Saudi Imports from China in Figures 2025–2026: Trade Volume, Top Goods and What They Mean for Importers

Saudi imports from China reached about SAR 261.23 billion in 2025, or 27.5% of the Kingdom's total imports, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), and the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) recorded trade between the two countries worth US$108.16 billion, including Chinese exports to the Kingdom worth US$53.42 billion. In 2026, trade between the two countries fell 7.8% in the first seven months to US$58.27 billion, according to GACC, and Saudi imports from China fell 27.0% in June 2026 compared with June 2025, according to GASTAT. This page brings together the official figures from both sides, Chinese customs and Saudi Arabia's GASTAT, with a link to the source next to every figure. It explains why the two countries' figures do not match, and what an importer can actually take from them. It complements our practical guides rather than replacing them; for the procedures, see the step-by-step guide to importing from China to Saudi Arabia.

A note on method: Chinese-side figures are in US dollars, as published by GACC, and Saudi-side figures are in riyals, as published by GASTAT. We have converted between the two currencies in only one place, for comparison, at the official peg rate, and we have labelled it as such. We have not estimated anything that has not been published, and wherever we calculated a percentage ourselves from published values, we say so next to it.

Quick figures: Saudi–China trade 2025–2026

Preliminary figures, subject to revision; checked against their official sources in September 2026. Percentage changes are as published by the issuing bodies, except those labelled "by our calculation", and the share of Chapter 85 is calculated from the values in the GACC table. Saudi-side values are published in millions of riyals and we have rounded them to billions of riyals; Chinese-side values are published in thousands of US dollars and we have rounded them to billions of US dollars.

What was the value of trade between China and Saudi Arabia in 2025?

Trade between China and Saudi Arabia reached US$108.16 billion in 2025, up 0.5% on 2024, according to the GACC table for December 2025. The figure splits into two flows of similar size: Chinese exports to the Kingdom worth US$53.42 billion, up 6.7%, and Chinese imports from the Kingdom worth US$54.74 billion, down 4.9%. In other words, the trade balance tilted in Saudi Arabia's favour in the Chinese figures by about US$1.32 billion; this is our own subtraction of the two values, not a published figure.

GASTAT, for its part, records total Saudi trade with China in 2025 at SAR 431.60 billion, against SAR 383.26 billion in 2024, and places China first among the Kingdom's trading partners, according to the International Trade in Goods tables 2025. Notably, the direction of the balance reverses between the two sources: while the Chinese figures show a small surplus in Saudi Arabia's favour, GASTAT records a Saudi deficit with China of SAR 90.85 billion, as the Kingdom's imports from China reached SAR 261.23 billion against exports to China of SAR 170.38 billion. A later section explains the methodological differences that account for part of this discrepancy.

The same figures are published in the data centre of the Ministry of Commerce of China (MOFCOM), and they appear in rounded form on the China–Saudi Arabia relations page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, updated in July 2026. The figure is therefore consistent across three official Chinese bodies, which makes it a safe reference to quote.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China describes Saudi Arabia as China's largest trading partner in the Middle East. But the margin in 2025 was very narrow: the GACC table recorded US$108.16 billion for Saudi Arabia against US$108.00 billion for the United Arab Emirates, a gap of only about US$155 million by our subtraction. The gap widened in the first seven months of 2026 to US$58.27 billion for Saudi Arabia against US$42.50 billion for the UAE, according to the July 2026 table.

How did trade between the two countries develop from 2021 to 2025?

The guide's data source is GACC. Values are converted from the published unit of "hundred million US dollars" to billions of US dollars without any estimation, and percentage changes are as published; do not recalculate them by subtracting one year from another, because GACC calculates them on the previous year's data after revision. The 2025 figures are preliminary, subject to revision; checked against their official sources in September 2026.

What stands out for importers is that China's exports to Saudi Arabia, mostly manufactured goods, grew in every one of the five years in the table, rising from US$30.32 billion in 2021 to US$53.42 billion in 2025. China's imports from Saudi Arabia, by contrast, peaked at US$78.05 billion in 2022 and then fell for three consecutive years. That is why total trade has stayed almost flat since 2023, even though the part that matters to importers, Chinese goods bound for the Kingdom, kept growing.

How much did Saudi Arabia import from China in 2025?

