China is our biggest customer

[Dave A]

China has become South Africa's biggest customer, but it's not all good news.

A breakdown of foreign trade figures, by country, shows that the Asian giant bought more than R41 billion worth of South African exports between January and October - the latest available figures on the SA Revenue Service (Sars) website.

This was up more than 31 percent on the same period in the previous year, while exports to the US, UK, Japan and Germany shrank more than 40 percent in the period. As a result, China leapt from its position as South Africa's fifth most important export destination in 2008 to first place last year.
full story from Business Report here

Our sales were made up almost entirely by minerals and metals, and although our trade deficit with China is down, it's still a significant deficit.

Isn't it time we started selling them toasters instead of sending them the metal and buying their toasters?

[Pap_sak]

Sure, how many tons of gold have we exported and not made into the finished product. Sad really. eish, and we have diamonds...

[desA]

Isn't it time we started selling them toasters instead of sending them the metal and buying their toasters?

Exactly.

I'll bet that they'd be superior quality toasters, at that.

[Peter Parker]

China is cleverly investing in minerals and metals projects too. And he is converting his foreign reserves into Gold.