Chile's Mining Exports Rose to US$52.13 Billion in the First Eight Months, Accounting for 62.6% of National Exports

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 16, Chile's Undersecretariat for International Economic Relations (SUBREI) released its latest monthly foreign trade report. From January to August 2026, Chile's mining exports reached US$52.130 billion, up 27.6% year-on-year, an increase of US$11.289 billion compared with the same period last year, accounting for 62.6% of the country's total goods exports. During the same period, Chile's total goods exports reached US$83.252 billion, up 19.1% year-on-year, surpassing US$80 billion in the first eight months for the first time.

Copper remains the core category of Chile's mining exports. In the first eight months of 2026, copper exports reached US$43.275 billion, up 19.3% year-on-year, accounting for about 52% of the country's total goods exports during the same period. Although copper exports in August alone fell 3.2% year-on-year, cumulative exports still maintained double-digit growth. Compared with US$35.605 billion in the first seven months of this year, copper exports increased by about US$7.67 billion in August.

Lithium and gold exports grew significantly faster than copper. In the first eight months, Chile's lithium exports reached US$4.332 billion, nearly three times that of the same period last year; gold exports reached US$3.172 billion, about twice that of the same period last year. The combined exports of just three mineral products—copper, lithium and gold—reached US$50.779 billion, accounting for about 97% of total mining exports during the same period.

The growth in lithium exports continued the upward trend seen since the beginning of this year. In the first four months of 2026, Chile's lithium exports had already reached US$2.137 billion, nearly three times that of the same period last year; by the first seven months they had further increased to US$3.713 billion, and by the end of August they had risen to US$4.332 billion. Previous SUBREI statistics also showed that Chile's lithium carbonate equivalent export volume increased by 43% year-on-year in the first four months of 2026.

In terms of export markets, China remained Chile's largest goods export destination, with exports reaching US$27.997 billion in the first eight months, accounting for 33.6% of national exports; the United States ranked second with US$13.971 billion, accounting for 16.8%. At the same time, India's imports of Chilean products increased to US$4.254 billion, more than doubling from the same period last year, with the increase mainly coming from copper, gold, iodine, lithium hydroxide and some agricultural products. Exports to Japan increased by 22.5% year-on-year, and those to South Korea increased by 39.1%.

In the first eight months of this year, Chile's goods exports increased by US$13.368 billion year-on-year, of which the increase in mining exports reached US$11.289 billion, accounting for about 84% of the national increase in exports. Non-mining exports during the same period reached US$31.123 billion, up 7.2% year-on-year, accounting for 37.4% of national exports. Mining remains the main sector driving Chile's export growth in 2026.