That dollar amount reflects a 22% increase from $42 billion five years earlier in 2018.
Year over year, the overall value of Angolan exports accelerated by 51.9% compared to $33.7 billion during 2021.
Angola’s 3 most valuable export products are crude oil, petroleum gases, and unset diamonds. Collectively, that trio of major products was worth 95.1% of the overall value of Angolan exports for 2022.
Angola’s Top Trading Partners
The latest available country-specific data shows that 87.9% of products exported from Angola were bought by importers in: mainland China (42.7% of the Angolan total), India (9.9%), France (7.1%), Netherlands (6.8%), Spain (4.4%), Italy (3.7%), United Arab Emirates (3.2%), United Kingdom (2.7%), Canada (2.3%), Indonesia (1.8%), Thailand (also 1.8%) and Portugal (1.4%).
From a continental perspective, 63.7% of Angola’s exports by value was delivered to buyers in Asian countries while 27.9% was sold to importers in Europe. Angola shipped another 3.6% worth of goods to North America.
Smaller percentages went to customers in Africa (2.6%), Latin America (2.2%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, then Oceania (0.05%) led by Vanuatu, Marshall Islands and Australia.
Given Angola’s population of 35.7 million people, its total $51.3 billion exported goods translates to roughly $1,400 for every resident in the southwest African country. That dollar metric exceeds the average $1,050 per capita one year earlier in 2021.
Angola’s Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Angolan global shipments during 2021. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Angola.
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$47.5 billion (92.6% of total exports)
- Gems, precious metals: $2 billion (3.9%)
- Ships, boats: $1.1 billion (2.2%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $185.9 million (0.4%)
- Machinery including computers: $128.1 million (0.2%)
- Fish: $50.1 million (0.1%)
- Wood: $49.7 million (0.1%)
- Iron, steel: $31.9 million (0.1%)
- Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $31.8 million (06%)
- Articles of iron or steel: $25.6 million (05%)
Angola’s top 10 exports accounted for 99.6% of the overall value of its global shipments.
Ships and boats was the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 49,398% from 2021 to 2022.
In second place for improving export sales was the salt, sulphur, stone and cement product category, via a 182.9% advance.
Angola’s shipments of machinery including computers posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 76.7%.
The severest decliner among Angola’s top 10 export categories was wood, thanks to its -1.2% year-over-year drop.
At the more granular four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, crude oil represents Angola’s most valuable exported product worth 78.6% of the African nation’s total. In second place were petroleum gases (12.6%) trailed by unmounted and unset diamonds (3.8%), light vessels, fire boats and floating docks (1.1%), processed petroleum oils (0.9%), cruise or cargo ships and barges (0.5%), high temperature distilled coal tar oils (also 0.5%), warships and lifeboats (0.4%), monumental and building stones including granite (0.3%), then metalized or densified wood blocks (0.1%).
Products Driving Angola’s Best Trade Surpluses
Overall Angola achieved a $33.6 billion trade surplus for 2022, expanding by 49.9% from the $22.4 billion in black ink one year earlier in 2021.
The following types of Angolan product shipments represent positive net exports or a trade balance surplus. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports.
In a nutshell, net exports reflect the amount by which foreign spending on a home country’s goods or services exceeds or lags the home country’s spending on foreign goods or services.
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$43.5 billion (Up by 45.3% since 2021)
- Gems, precious metals: $2 billion (Up by 27%)
- Ships, boats: $1.1 billion (Reversing a -$25.7 million deficit)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $156.8 million (Up by 236%)
- Fish: $26.9 million (Down by -10.4%)
- Wood: $21.4 million (Down by -21.1%)
- Ores, slag, ash: $1.4 million (Down by -83.3%)
Angola has highly positive net exports in the international trade of crude oil and, to a lesser extent, petroleum gases. In turn, these cashflows indicate Angola’s strong competitive advantages under mineral fuels including oil category.
Products Causing Angola’s Worst Trade Deficits
Below are exports from Angola that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Angola’s goods trail Angolan importer spending on foreign products.
- Machinery including computers: -US$2.2 billion (Up by 28.3% since 2021)
- Vehicles: -$1.4 billion (Up by 83.7%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$934.4 million (Up by 21.1%)
- Cereals: -$818.3 million (Up by 36.9%)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$646.7 million (Up by 97.6%)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: -$634.3 million (Up by 100.4%)
- Articles of iron or steel: -$584.1 million (Up by 12.7%)
- Meat: -$578.8 million (Up by 62.8%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$552.3 million (Up by 36.1%)
- Optical, technical, medical apparatus: -$335.7 million (Up by 31.3%)
Angola has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits under the machinery including computers product category.
Angolan Export Companies
No Angolan corporation ranks among Forbes Global 2000.
Wikipedia lists exports-related companies from Angola. Selected examples are shown below.
- Angola Cables (fibreoptics)
- Angola LNG (natural gas)
- Cuca beer (alcoholic beverages)
- Endiama (diamonds)
- Secil Maritima (shipping)
- Sonangol Group (oil, gas)
- Transafrik International (cargo airliner)
- Unitel Angola (mobile phones)
In macroeconomic terms, Angola’s total exported goods represent 20.7% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2022 ($247.2 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 20.7% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2022 compares to 15.2% for 2021. Those percentages suggest a relatively increasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Angola’s total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of an economy’s health is the unemployment rate. Angola’s jobless rate was 29.6% at January 2023, up from its 32.9% unemployment rate one year earlier in January 2022.
Angola’s capital city is Luanda.
See also China’s Top Trading Partners, Nigeria’s Top 10 Exports, South Africa’s Top 10 Exports and South Africa’s Top 100 Imported Consumer Products
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Country Profiles. Accessed on September 5, 2023
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on September 5, 2023
International Monetary Fund, Exchange Rates (selected indicators). Accessed on September 5, 2023
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on September 5, 2023
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on September 5, 2023
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on September 5, 2023
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on September 5, 2023
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Angola. Accessed on September 5, 2023
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on September 5, 2023