Saudi Arabia imported goods worth SAR 261.23 billion from China in 2025, up 25.1% on 2024 by our calculation, and China was the largest source of the Kingdom's imports with a 27.5% share, according to GASTAT. GACC, for its part, records exports to Saudi Arabia worth US$53.42 billion, up 6.7%. The two figures describe the same flow from either end, but they do not match, nor should they be expected to, for methodological reasons explained in a later section.

On these figures, more than one riyal in every four that the Kingdom spends on imports goes on goods from China, and China's share is more than three times that of the second source, the United States (8.2%), by our calculation from the bulletin's percentages. Imports from China grew faster than the Kingdom's total imports, which rose 8.8% to SAR 949.83 billion, so China's share climbed from 23.9% in 2024 to 27.5% in 2025. The share was 27.2% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 28.7% in December 2025 alone, according to the GASTAT statement issued on 25 February 2026.

The Saudi figure is the better fit when your question is about the Saudi market itself: how much Chinese-origin merchandise actually entered the Kingdom, and what share of everything the Kingdom imports comes from China. The Chinese figure is the better fit when your question is about the supply side: what Chinese factories ship and declare at export as bound for Saudi Arabia.

GASTAT values are published in millions of riyals and we have rounded them to billions of riyals; the percentage changes in imports from China and in exports to China are our own calculations, because GASTAT does not publish them. The ranking follows import shares as given in the bulletin, not the rank column in the tables, which orders countries by total trade. Every figure is in the currency of the body that published it. Figures subject to revision; checked against their official sources in September 2026.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China states on its bilateral relations page that China is Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner. That description comes from the Chinese side; in Saudi import data itself, China was the top source of the Kingdom's imports in 2025 with a 27.5% share, and the top destination for its exports with a 14.6% share, according to the GASTAT bulletin. That is the reference to use when the question is about "the Kingdom's largest supplier".

What are the latest figures for Saudi–China trade in 2026?

The latest published Chinese figures cover January–July 2026: trade between the two countries was US$58.27 billion, down 7.8% on the same period of 2025; China's exports to Saudi Arabia were US$28.37 billion, down 9.6%; and its imports from Saudi Arabia were US$29.90 billion, down 6.0%. All the percentages are cumulative from the start of the year, compared with the same months of the previous year, as published by GACC.

Values are in US$ billion, rounded from GACC tables published in thousands of US dollars, and percentage changes are cumulative as published. We have included only the periods we checked directly against their tables. Preliminary figures, subject to revision; checked against their official sources in September 2026.

An honest reading of this table only goes so far: China's exports to Saudi Arabia were almost stable in the first quarter, down 0.7%, then the cumulative decline widened to 12.7% through May, before narrowing to 9.6% through July. The official tables give no reason for this decline, and we will not assume a reason that no official body has announced. China's exports to Saudi Arabia in July 2026 alone came to US$4.17 billion, and the table publishes no percentage change for the single month.

GACC cautions in its explanatory notes that the latest monthly figures may differ from those published earlier, because verification continues until the yearbook is released. All 2026 figures are therefore subject to revision, and it is best to quote them together with the date you accessed them.

What about August 2026? As of 13 September 2026, GACC had not published the country table for August; it is not yet linked in the monthly bulletin index. Based on the 2025 release calendar, which set the monthly bulletin's release for the 18th of the following month, and on the July table, dated 18 August 2026, it is expected around 18 September 2026; check the index itself after that date.

On the Saudi side, GASTAT's latest bulletin covers June 2026: the Kingdom's imports from China that month were SAR 15.48 billion, down 27.0% on June 2025, and China remained the top source of imports with a 22.0% share. GASTAT published these figures on 25 August 2026, and the July 2026 bulletin had not been released as of 13 September 2026. The June decline is the only official percentage change for imports from China in 2026; the quarterly values, however, we take from GASTAT's tables and calculate their shares ourselves:

GASTAT values are published in millions of riyals and we have rounded them to billions of riyals. GASTAT states that 2026 figures are preliminary, and they are revised in later files: China's share in May 2026, for example, was published as 22.0% in the May bulletin, and comes to 23.5% by our calculation from the revised values in the June file. Checked against their official sources in September 2026.

