Selection of Representative Countries in Sino-African Economic and Trade Research: An Analysis from a Logistics Perspective

Aims: As one of the most basic relations between China and African, economic relations are favored by the academic community. Based on the research of existing literature, this paper is mainly to provide a reference and data support for junior researchers who study the direction of Sino-African trade when selecting analysis samples. The possible marginal contributions of the paper include: a clearer understanding of the logistics capabilities of major African countries; provide more appropriate analysis samples; clarify the trade structure between China and Africa.

Study Design: Using official data sources such as the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and China Customs, this study adopts a logistics capability analysis perspective and selects African sample countries suitable for academic research, taking into account the structure of Sino-African trade.

Place and Duration of Study: Sino-African trade data from 2015 to 2024, as recorded by China Customs.

Methodology: By analyzing the total trade value between China and Africa from 2015 to 2024, the top 10 countries in terms of total trade volume in each year are selected. Then, the frequency of occurrence in these countries is analyzed. Finally, the selected countries are confirmed by analyzing the level of logistics infrastructure in African countries.

Results: In the statistical data from 2015 to 2024, six countries—Ghana, South Africa, Egypt, Angola, Nigeria, and Algeria—appeared with a frequency of 10. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, and Morocco appeared with frequencies of 9, 8, 6, and 5, respectively. The Republic of the Congo and Liberia appeared with a frequency of 3, while Guinea, Libya, and Ethiopia appeared with a frequency of 2.

Conclusion: Ten countries – Ghana, South Africa, Egypt, Angola, Nigeria, Algeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania and Morocco – are the most suitable countries for the sample. Among them, South Africa has the most outstanding capabilities in air transport and rail transport; Egypt has the most outstanding capabilities in container port transportation; Morocco is the most capable in liner shipping.