be attributed to multiple factors, including competitive pricing, availability of consumer goods, flexible credit facilities, and geopolitical considerations.
Inflationary pressures eased, with input costs and output prices rising at a much slower rate than in December.