Bottom line: reported benzene trade (HS 290220) across a fixed 30-economy panel reached a five-year high in 2024 (and, on the first-cut 2025 filings, handed part of that back) — the 21-economy export core shipped 8,901 m USD (+15.1% year on year) and the 23-economy import core took in 9,482 m USD — and unlike 2021, this time it is a volume story: export tonnage rose +12.4% in 2024, whereas in 2021 value jumped +103% on volume growth of under 1%. Korea remains the largest exporter (3,006 m USD, 3,033.4 kt) and China the largest importer (4,347 m USD, 4,313.2 kt). For procurement teams, the signal is that the barrel now comes from a wider, more Asian supplier set than in 2020 — while pricing power has rotated back toward buyers.
Data updated: 2026-09-22. The trend tables further down are the original 2020–2024 series; the section immediately below extends the picture with first-cut 2025 annual data and Eurostat monthly data through July 2026.
Latest 12 months: what changed since the 2020–2024 window
Two different sources now extend this series past 2024. Eurostat’s monthly extra-EU trade statistics cover the whole 2025–2026 window for the European Union (latest month: July 2026), and UN Comtrade has published first-cut 2025 annual filings for 21 of the 30 panel economies. Read them together and the direction of benzene trade has changed hands: India, not Korea, was the largest single origin of extra-EU benzene imports in July 2026, and 2026 imports into the EU passed the whole of 2025 in seven months.
| Month | Value, m EUR | Volume, kt | Implied EUR/t |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-08 | 18.73 | 28.26 | 663 |
| 2025-09 | 17.12 | 32.96 | 519 |
| 2025-10 | 18.42 | 26.95 | 683 |
| 2025-11 | 18.67 | 29.27 | 638 |
| 2025-12 | 23.60 | 36.39 | 648 |
| 2026-01 | 15.01 | 22.72 | 661 |
| 2026-02 | 25.24 | 33.14 | 762 |
| 2026-03 | 37.92 | 44.61 | 850 |
| 2026-04 | 40.30 | 44.93 | 897 |
| 2026-05 | 49.09 | 49.04 | 1,001 |
| 2026-06 | 38.65 | 31.25 | 1,237 |
| 2026-07 | 51.79 | 49.34 | 1,050 |
| 2025 full year | 230.90 | 337.23 | 685 |
| 2026 to July | 258.00 | 275.03 | 938 |
| Partner | Value |
|---|---|
| India | 27.59 m EUR |
| Saudi Arabia | 2.08 m EUR |
| China | 13 k EUR |
| United States | 385 EUR |
| Japan | 102 EUR |
2025 full-year read (first-reported)
- Benzene exports, like-for-like panel: reported exports across the 20 panel economies that filed both years were 8,901 m USD in 2024 and 6,558 m USD in 2025 (-26.3%), first-reported, subject to revision. China had not filed 2025 annual data at the time of writing, so the Chinese aggregate series still ends in 2024.
Analysis (not a price assessment). The July 2026 partner mix is the signal to act on: a single origin holding roughly half of one month’s extra-EU import value is a concentration risk that shows up in freight and in negotiation leverage long before it shows up in annual averages. Buyers who price against a 2024 benchmark are working from a market that no longer exists. If you need the underlying partner-level series, the source URLs are listed at the foot of this page.
Sources for this section: Eurostat Comext benzene imports
What the data set covers
The figures below come from UN Comtrade’s public preview API for HS 290220 (benzene), partner “World”, for calendar years 2020–2024. Two decisions matter for reading the tables honestly:
- Fixed panel, not “the world”. We query the same 30 reporting economies every year, then compute the trend on the core panel — only those that filed the code in all five years (21 for exports, 23 for imports). No economy enters or leaves the series, so year-on-year change is not an artefact of coverage.
- Unit value is reported, not assessed. “Implied unit value” is reported customs value divided by reported net weight, computed on a fixed weight core — only the reporters that filed net weight in all five years (12 for exports, 7 for imports). Reporters that never file weight are shown as n/r in the ranking table. This is an average across every grade and contract type inside the code. It is not a price assessment and must not be used as one.
- Imports and exports are not valued the same way. Export figures are mostly FOB and import figures mostly CIF, so import unit values sit structurally above export unit values for the same molecule in the same year. Read the two series against their own history, not against each other.
