Browsing: China-Africa Trade

China's economic slowdown

How Africa can cushion the blow of China’s economic slowdown

Industry and Trade
  • China’s economic slowdown will affect Africa since the Asian country is the largest single-country trading partner.
  • As China experiences a notable economic slowdown, the IMF asserts that sub-Saharan African countries must proactively respond to the shifting geo-economic landscape.
  • The IMF says a promising avenue lies in tapping into the robust demand for minerals crucial for renewable energy development.

China—Africa’s largest single-country trading partner—is experiencing an economic slowdown. And this matters a lot for policymakers in Africa. As China grapples with a second consecutive month of contracting manufacturing activity posted in November, the implications stretch far beyond the borders of the Asian country.

China’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) stumbled to 49.4 in November, a slight dip from October’s 49.5, falling short of economists’ expectations of 49.7. This statistical swing around the pivotal 50-point mark, which separates contraction from expansion, paints a nuanced picture of an economy needing stimulus to revive growth …

DP World Luanda offers customers the use of a new digital tool for monitoring and managing the cargo sent to the Multiusos Terminal. Named Cargoes Flow, it was developed by the technological team of the DP World Group and allows you to monitor the shipment and arrival of orders in real time. At the same time, it allows customers to manage delays and the expectations of suppliers to whom the cargo is intended and, consequently, minimize the resulting financial losses. www.theexchange.africa

How Shipping is Shaping international trade in 2023

Industry and Trade
Nearly 90 per cent of the world’s trade is carried by the global shipping industry.
Without shipping, global cargo trade via imports and exports would essentially cripple nations and international markets.
The sector was heavily hit by the Covid-pandemic disrupting global supply chains yielding a sharp increase in freight costs.
This came with the partial closure of key ports in China, one of Africa’s leading market sources.
Despite this, data shows China-Africa trade reached $185.2 billion between January and September 2021, up 38.2 percent year-on-year.
As shipping lines suspended operations, many factories followed suit essentially shutting down much of the global international trade.
Following the 2020 global shipment shutdown, another shipping crisis forced goods to be locked down for weeks.
The blockage of the Suez Canal by giant cargo vessel, the 400 meter-long-Ever Given operated by global shipping firm Evergreen, became wedged across the Suez after being blown off course
…
www.theexchange.africa

Is Africa China’s sweat shop or America’s trade nightmare?

Industry and Trade

Worth noting here is that Africa, including Ethiopia and most of its East African neighbours, are squirming in shipments of second-hand clothing, interestingly, imported from Europe, North America and other western countries.

What better defines neo-colonialism than Africa producing clothes to be exported to Europe and North America only for these very clothes to be sold back to Africa after they have been used! This sounds worse than the renowned exploitative colonial and post-colonial trade agreements (that still hold true and strong) where Africa, using cheap labour, produces raw material, which is cheaply exported to Europe, processed, packaged and sold back to Africa!

Several East African countries have attempted to honour up and ban the import of second-hand clothes. As you can imagine, the attempt failed.…

Standard Bank China-Africa trade initiative lands in Kenya

Standard Bank’s China-Africa trade initiative lands in Kenya

Kenya

Stanbic Bank Kenya and Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have partnered with Chinese Trade Agent Zhejiang International Trading Supply Chain Co. Ltd (Guomao) to launch the Africa China Agent Proposition (ACAP) initiative.

The initiative which has been launched in different parts of Africa aims to assist African importers source and validate quality goods, safely and efficiently, from the most competitive suppliers in China.

The ACAP offering is expected to revolutionize African importers’ view of China’s supplier universe. It will also ease the cash flow of African importers by providing access to financing while empowering importers with sight and control of the entire importing and logistics process.

It was initially launched in Nigeria and Ghana in May 2019 with roll out to South Africa and Kenya following.

Currently African importers order from only a handful of trusted Chinese suppliers. This limits the negotiating power of African importers while stacking the …