Conclusion: The European Union imported 48,703 tonnes of bisphenol A (BPA, CN 2907 23 00) in the twelve months to July 2026, worth EUR 52.4 million, at an average declared customs unit value of EUR 1,077 per tonne. Korea supplied 83.8% of that volume and Taiwan 14.8%. Over the same window the EU’s prohibition on BPA in food contact materials moved through its final transition stage: the main phase-out period ended on 20 July 2026, the last month covered by this data. Measured over two like-for-like seven-month windows, EU import volume fell 15.9% year on year.
Data updated: 2026-10-13
Latest 12 months (August 2025 – July 2026)
Eurostat’s Comext monthly series for EU27 extra-EU trade runs through July 2026, the latest month published when this note was compiled; UN Comtrade’s annual series runs through 2025 (first-reported, subject to revision) and its monthly series for India and the United States through June 2026.
EU27 extra-EU imports of BPA over the twelve months were 48,703 tonnes valued at EUR 52.4 million, an implied unit value of EUR 1,077 per tonne. Exports were 6,584 tonnes valued at EUR 2.6 million, at EUR 398 per tonne — a tenth of the import volume, at roughly a third of the unit value Europe pays for the material it buys in.
By origin, Korea supplied 40,822 tonnes (83.8%) at EUR 1,064 per tonne and Taiwan 7,184 tonnes (14.8%) at EUR 1,102. Together they account for 98.6% of volume. China supplied just 546 tonnes (1.1%) at EUR 1,445 per tonne and Thailand 120 tonnes. Unlike Europe’s commodity glycol and aromatics markets, this is a market with no American or Saudi participation at all: no such origin reached 50 tonnes in twelve months.
Monthly volumes are far more volatile than in bulk commodity lines, which matters for anyone reading a single month. Imports fell to 688 tonnes in October 2025, the lowest month in the series, then recovered to 10,061 tonnes in June 2026. Unit values ranged from EUR 894 in November 2025 to EUR 1,331 per tonne in July 2026, the highest since January 2025. Quarterly averages were EUR 1,013 per tonne in the first quarter of 2026 and EUR 1,068 in the second — a much flatter picture than the monthly prints suggest.
| Month | EU27 imports (t) | Imports (EUR m) | Imports (EUR/t) | EU27 exports (t) | Exports (EUR m) | Exports (EUR/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-01 | 3,602 | 4.8 | 1,338 | 476 | 0.3 | 724 |
| 2025-02 | 3,660 | 4.8 | 1,307 | 389 | 0.1 | 369 |
| 2025-03 | 9,639 | 12.5 | 1,296 | 238 | 0.1 | 198 |
| 2025-04 | 5,848 | 7.5 | 1,281 | 138 | 0.1 | 948 |
| 2025-05 | 3,223 | 4.1 | 1,288 | 725 | 0.2 | 210 |
| 2025-06 | 4,766 | 5.8 | 1,214 | 457 | 0.1 | 112 |
| 2025-07 | 8,406 | 9.3 | 1,110 | 517 | 0.1 | 141 |
| 2025-08 | 7,424 | 8.0 | 1,080 | 614 | 0.1 | 129 |
| 2025-09 | 4,361 | 4.8 | 1,101 | 466 | 0.0 | 82 |
| 2025-10 | 688 | 0.8 | 1,140 | 177 | 0.0 | 151 |
| 2025-11 | 1,785 | 1.6 | 894 | 73 | 0.1 | 1,023 |
| 2025-12 | 1,520 | 1.6 | 1,043 | 314 | 0.0 | 58 |
| 2026-01 | 2,136 | 2.2 | 1,036 | 644 | 0.1 | 171 |
| 2026-02 | 3,044 | 3.1 | 1,007 | 602 | 0.0 | 35 |
| 2026-03 | 3,765 | 3.8 | 1,005 | 576 | 0.1 | 80 |
| 2026-04 | 3,965 | 3.6 | 908 | 193 | 0.1 | 602 |
| 2026-05 | 6,219 | 6.1 | 973 | 791 | 0.2 | 253 |
| 2026-06 | 10,061 | 12.0 | 1,190 | 1,271 | 1.3 | 1,058 |
| 2026-07 | 3,734 | 5.0 | 1,331 | 863 | 0.6 | 634 |
Table 1 — EU27 extra-EU trade in bisphenol A, CN 2907 23 00, monthly, January 2025 to July 2026. Volume from QUANTITY_IN_100KG, value from VALUE_IN_EUROS; unit value = value ÷ volume. Source: Eurostat Comext DS-045409. Latest month published: 2026-07.
Where Europe’s BPA comes from, and what it costs
Two origins cover 98.6% of Europe’s import volume, and one of them dominates. Comparing like-for-like seven-month windows: in January–July 2025 the EU imported 39,145 tonnes at EUR 1,248 per tonne, of which Korea supplied 33,253 tonnes (85.0%) and Taiwan 4,504 tonnes (11.5%). In January–July 2026 it imported 32,924 tonnes at EUR 1,083 per tonne — 15.9% less volume and a 13.2% lower unit value — with Korea at 28,737 tonnes (87.3%) and Taiwan at 3,732 tonnes (11.3%). The supplier mix barely moved; what moved was the price and the quantity.
