Value of commercial vehicle imports into the European Union 2021

From January to December of 2021, imports of commercial vehicles and buses amounted to over seven billion euros in spending for the European Union. This is 11 percent more than the spending during the same period in 2020 when the European Union spent roughly 6.38 billion euros on imported commercial vehicles. Germany is the largest market for commercial vehicles in Europe.

The leading countries of origin for imports remain largely unchanged

Turkey remained the main country of origin for commercial vehicle imports with a 3.35 billion euros worth of sales, despite a 2.7 percent decline compared to 2020. It was followed by South Africa with 1.3 million euros' worth of sales, an increase of 16.6 percent since 2020. Despite the many trade uncertainties linked to Brexit, the United Kingdom was ranked as the third most important country of origin for commercial vehicle imports into the EU, with 834 million euros in sales.

Changes in trade relations

North Macedonia was the sixth largest country of origin for commercial vehicle imports in 2019, with the EU buying 103 million euros of vehicles. In the span of a year. North Macedonia was not the only country to have fallen in the ranking. Thailand, Morocco, and Switzerland all dropped one place. The only countries which increased their sales to the European Union despite the pandemic are China and Norway. The value of imports from these countries had augmented by 28 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively. China's commercial vehicle exports came to around 295,000 units in 2019.