Uranium boom softens Namibia’s petroleum trade blow

Namibia’s trade ledger in February 2025 painted a tale of two commodities: a hefty N$1.1 billion petroleum import bill weighed down the balance, but a surging N$2.7 billion in uranium exports, mostly to China and France, kept the country in the black, according to the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA). Despite this significant outflow, the nation's uranium exports provided a strong counterbalance, generating a surplus of N$2.7 billion. This positive performance, complemented by substantial surpluses in non-monetary gold (N$1.8 billion) and fish exports (N$1.2 billion), helped mitigate the deficits created by petroleum, commercial motor vehicles (N$397 million), and nickel ore imports (N$324 million).Uranium was Namibia’s largest exported commodity in February 2025, accounting for 26.3% of total exports, destined for the Chinese and French markets. Non-monetary gold came second on the list accounting for 17.6% of total exports, destined solely for the South African marketA further breakdown shows that petroleum oils accounted for 12.7% of total imports. In second and third positions were motor vehicles for commercial purposes and inorganic chemical elements gaining shares of 4% and 3.7% of total imports, respectively. Nickel ores and concentrates ranked fourth on the list, accounting for 3.4%India, Norway and the Netherlands were the largest import markets for petroleum oils, while motor vehicles for the transportation of goods were mainly sourced from South Africa and China, the NSA noted. “Inorganic chemical elements were mostly sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Nickel ores and concentrates were sourced from Zambia. Lastly, ‘Ores and concentrates of base metals' were largely sourced from the DRC,” the NSA said. In February 2025, Namibia recorded trade surpluses with China amounting to N$1.1billion, Zambia (N$803 million) and France (N$521 million). On the other hand, the country recorded trade deficits against South Africa (N$2.1 billion), India (N$1.1 billion) and the DRC (N$386 million).

Uranium boom softens Namibia’s petroleum trade blow

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Republikein 2025-04-30

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Uranium boom softens Namibia’s petroleum trade blow

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