Data extracted in March 2022.
Planned update: April 2023.
Highlights
The EU has an ongoing trade deficit in raw materials including goods such as oilseeds, cork, wood, pulp, textile fibers, ores and other minerals as well as animal and vegetable oils since 2002.
Brazil and the United States were the largest partners for EU imports of raw materials in 2021.
China and the United Kingdom were the largest partners for EU exports of raw materials in 2021.
EU trade in raw materials, 2002-2020
Trade in raw materials is extremely important for the sustainability of European countries and their economies. Construction, chemicals, the automotive and aerospace industries, machinery and equipment are some of the sectors that are most dependent on access to raw materials.
This article is part of an online publication providing recent statistics on international trade in goods, covering information on the EU's main partners, main products traded, specific characteristics of trade as well as background information.
General view on EU trade in raw materials
In 2021, the value of total trade (import plus exports) of raw materials between the EU and the rest of the world was €178 billion. Since exports (€71 billion) were lower than imports (€107 billion) there was trade deficit of €35 billion. Between 2002 and 2021, EU trade in raw materials more than doubled, equivalent to an average annual growth of 5.6 %. In this period, exports (6.5 %) grew faster than imports (5.0 %), see Figure 1.
Figure 2 gives an overview of the value, weight and average price (as measured by the unit value index[1] of imports and exports of raw materials from 2002 to 2021. During this period, EU imports were higher than exports, both in value and in weight. However some differences can be noted. In value and weight EU exports from 2002 to 2008 followed the same trend. However, in 2009 weight remained stable while value declined due to a fall in average export prices. Comparing 2021 to 2015 shows that prices for exports only dropped slightly.
For EU imports the decline in 2009 was stronger than for exports. Moreover the decline in value was stronger than in weight as prices were also falling. From 2009 to 2011 prices increased for both imports and exports. After that export prices did not change much while import prices continued to fluctuate. However in 2021 both import and export prices increased significantly
Raw materials by product group
Raw materials can be subdivided in three main groups: animal and vegetable raw materials and wood, paper and textiles, metals, minerals and rubber (see Figure 3). In exports, the largest group was metals, minerals and rubber (39 %) followed by wood, paper and textiles (33 %) and animal and vegetable raw materials (28 %). In imports, the largest group also was metals, minerals and rubber (56 %) followed by animal and vegetable raw materials (30 %) and wood, paper and textiles (14 %).
Each of the categories discussed above can be subdivided into subgroups (see Figure 4).
In 2021, the largest subgroup in imports of animal and vegetable raw materials was animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes with 44 % of imports while other crude animal and vegetable materials was the largest subgroup in exports with 59 %.
In wood, cork, paper and textiles, the largest subgroup was cork and wood with 61 % of exports and 46 % of imports.
Metaliferous ores and metal scrap accounted for more than three quarters of the trade in the metals, minerals and rubber group. Its share in exports (80 %) was lower than in imports (84 %).
Figures 5, 6 and 7 show the exports, imports and trade balance over time for the three product groups.
In 2021, the value of total trade (import plus exports) of animal and vegetable raw materials between the EU and the rest of the world was €52.1 billion (see Figure 5). Since exports (€20.0 billion) were lower than imports (€32.1 billion) there was a trade deficit of €12.1 billion. Between 2002 and 2021, EU trade in animal products more than doubled, equivalent to an average annual growth of 5.0 %. In this period, imports (5.3 %) grew faster than exports (4.5 %).
In 2021, the value of total trade (import plus exports) of wood, cork, paper and textiles between the EU and the rest of the world was € 38.0 billion (see Figure 6). Exports (€23.4 billion) were higher than imports (€14.6 billion), resulting in a trade surplus of €8.7 billion. Between 2002 and 2021, EU trade in wood, cork, paper and textiles grew by €8.7 billion equivalent to an average annual growth of 3.4 %. In this period, exports (6.3 %) grew much faster than imports fell (0.8 %).
In 2021, the value of total trade (import plus exports) of metals, minerals and rubber between the EU and the rest of the world was €87.2 billion (see Figure 7). Since exports (€27.6 billion) were lower than imports (€59.6 billion) there was a trade deficit of €32.0 billion. Between 2002 and 2021, EU trade in metals, minerals and rubber more than tripled, equivalent to an average annual growth of 7.3 %. In this period, exports (8.8 %) grew faster than imports (6.7 %).
EU trade partners for raw materials
Figures 8 to 11 show the main partners of the EU for trade in raw materials in total and separately for the three product groups. Each figure shows the shares of the six main partners and is accompanied at the bottom by two bars showing the exports and imports in absolute values. The United States appears in all these figures both as a top six export and import partner.
China was the main export destination of raw materials (Figure 8) with 16 % all exports in 2021. It was followed by the United Kingdom (15 %), Turkey and the United States (both 10 %). The top six export partners accounted for 58 % of all exports. Brazil (12 %) and the United States (11 %) were the largest partners for imports. The top six combined, made up 47 % of all imports.
