China has become South Africa’s biggest trading partner, as rising demand for the African nation’s minerals contrasts with a slump in orders from traditionally more important markets harder hit by the financial crisis and economic slowdown.

Unpublished figures from the Department of Trade and Industry for the first seven months of this year show a rise of more than 50 per cent in Chinese purchases from South Africa against the same period of 2008. By contrast, South African exports to Germany, the US, Japan and the UK were well down.