The residual third-country share is small but noisy, and it is not a source of supply. In most months it is under 200 tonnes at unit values from EUR 1,000 to over EUR 13,000 per tonne — tonne-scale parcels, sample lots and re-exports rather than bulk cargoes. Any buyer treating those rows as an alternative origin is reading the table wrongly.
| Month | From Korea (t) | Korea (EUR/t) | From Taiwan (t) | Taiwan (EUR/t) | All other origins (t) | Other (EUR/t) | Total imports (t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-01 | 2,891 | 1,325 | 162 | 1,318 | 550 | 1,413 | 3,602 |
| 2025-02 | 3,086 | 1,310 | 267 | 1,344 | 306 | 1,246 | 3,660 |
| 2025-03 | 9,146 | 1,294 | 166 | 1,403 | 327 | 1,293 | 9,639 |
| 2025-04 | 4,971 | 1,278 | 810 | 1,255 | 67 | 1,803 | 5,848 |
| 2025-05 | 2,482 | 1,290 | 741 | 1,274 | 1 | 12,845 | 3,223 |
| 2025-06 | 3,967 | 1,209 | 776 | 1,139 | 23 | 4,674 | 4,766 |
| 2025-07 | 6,710 | 1,115 | 1,582 | 1,063 | 113 | 1,443 | 8,406 |
| 2025-08 | 6,421 | 1,080 | 975 | 1,077 | 28 | 1,190 | 7,424 |
| 2025-09 | 2,821 | 1,118 | 1,459 | 1,024 | 81 | 1,888 | 4,361 |
| 2025-10 | 616 | 1,133 | 50 | 1,104 | 22 | 1,417 | 688 |
| 2025-11 | 1,266 | 829 | 468 | 1,049 | 51 | 1,082 | 1,785 |
| 2025-12 | 960 | 1,024 | 500 | 1,030 | 60 | 1,463 | 1,520 |
| 2026-01 | 1,812 | 1,036 | 286 | 1,032 | 38 | 1,057 | 2,136 |
| 2026-02 | 2,629 | 1,008 | 415 | 994 | 0 | 13,441 | 3,044 |
| 2026-03 | 2,860 | 981 | 708 | 1,000 | 196 | 1,370 | 3,765 |
| 2026-04 | 3,629 | 890 | 325 | 1,018 | 11 | 3,613 | 3,965 |
| 2026-05 | 5,567 | 958 | 648 | 1,076 | 3 | 5,462 | 6,219 |
| 2026-06 | 8,913 | 1,162 | 995 | 1,389 | 154 | 1,556 | 10,061 |
| 2026-07 | 3,327 | 1,310 | 355 | 1,366 | 52 | 2,390 | 3,734 |
Table 2 — EU27 extra-EU imports of BPA by origin, monthly, with each origin’s unit value. “All other origins” is the total less the two named origins; the extreme values in that column reflect tonne-scale parcels, not bulk trade. Source: Eurostat Comext DS-045409, partner EXT_EU27_2020, partner KR and partner TW.
The regulatory deadline that defines this market
Analysis — regulatory facts, each traceable to the sources listed below. On 19 December 2024 the European Commission adopted a ban on the use of BPA in food contact materials, citing its potentially harmful health impact and the European Food Safety Authority’s conclusion that BPA has potentially harmful effects on the immune system. The Commission’s own summary states that BPA is not allowed in products that come into contact with food or drink — the coating on metal cans, reusable plastic drink bottles, water distribution coolers and other kitchenware — and that the ban also covers other bisphenols that are harmful to the reproductive and endocrine systems. For most products the Commission provided an 18-month phase-out period, with very limited exceptions where no alternatives exist.
The scope is wider than food packaging alone. Finland’s food authority, summarising the regulation, records that it prohibits BPA in binders, rubbers, ion exchange resins, plastics, printing inks, silicones, varnishes and coatings used as food contact materials, and that it repeals the earlier Regulation 213/2018.
The transition dates are the part that matters for procurement. A February 2026 legal analysis of the Commission’s implementation guidance states that single-use food contact materials may be first placed on the EU market until 20 July 2026, with an extended 36-month period to 20 January 2028 for certain categories including packaging for fruit, vegetables and fishery products and articles using BPA-based coatings; repeat-use materials follow similar timelines with an additional year for transfer, filling or sale. The guidance also sets a detection limit for residual BPA of 1 µg/kg. A Commission correction to the regulation was published on 3 February 2026 clarifying definitions, transitional arrangements and documentation requirements.