In animal and vegetable raw materials (Figure 9) the top two export partners in 2021 were the United Kingdom (18 %) and the United States (13 %). Brazil (13 %) and Ukraine (11 %) were the top import partners. The total of the top six export partners was 55 %, which was also the share for the top six import partners.
In exports of wood, cork, paper and textiles (Figure 10), China (23 %) and the United Kingdom (18 %) were the largest export partners. The top 6 accounted for 64 % of all exports. On the imports side Brazil(16 %), Russia (15 %) and the United States (12 %) and were the main partners. Here the top 6 had a combined share of 59 %.
A fifth of all exports of metals, minerals and rubber (Figure 11) was destined for Turkey (20 %), ahead of China (15 %) and the United Kingdom (10 %). The top 6 had a combined share of 62 %. Imports, led by the United States (7 %), Brazil (6 %), South Africa and Canada (both 5 %), were much less concentrated with the top 6 accounting for 39 % of all imports.
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
EU data comes from Eurostat’s COMEXT database.
COMEXT is the Eurostat reference database for international trade in goods. It provides access not only to both recent and historical data from the EU Member States but also to statistics of a significant number of non-EU countries. International trade aggregated and detailed statistics disseminated from Eurostat's website are compiled from COMEXT data according to a monthly process. Because COMEXT is updated on a daily basis, data published on the website may differ from data stored in COMEXT in case of recent revisions.
European statistics on international trade in goods are compiled according to the EU concepts and definitions and may, therefore, differ from national data published by Member States.
The United Kingdom is considered as an extra-EU partner country for the EU for the whole period covered by this article. However, the United Kingdom was still part of the internal market until the end of the transitory period (31 December 2020), meaning that data on trade with the United Kingdom are still based on statistical concepts applicable to trade between the EU Member States. Consequently, while imports from any other extra-EU trade partner are grouped by country of origin, the United Kingdom data reflect the country of consignment. In practice this means that the goods imported by the EU from the United Kingdom were physically transported from the United Kingdom but part of these goods could have been of other origin than the United Kingdom. For this reason, data on trade with the United Kingdom are not fully comparable with data on trade with other extra-EU trade partners.
Product classification
Raw materials are defined according to the fourth revision of the Standard international trade classification. They include sections 2 Crude materials, inedible, except fuels and 4 Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes.
Unit of measure Trade values are expressed in millions (106) or billions (109) of euros. They correspond to the statistical value, i.e. to the amount which would be invoiced in case of sale or purchase at the national border of the reporting country. It is called a FOB value (free on board) for exports and a CIF value (cost, insurance, freight) for imports.
Context
In terms of percentage, the EU is highly dependent on imports of raw materials. For this reason, raw materials security and related strategies have become one of the key priorities in the EU’s external actions and form an integral component of the EU’s interior policy making. The foundations of these strategies were laid in three key documents:
- COM(2008) 699 final ‘The Raw Materials Initiative’;
- COM(2011) 25 final tackling the challenges in commodity markets and on raw materials); and
- COM(2014) 297 final on the review of the list of critical raw materials for the EU and the implementation of the raw materials initiative, based in the global economic situation and the EU’s high dependence on imports of certain raw materials.
Footnotes
- ↑ Unit-value index: Monthly raw data are processed at the most detailed level in order to calculate elementary unit-values defined by trade value/quantity. These unit-values are divided by the average unit-value of the previous year to obtain elementary unit-value indices, from which outliers are detected and removed. Elementary unit-value indices are then aggregated over countries and commodities, by using the Laspeyres, Paasche and Fisher formulae. Finally, the Fisher unit-value indices are chained back to the reference year (2015 = 100).
Explore further
Other articles
Database
- International trade in goods (ext_go), see:
- International trade in goods - aggregated data (ext_go_agg)
- International trade in goods - long-term indicators (ext_go_lti)
- International trade in goods - short-term indicators (ext_go_sti)
- International trade in goods - detailed data (detail)
Thematic section
Selected datasets
- International trade in goods (t_ext_go), see:
- International trade in goods - long-term indicators (t_ext_go_lti)
- International trade in goods - short-term indicators (t_ext_go_sti)
Methodology
- International trade in goods statistics - background
- International trade in goods (ESMS metadata file — ext_go_agg_esms)
- User guide on European statistics on international trade in goods
External links
- European Commission — Directorate-General for Trade, EU Trade Policy for Raw Materials (second activity report)
- European Commission — Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Non-energy raw materials
- European Commission — Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Defining 'critical' raw materials
Legislation
Legal background
- Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 of 6 May 2009 on Community statistics relating to external trade with non-member countries
- Summaries of EU Legislation: Extrastat: statistics relating to trade with non-EU countries
- Regulation (EU) No 92/2010 of 2 February 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 471/2009, as regards data exchange between customs authorities and national statistical authorities, compilation of statistics and quality assessment
- Regulation (EU) No 113/2010 of 9 February 2010 implementing Regulation (EC) No 471/2009 , as regards trade coverage, definition of the data, compilation of statistics on trade by business characteristics and by invoicing currency, and specific goods or movements.