Table 1 — Benzene exports, 2020–2024 (core panel of 21 reporters)
| Year | Reported export value (USD m) | Volume (kt) | Implied unit value (USD/t) | YoY value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 (src) | 3,733 | 5,553.4 | 496 | — |
| 2021 (src) | 7,573 | 5,599.0 | 911 | +102.9% |
| 2022 (src) | 8,594 | 5,510.6 | 1,044 | +13.5% |
| 2023 (src) | 7,733 | 6,123.2 | 905 | -10.0% |
| 2024 (src) | 8,901 | 6,883.4 | 1,001 | +15.1% |
Export value nearly doubled between 2020 and 2021 (+103%) while physical volume grew less than 1% — that is the single clearest proof in this data set that the 2021–2022 run was a price event. Volume only broke to a new high in 2024, at 6,883.4 kt, roughly 24% above the 2020 level, while the fixed-weight-core unit value eased from 1,044 USD/t in 2022 to 1,001 USD/t in 2024.
Table 2 — Benzene imports, 2020–2024 (core panel of 23 reporters)
| Year | Reported import value (USD m) | Volume (kt) | Implied unit value (USD/t) | YoY value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 (src) | 4,206 | 6,975.4 | 551 | — |
| 2021 (src) | 8,383 | 8,155.0 | 1,021 | +99.3% |
| 2022 (src) | 9,371 | 7,089.5 | 1,194 | +11.8% |
| 2023 (src) | 8,115 | 3,940.7 | 1,035 | -13.4% |
| 2024 (src) | 9,482 | 8,389.6 | 1,092 | +16.9% |
The import side shows the same cycle with a different volume shape: 2024 imports reached 9,482 m USD (+16.9% year on year) on 8,389.6 kt. The 2023 line is the one to treat carefully — several large importers filed value without net weight that year, which is why the unit-value column is computed on a fixed 7-reporter weight core rather than on whoever happened to report weight in each year. Value and volume in the same row are therefore internally consistent across all five years, which is what makes the 1,194 → 1,092 USD/t decline meaningful.
Table 3 — Who actually moves the barrels, 2024
| # | Exporter (src) | USD m | kt | USD/t | Importer (src) | USD m | kt | USD/t |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rep. of Korea | 3,006 | 3,033.4 | 991 | China | 4,347 | 4,313.2 | 1,008 |
| 2 | India | 1,457 | 0.0 | n/r | USA | 1,592 | 1,707.1 | 933 |
| 3 | Netherlands | 1,143 | 1,081.6 | 1,057 | Other Asia, nes | 773 | 746.5 | 1,035 |
| 4 | Japan | 529 | 542.9 | 975 | Saudi Arabia | 572 | 572.5 | 999 |
| 5 | Thailand | 523 | 508.4 | 1,029 | Belgium | 457 | 0.0 | n/r |
| 6 | Germany | 441 | 440.6 | 1,002 | Netherlands | 407 | 367.3 | 1,108 |
| 7 | Malaysia | 292 | 300.4 | 971 | Germany | 378 | 0.0 | n/r |
| 8 | Singapore | 241 | 241.0 | 999 | Italy | 236 | 201.3 | 1,170 |
| 9 | United Kingdom | 235 | 0.0 | n/r | United Kingdom | 158 | 144.0 | 1,094 |
| 10 | Belgium | 232 | 0.0 | n/r | France | 135 | 131.6 | 1,025 |
Two structural facts stand out. First, export supply is concentrated: Korea alone accounts for about 37% of the 21-reporter export panel, and its 3,033.4 kt in 2024 exceeds the next two exporters combined. Second, demand is equally concentrated at the top: China takes roughly 48% of panel import value. India is the other large Asian seller in the table, with 1,143 m USD of reported exports in 2024.
Note the spread inside the same product code. Among the top ten exporters that report weight, 2024 averages run from about 971 to 1,057 USD/t; among importers they run from 933 to 1,170 USD/t. Part of that gap is freight and valuation basis, and part of it is origin and contract mix — the code is a single six-digit line, so each average blends different suppliers, contract types and delivery terms. For a negotiation, the practical reading is that a quote materially outside your region’s band is usually explained by terms or counterparty rather than by a different market.