We do not compare the first half of 2026 with the first half of 2025, because the 2025 quarterly values by country come from files issued in 2025 that GASTAT has not republished in revised form, so any percentage change calculated from them is approximate and not fit to quote.

What does Saudi Arabia import from China?

The largest category China exports to Saudi Arabia is electrical machinery and equipment (Chapter 85 of the Harmonized System) worth US$11.33 billion in 2025, or 21.2% of the total, followed by machinery and mechanical appliances (Chapter 84) at US$8.07 billion, then vehicles and parts thereof (Chapter 87) at US$6.28 billion. These three chapters alone account for 48.1% of China's exports to the Kingdom in 2025, by our calculation from the GACC table, or nearly half.

The table below shows the largest chapters by value and share in 2025 and in the first seven months of 2026, with a link to our related guide or page for each category where one exists.

Source: GACC Table (15) for December 2025 and Table (15) for July 2026, the table of exports to selected countries by HS chapter. Values are in US$ billion, rounded from thousands of US dollars. The shares are our own calculation, dividing each chapter's value by China's total exports to Saudi Arabia in the same table; they are not published in it. Chapter names follow the Harmonized System, because the table prints only their numbers. Preliminary figures, subject to revision; checked against their official sources in September 2026.

Three notes help in reading the table:

• Iron and steel combined are bigger than they look: Chapters 72 and 73 together came to US$5.90 billion in 2025, or 11.1% of the total by our calculation, so ferrous metals rank fourth when counted as a single category.
• Home appliances are split across two chapters: air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines are usually classified in Chapter 84, and small electrical appliances in Chapter 85, so no single chapter figure gives you the full size of the "home appliances" category. The exact classification of your product is determined by its HS code, not its trade name.
• Chapter 98 is specific to Chinese statistics: GACC uses it for goods under simplified procedures and for cross-border e-commerce parcels sent by post and express courier, and it came to US$1.99 billion in 2025. These goods are varied, so this chapter does not reveal what the goods actually are.

The MOFCOM guide to Saudi Arabia (2026 edition) lists the top five categories China exports to the Kingdom: electrical equipment (85), machinery (84), vehicles (87), furniture (94), and iron and steel (72). Its order differs slightly from the customs table, which places articles of iron or steel (73) ahead of furniture, and the guide does not say which breakdown it used.

What does Saudi Arabia import from China according to Saudi statistics?

According to GASTAT data, machinery, mechanical appliances and electrical equipment (Chapters 84 and 85) made up 48.7% of Saudi imports from China in 2025, worth SAR 127.34 billion, followed by vehicles and transport equipment at SAR 31.76 billion (12.2%), then base metals and articles thereof at SAR 29.80 billion (11.4%). The section values below are the sum of the chapter values published by GASTAT, and the shares are our own calculation.

Source: GASTAT International Trade in Goods tables 2025, the table of imports by country and by HS section and chapter. Section values are the sum of chapter values published in millions of riyals, rounded to billions of riyals, and all shares are our own calculation, not published figures. Checked against their official sources in September 2026.

At chapter level, Saudi imports from China in Chapter 85 (electrical equipment) came to SAR 86.69 billion, and China alone supplied 64.3% of what the Kingdom imports under this chapter, by our calculation. Chapter 84 (machinery) came to SAR 40.66 billion with a 29.0% share, Chapter 87 (vehicles) to SAR 26.35 billion with a 24.0% share, Chapter 72 (iron and steel) to SAR 12.89 billion with a 51.2% share, and Chapter 98 (goods under special provisions) to SAR 10.50 billion with a 53.7% share. China's share is 66.6% of the Kingdom's imports of toys (Chapter 95) and 45.0% of furniture and lighting (Chapter 94), by our calculation.

In June 2026, machinery and electrical equipment made up 45.4% of the Kingdom's imports from China, base metals 11.5%, and vehicles and transport equipment 10.8%, by our calculation from the preliminary June 2026 tables. These shares do not match the GACC shares: Chapters 84 and 85, for example, account for 48.7% in the Saudi data against 36.3% in the GACC data, by our calculation, so do not combine the two sources in a single comparison.

And what does China import from Saudi Arabia?

