01Key Takeaways
- Gabon imported $4.22 billion worth of goods in 2023, up 3.88% from $4.06 billion in 2022, its highest total across the five-year window.
- Ships, boats, and floating structures led every import category at 23.29% ($982.12 million), even larger as a share of imports than it is on Gabon's export side.
- Rep. of Korea was the top supplier at 13.29% ($560.40 million), narrowly ahead of France at 13.01%.
- Mineral fuels made up 6.89% ($290.65 million) of imports, a category that exists because Gabon still cannot refine all the oil it produces.
025-Year Trend
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | $3.9B | $3.5B | $3.6B | $4.1B | $4.2B |
03Top Import Markets (2023)
| Rank | Partner | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Korea | $560.4M | 13.3% |
| 2 | France | $548.6M | 13.0% |
| 3 | China | $489.7M | 11.6% |
| 4 | United States | $318.4M | 7.5% |
| 5 | India | $164.2M | 3.9% |
| 6 | Germany | $136.0M | 3.2% |
| 7 | Japan | $121.1M | 2.9% |
| 8 | Panama | $120.6M | 2.9% |
| 9 | Areas, nes | $120.1M | 2.8% |
| 10 | United Kingdom | $111.4M | 2.6% |
04Top Import Categories (2023)
| Rank | Category | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ships, Boats and Floating Structures | $982.1M | 23.3% |
| 2 | Nuclear Reactors, Boilers, Machinery and Mechanical Appliances; Parts thereof | $577.1M | 13.7% |
| 3 | Mineral Fuels, Mineral Oils and Products of their Distillation; Bituminous Substances; Mineral Waxes | $290.7M | 6.9% |
| 4 | Articles of Iron or Steel | $235.3M | 5.6% |
| 5 | Vehicles other than Railway or Tramway Rolling-Stock, and parts and accessories thereof | $232.1M | 5.5% |
| 6 | Electrical Machinery and Equipment and parts thereof; Sound Recorders and Reproducers, Television Image and Sound Recorders and Reproducers, and Parts and Accessories of such Articles | $219.8M | 5.2% |
| 7 | Meat and Edible Meat Offal | $164.6M | 3.9% |
| 8 | Cereals | $133.2M | 3.2% |
| 9 | Railway or Tramway Locomotives, Rolling-Stock and parts thereof; Railway or Tramway Track Fixtures and Fittings and parts thereof; Mechanical (including Electro-Mechanical) Traffic Signalling Equipment of all kinds | $112.2M | 2.7% |
| 10 | Pharmaceutical Products | $111.0M | 2.6% |
05Trade Partner Map
06Analysis
An Oil Producer That Still Buys Ships and Refined Fuel
Gabon imported $4.22 billion worth of goods in 2023, up 3.88% from $4.06 billion the year before. Ships, boats, and floating structures led every category, worth $982.12 million, or 23.29% of the total, an even larger share of imports than the same category represents on Gabon's export side. Between the two, ships appear to move through Gabon's trade data in both directions at a scale most countries never see for a single product line, a pattern that lines up with independent reporting on Gabon's fast-growing ship registry. Machinery and mechanical appliances ranked second at 13.69% ($577.12 million), a routine category for an economy that manufactures little of its own industrial equipment.
Mineral fuels ranked third at 6.89% ($290.65 million), which sounds unusual for a country whose top export category is mineral fuels worth billions more. Gabon's sole refinery currently processes about 1.2 million tons of crude oil a year, enough to cover only around 55% of domestic refined-product demand, leaving the country to import roughly 45% of its diesel, kerosene, butane, and gasoline, mostly from Europe. Producing crude and refining it into usable fuel are two different businesses, and Gabon has historically had more capacity in the first than the second.
Iron or steel articles added 5.58% ($235.34 million), and vehicles contributed 5.50% ($232.13 million), a category that, like most of Gabon's vehicle fleet, reflects a country with no meaningful domestic auto manufacturing of its own. Electrical machinery took 5.21% ($219.79 million), and meat and edible offal added 3.90% ($164.55 million), a reminder that Gabon, like many countries whose land is dominated by forest and mineral extraction rather than farmland, imports a meaningful share of its food. Cereals contributed 3.16% ($133.16 million), railway and tramway equipment took 2.66% ($112.19 million), likely tied to freight infrastructure serving Gabon's mining and timber sectors, and pharmaceutical products closed out the top ten at 2.63% ($110.95 million).
South Korea Edges Out France as the Top Supplier
South Korea was Gabon's largest import supplier in 2023 at 13.29% ($560.40 million), narrowly ahead of France at 13.01% ($548.59 million). That ranking makes more sense in light of what Gabon's top import category actually is. South Korean shipbuilders secured roughly a fifth of the global market in recent orders, with the country's yards specializing in high-value vessels including crude oil tankers, shuttle tankers, and very large crude carriers. A country that builds so many of the ships the world buys, paired with an import list topped by ships, is not a coincidence.
China followed at 11.61% ($489.73 million), and the United States contributed 7.55% ($318.36 million). India added 3.89% ($164.20 million), and Germany took 3.23% ($136.01 million). Japan contributed 2.87% ($121.14 million), and Panama added 2.86% ($120.64 million), a notable name given that Panama runs one of the world's other major ship registries. An unspecified "Areas, nes" category took 2.85% ($120.09 million), and the United Kingdom closed out the top ten at 2.64% ($111.36 million). Combined, Korea, France, and China, the three largest suppliers, made up 37.91% of total import value in 2023.
A Steadier Climb Than the Export Side's Recent Surge
Gabon's import total has moved in a much more measured pattern than its export figures. It stood at $3.87 billion in 2019, then fell to $3.48 billion in 2020 as the pandemic slowed global trade. It recovered to $3.65 billion in 2021, climbed further to $4.06 billion in 2022, and reached $4.22 billion in 2023, its highest point across this five-year window.
That steady 3.88% gain looks modest next to the 21.25% jump in Gabon's export total over the same year, a swing driven largely by surging global energy prices. Imports do not move with oil prices the same way exports do. Ships, machinery, and refined fuel represent needs tied to Gabon's own industrial base and its ship registry business, not to how much a barrel of crude sells for on a given day. That gap between a demand-driven import bill and a price-driven export total is worth keeping in mind whenever Gabon's two trade figures are compared side by side. Gabon's export total can swing by more than a fifth in a single year, purely on the strength of commodity prices it does not control. Its import bill, by contrast, has shown a steadier, more predictable growth pattern across this same five-year stretch.