Kenya's earnings from exports to China fell at the fastest rate in 11 years in the 12 months to December on reduced shipments of titanium ores following the closure of Kwale mines, official data shows.
Exports to the world's second-largest economy dropped 9.12 percent to Sh26.32 billion last year from Sh28.96 billion in 2023, latest Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data show.
The decline in the value of orders from China is the biggest since the 22.01 percent fall to Sh4.2 billion in 2013 when Australian-owned Base Resources had started operations in Kwale through a local subsidiary, Base Titanium.
Analysis of the KNBS numbers shows exports of titanium ores and concentrates to China more than halved last year as Base Titanium scaled down operations ahead of the December 2024 closure date of the decade-long operations.
Titanium shipments to China fetched Kenya Sh4.25 billion last year from Sh9.90 billion in the year before and Sh12.06 billion in 2022. The 57.08 percent, or nearly Sh5.65 billion, dip was due to depletion of commercially-viable minerals in the Kwale mines.
China was one of the top buyers of titanium minerals—ilmenite, rutile and zircon—whose last bulk shipment was made early February.
Kenya's titanium ore production contracted 29.91 percent year-on-year to Sh16.97 billion on reduced output to 198,469.50 metric tonnes from 280,698 metric tonnes in 2023.
Exports of titanium minerals to China made up about 25 percent of the value of the ore extracted in 2024, from 41 percent in the prior year.
Refined titanium is used in making of products such as jewellery, golf clubs, eyeglass frames, dental implants and cookware.
Base Titanium shut down mining operations in Kwale at the end of last year following depletion of minerals.
During the 11 years of operations, Base Titanium exported 5,208,000 tonnes of ore, comprising 3,892,000 tonnes of ilmenite, 804,000 tonnes of rutile and 295,000 tonnes of zircon, while the remainder was other minerals obtained from titanium ore.
The firm has yet to dispose of assets, including the loading jet at the Likoni channel, as they await the approval processes to move operations to other parts of the country.
"We have five prospecting licences, one for Ramisi in Kwale, two for Lamu, and two outstanding licences, but we are not sure if the areas will turn out to be a viable operation. In our experience in the mining sector, we know that in every 1,000 greenfields, only one turns out to be viable," Base Titanium operations manager Devham Vickers said in February.
"Kenya Base Titanium has been acquired by American mineral resources firm Energy Fuels, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $240 million (Sh31.02 billion), so we shall only do any other mining in any viable operations in the future under our new organisation."
The KNBS data shows that titanium ore was the biggest export to China by value, accounting for 16 percent of Sh26.32 billion total earnings from sales to the East Asian country.
Other top exports were copper waste and scrap, which were valued at Sh3.24 billion from last year, from Sh1.18 billion the year before, followed by tea at Sh2.78 billion from Sh568.81 million in 2023.
Kenya made accessing the populous Chinese market a priority under the Integrated National Export Development and Promotion Strategy, an export diversification plan unveiled in July 2018.
Nairobi in August 2018 posted five envoys to the Far East Asian region—including India, Malaysia and Singapore—with instructions to scout for market opportunities for Kenya's largely raw agricultural exports in China.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, Nairobi had been conducting aggressive trade promotion and marketing campaigns in China, primarily aimed at growing and expanding the market for Kenya's tea and cut flowers.
Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (Keproba) had announced plans to set up a centre in Wuyi, a major tea-growing area in Fujian province, and Hunan, an agricultural province, to market Kenya's goods.
“The distribution systems would assist Small and Medium Enterprises to get their footings in the vast Chinese market,” Keproba had told the Business Daily in 2020.
“Keproba will be pivotal in managing the facilities to support the economic operators entering into the market without facing the constraints that are common in the market.”