China imports mainly mineral fuels from Saudi Arabia: Chapter 27 (mineral fuels and mineral oils, including crude oil) came to US$45.44 billion in 2025, or 83.0% of China's imports from the Kingdom, by our calculation from GACC Table (16) for December 2025. It is followed by organic chemicals (Chapter 29) at US$4.00 billion (7.3%), then plastics (Chapter 39) at US$2.89 billion (5.3%), then ores, slag and ash (Chapter 26) at US$0.93 billion (1.7%), then copper (Chapter 74) at US$0.60 billion (1.1%). In January–July 2026, the share of Chapter 27 was about 85.5%, worth US$25.56 billion, according to Table (16) for July 2026.

In volume terms, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China states that China imported 80.76 million tonnes of crude oil from Saudi Arabia in 2025, and 17.90 million tonnes in the first quarter of 2026 (published in units of "ten thousand tonnes", which we have converted to million tonnes). The picture is therefore asymmetric: the two flows are close in value, but what Saudi Arabia sells to China is concentrated in a single chapter, while what it buys from China is spread across many manufactured categories. That is why the figures for Chinese exports to the Kingdom matter more to importers than total trade does: mineral fuels alone account for about 42.0% of total 2025 trade, by our calculation.

Why do China's figures differ from Saudi Arabia's?

Because each body records the same shipment under different rules: GASTAT values Saudi imports on a CIF basis and attributes them to the country of origin, so it recorded imports from China worth SAR 261.23 billion in 2025, while GACC values its exports on an FOB basis and attributes them to the country of destination known at the time of export, so it recorded exports to Saudi Arabia worth US$53.42 billion. The Saudi figure is equivalent to about US$69.7 billion by our conversion at the official peg rate of SAR 3.75 to the US dollar, which is our own conversion, not a published figure; in other words, Saudi imports from China clearly exceed China's declared exports to the Kingdom. These are the main reasons for the difference, as the two bodies explain them:

1. Valuation basis: GACC's explanatory notes state that imports are valued on a CIF basis and exports on an FOB basis. The US$53.42 billion figure therefore includes neither freight nor insurance to Jeddah or Dammam. GASTAT values imports on a CIF basis, including freight and insurance, and exports on an FOB basis, according to its methodology and quality report for international trade statistics; so the same shipment enters Saudi statistics at a higher value than it has in Chinese statistics.
2. Country of attribution: GACC attributes exports to the country of final destination, meaning the country where the goods are consumed, used or further processed; if that cannot be determined, they are attributed to the last known country to which they were sent at the time of export. Chinese goods declared to the UAE, to hubs such as Jebel Ali, and then re-exported to Saudi Arabia therefore count in Chinese data as exports to the UAE. GASTAT, by contrast, attributes imports to the country of origin, the country where the last stage of manufacturing took place, so the same goods count in Saudi data as imports from China. This is one of the main reasons the Saudi figure exceeds the Chinese one.
3. Timing of recording: in China, exports are recorded when they are cleared for export, while imports are usually recorded when customs releases them in the country of arrival. With a sea voyage lasting weeks, a shipment China exported in December may be counted in Saudi imports for January of the following year.
4. Currency and exchange rate: GACC publishes its figures in yuan and in US dollars, and cautions that percentage changes in the two currencies may not match, while GASTAT publishes in riyals. That is why we do not compare a percentage change calculated in one currency with one calculated in another.
5. Revisions: Chinese monthly figures are revised until the yearbook is released, so the July 2026 figure published today may change later. GASTAT describes its 2026 figures as preliminary, and it has revised monthly figures in later files, such as China's share in May 2026.
6. Coverage: since 2019, Chinese data have included cross-border e-commerce parcels sent by post and express courier, and they exclude goods in transit through China, temporary imports and exports, and travellers' baggage.

The practical conclusion: do not put the Chinese export figure next to the Saudi import figure and expect them to match. If your question is about the size of the Saudi market and China's share of it, rely on GASTAT figures; if it is about the Chinese supply side and its breakdown by category, rely on GACC tables. And state the source and the period with every figure you quote.

What do these figures mean for a Saudi importer?

