The demand crisis in the German chemical industry is also reflected in current foreign trade figures: Germany’s federal statistical office, Destatis (Wiesbaden; www.destatis.de), made public that the country exported significantly fewer chemical products in the first half of 2023 than in the same period of the previous year. Export volumes declined by 16.3% from 33.8 mn t to around 28.2 mn t. The value of exported goods dwindled in almost the same proportion: down 11.6% from EUR 84.2 bn to EUR 74.4 bn.

Imports have also weakened. According to Destatis, chemical products were still Germany’s most important import in the first half of 2022. But in the first six months of the current year, the volume of goods brought into the country fell by 14.4% to 21 mn t (H1 2022: 24.6 mn t). The value of imports even slumped by more than 30% from EUR 78.5 bn to EUR 54.6 bn.

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According to the statistical office, the reason for the high import values in the chemicals sector in the first half of 2022 had been imports of lactams from China. These substances can be used both for the production of plastics (for example caprolactam in polyamide production) and medicines. From January to July 2023, lactam imports fell to virtually zero, Destatis reports. Whether this has to do with the end of the pandemic and a lower demand for medicines, with the dramatic drop in demand from the polymer sector, or even with the weakening Chinese economy, remains unclear.

As in previous years, the US remained Germany’s main trading partner in the first half of 2023. Germany shipped goods worth EUR 78 bn to the US. Its next largest export countries are France (EUR 60.5 bn) and the Netherlands (EUR 57.7 bn). Most imports to Germany came from China, with goods worth EUR 79.3 bn. The Netherlands (EUR 54 bn) and the US (EUR 47.5 bn) came in second and third.

Overall, German exports in the first half of 2023 increased by 3.3% year-on-year to just under EUR 798 bn, while imports decreased by 4.3% to EUR 699 bn. Thus, Germany’s foreign trade surplus was more than twice as high as in the previous year (a plus of EUR 42 bn).