Table 4 — China’s benzene imports by origin (m USD)
| Origin | 2020 (src) | 2021 (src) | 2022 (src) | 2023 (src) | 2024 (src) | 2024 share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rep. of Korea | 509 | 1,351 | 1,683 | 1,448 | 2,160 | 50% |
| Brunei Darussalam | 70 | 398 | 548 | 409 | 537 | 12% |
| Thailand | 126 | 318 | 343 | 372 | 470 | 11% |
| Malaysia | 42 | 79 | 131 | 208 | 225 | 5% |
| Singapore | 14 | 19 | 81 | 92 | 199 | 5% |
| Japan | 33 | 87 | 177 | 227 | 190 | 4% |
| All origins | 990 | 2,785 | 3,447 | 3,123 | 4,347 | 100% |
China’s sourcing map is the clearest single signal in this data set. Korea supplied 509 m USD in 2020 and 2,160 m USD in 2024 — it remains the anchor supplier — but the tail has widened sharply. Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan all now appear as material origins, and the total import bill reached 4,347 m USD in 2024. For anyone selling into China, that means competition is no longer only with Korean tonnage; for anyone buying benzene in Northeast or Southeast Asia, it means the same molecule is available from more counterparties than in 2020.
Why the cycle behaved this way
Benzene is a co-product of two very different processes — naphtha steam cracking and catalytic reforming — which means its supply responds to gasoline and ethylene economics rather than to benzene demand itself. When 2021–2022 inflated naphtha and energy costs, producers in every region repriced the same barrels, and the value series in Table 1 inflated even though the tonnage barely moved. When those input costs normalised, unit values fell back faster than spot demand recovered, which is exactly the pattern of 1,044 USD/t in 2022 versus 1,001 USD/t in 2024.
Three practical consequences for 2025–2026 planning:
- Do not extrapolate the 2021–2022 value curve. The panel’s export value in 2024 was only about +15% above 2023 in year-on-year terms while volume rose faster — i.e. the recovery is being carried by tonnage, not price.
- Watch who is adding derivative capacity, not who is adding benzene capacity. A larger share of trade is moving to buyers who consume benzene downstream rather than resell it, which shortens the merchant market.
- Treat unit-value gaps as a sourcing signal. Where a buyer’s landed average sits materially above the 1,001 USD/t reported-weight benchmark, the gap is usually explainable — and worth explaining before the next contract round.
Where benzene goes next
Roughly three quarters of merchant benzene is consumed in three crack-derived chains, and each has a different margin cycle:
- Styrene — the largest single outlet, via ethylbenzene; styrene economics drive the marginal benzene bid in Asia.
- Cyclohexane and Phenol — the nylon-6 and polycarbonate chains, where benzene demand tracks industrial and automotive output rather than consumer packaging.
- Benzene itself, where our product page tracks the reported price series, supply-side factors and named producers for the grade.
Because those outlets move on different cycles, the same benzene cargo can be worth different amounts to different buyers in the same month. That gap — between the trade-weighted average in Table 3 and what a specific buyer’s own product mix can bear — is where negotiation actually happens.
Health and handling note
Any commercial work on benzene sits on top of a hard regulatory floor. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration notes that benzene is a component of petroleum-derived products and of gasoline, is used in the manufacture of plastics, detergents and pesticides, and that long-term exposure may affect bone marrow and blood production. Storage, transport and workplace limits are regulated in every major market, and compliance costs belong in the landed-cost model, not in the price discussion. See the OSHA benzene topic page for the US baseline.
Need the full 2020–2026 picture for benzene?
This article covers the trade flows. It does not cover the capacity stack, the named producer map, the grade-level price series or the derivative demand model that sit behind a real procurement or investment decision. If you need a sample chapter, the full table of contents, or a bespoke cut — for example China import volumes by origin at monthly frequency, or a landed-cost comparison for a specific port pair — request a sample report or a custom research scope and we will come back with the scope, the data dictionary and the price.
Data sources and method
All trade figures are taken from the UN Comtrade public preview API, HS 290220, partner code 0 (World), annual frequency, extracted for this article. Each table row links directly to the query that produced it; the full list of underlying queries is below.
- UN Comtrade preview API — benzene (HS 290220), reporter panel, exports and imports, 2020–2024:
- US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Benzene — Safety and Health Topics (handling and health context).
Method notes. Rows with a second partner code or a mode-of-transport breakdown were excluded, and where a reporter filed several customs procedures the all-procedures total (C00) was used — a rule verified against the raw responses (e.g. one 2023 import response reports C00 36.80 m USD against procedure rows of 10.77 + 0.00 + 26.03 m USD). Values are as reported by the importing or exporting administration, before revision. “Implied unit value” is reported value divided by reported net weight and is not a market price assessment.