They mean that China supplied 27.5% of Saudi imports in 2025, according to GASTAT, and that nearly half of what the Kingdom imports from China (48.7%, by our calculation) is machinery and electrical equipment; an importer in these categories is therefore usually competing with other importers who also buy from China. In practice, six points follow from them:

• The aggregate figure does not measure demand for your product: the 9.6% fall in China's exports to Saudi Arabia in January–July 2026, and the 27.0% fall in the Kingdom's imports from China in June 2026, are aggregate figures for all categories. They do not mean that demand for your product has fallen by the same percentage, or fallen at all. An import decision should rest on the data for your HS code, your own sales and your competitors' prices, not on the total.
• In many categories China is the dominant source: China supplied 64.3% of the Kingdom's imports of electrical equipment (Chapter 85) and 51.2% of its iron and steel (Chapter 72) in 2025, by our calculation from GASTAT data. In categories like these, Chinese origin does not set your goods apart; what sets you apart is your choice of factory, a written specification and pre-shipment inspection.
• FOB value is not your cost: the Chinese figures include neither freight nor insurance, let alone customs duty, VAT, port charges and inland transport. Calculate the landed cost, not the factory price alone; see the real cost of importing from China.
• The large categories are often subject to technical regulations: many goods in Chapters 85, 84 and 87 need conformity certificates through the SABER platform before release, and the requirement depends on your product's specific HS code. Check it before production, not after shipment; see the guide to conformity certificates and SABER and the guide to SABER, FASAH and the ports of Jeddah and Dammam.
• Shifts in shares are a signal to watch, not a basis for decisions: the share of plastics (Chapter 39) rose from 3.9% in 2025 to 4.3% in January–July 2026, and the share of furniture and lighting (Chapter 94) fell from 4.6% to 4.0%, by our calculation. But comparing seven months with a full year is affected by shipping seasonality, so do not base decisions on it before the full-year figures are released.
• Timing is part of the cost: plan your orders around Chinese production seasons, starting with the Chinese New Year holiday, when many factories stop work; see scheduling production around Chinese New Year.

The size of these exports also helps you in negotiation: if your product falls within the large chapters, many factories are most likely already exporting it to the Kingdom and know the requirements of its market, so do not accept a supplier treating conformity certificates or Saudi market specifications as an unusual request.

How do you start importing from China to Saudi Arabia?

Start by identifying your product's HS code and its conformity requirements, then verify the supplier and approve a sample, then inspect the goods before shipment, and ship by sea, with a sailing time of about 18 to 35 days to Jeddah, Dammam or Jubail depending on the ports of loading and discharge. This page is about the figures; the steps are covered in detail in separate guides:

1. Step-by-step guide to importing from China to Saudi Arabia: the order of work, from regulatory preparation to the arrival of the container.
2. Guide to SABER, FASAH and the ports of Jeddah and Dammam: conformity, the customs declaration and the entry points.
3. How to find a verified Chinese supplier and why you should audit the factory.
4. Pre-shipment inspection and AQL standards.
5. Shipping from China to Saudi Arabia and full container load (FCL) versus groupage (LCL).

Specific categories have their own Saudi guides: home appliances, air conditioners, car parts, steel, furniture, phone accessories, ceramic tiles and toys.

Alshumul's role in your imports from China to Saudi Arabia

Alshumul Commercial Services is an import services company based in Guangzhou that works on the Chinese side of the chain: from finding the factory until the shipment reaches the port of discharge in Saudi Arabia. Specifically, we provide:

• Finding and verifying factories, telling a genuine factory apart from a trading intermediary, with a factory audit and a visit when needed.
• Requesting and following up samples until a reference sample is approved.
• Negotiating directly in Chinese with the factory on the specification, the price, and the payment and delivery terms.
• Production follow-up, then pre-shipment inspection with a photo report.
• Arranging shipping through shipping lines, freight companies and consolidators, as a full container load or as groupage, with follow-up to the port of discharge.
• Reviewing documents before sailing: the invoice, the packing list, the bill of lading, the certificate of origin and the test reports the conformity file requires, so that they all match one another.

The limits of our role are clear: we have no warehouse, and we do not consolidate goods ourselves; we arrange consolidation with specialist consolidators. SABER certificates, customs clearance through FASAH and any import permits inside Saudi Arabia are handled by the importer with their licensed customs broker, and we do not provide legal advice. The figures on this page are for guidance in planning, not a commercial or investment recommendation. If you would like someone to follow up the Chinese side of your order, see our services or contact us.

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