What the customs data can and cannot say about this is worth stating plainly. EU extra-region import volume fell 15.9% between the January–July windows of 2025 and 2026, and unit values fell 13.2% over the same period. Those two facts are consistent with a market in which European buyers of BPA for food-contact applications are running down inventories and switching formulations ahead of the 20 July 2026 deadline — but monthly customs data cannot demonstrate that. BPA also serves polycarbonate and epoxy applications outside the regulation’s scope, and the same months saw a regional energy and freight shock. The regulatory calendar is a fixed, sourced fact; the attribution of the volume decline to it is an inference, and is labelled as such.
The Asian supply picture behind the EU market
Analysis — sourced to UN Comtrade annual data. The reporters’ own annual returns show a supply map that has inverted over five years. Korea, Europe’s dominant supplier, reported export values of USD 774.8 million in 2021 falling to USD 283.5 million in 2025, a decline of 63%. Korea’s tonnage is reported for 2021 only (286,227 tonnes), so the value series, not the volume series, is what carries the signal.
Taiwan’s reported exports ran between 223,878 and 268,320 tonnes a year from 2020 to 2024 at unit values of USD 1,223–1,278 per tonne in the later years. Japan’s reported exports collapsed from 181,200 tonnes in 2020 to 8,128 tonnes in 2024, while its reported imports rose from nothing in 2020 to 106,170 tonnes in 2025 — a country that has moved from net exporter to net importer within the panel. Thailand’s exports fell from 114,226 tonnes in 2021 to 69,369 tonnes in 2025.
The largest single change is on the buying side. China reported importing 594,733 tonnes in 2020 and 14,783 tonnes in 2025 — a fall of 97.5%, with the average unit value easing from USD 1,248 to USD 1,098 per tonne. Chinese demand, once the swing factor in global BPA trade, has effectively withdrawn from the import market, even as Chinese exports grew from 4,595 tonnes in 2021 to 32,938 tonnes in 2025. For European buyers, that is the structural backdrop to a two-origin supply book: the world’s largest former importer has become a marginal exporter, and European importers are left buying from a supplier base that has not widened.
| Reporter and flow | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rep. of Korea exports (USD m) | 381.0 | 774.8 | 481.3 | 314.5 | 344.7 | 283.5 |
| Rep. of Korea exports (t) | n/r | 286,227 | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r |
| Taiwan exports (t) | 268,320 | 248,210 | 229,062 | 223,878 | 247,369 | n/r |
| Taiwan exports (USD/t) | 1,228 | 2,730 | 1,724 | 1,223 | 1,278 | n/r |
| Japan exports (t) | 181,200 | 144,046 | 117,081 | 33,593 | 8,128 | n/r |
| Japan imports (t) | n/r | 43,961 | 36,386 | n/r | 84,199 | 106,170 |
| Thailand exports (t) | n/r | 114,226 | 101,127 | 79,810 | n/r | 69,369 |
| China imports (t) | 594,733 | 496,419 | 431,876 | 170,832 | 51,035 | 14,783 |
| China imports (USD/t) | 1,248 | 2,804 | 1,834 | 1,245 | 1,286 | 1,098 |
| Netherlands imports (t) | 10,034 | 8,954 | 27,354 | n/r | 15,956 | 38,596 |
| Germany imports (t) | 28,344 | 36,967 | 29,351 | 58,089 | 63,367 | 14,322 |
Table 3 — Annual trade in bisphenol A, HS 290723, 2020–2025, reporters’ own submissions. Taiwan is reported in UN Comtrade under the label “Other Asia, nes”. “n/r” means a customs value was filed without a net weight, so no tonnage or unit value can be computed; no estimate has been substituted. *2025 is first-reported and subject to revision. Source: UN Comtrade public preview API.
What buyers of bisphenol A should be checking
Analysis / outlook — each point traceable to the sources listed below.
- Start with the compliance date, not the price. The main transition for single-use food contact materials ended on 20 July 2026, with extended deadlines to 20 January 2028 for certain packaging categories; a Declaration of Compliance is required at every stage of the supply chain except retail, and residual BPA testing uses a 1 µg/kg limit.
- Treat Korea concentration as a single point of failure. One origin supplies 83.8% of EU import volume, and the same reporter’s annual export values have fallen 63% since 2021.
- Do not read one month’s unit value as a price. Monthly volumes in this line ranged from 688 to 10,061 tonnes within twelve months; averages over such small tonnages move with grade and parcel size, not with market direction.
- Check whether a “new origin” is real volume or a sample lot. Every third-country row except Korea and Taiwan is tonne-scale.
Related product coverage on this site
Bisphenol A is made by condensing phenol with acetone, so its economics follow both feedstocks; the epoxy resins derived from it, and the BADGE chemistry that the EU rules treat as a BPA derivative, sit downstream in our epichlorohydrin market analysis.
Data limitations
- Monthly coverage. The Eurostat series runs 2025-01 to 2026-07; recent months are the most likely to be revised, and volumes in this line are small enough that one cargo can move a monthly average.
- Product scope. CN 2907 23 00 covers bisphenol A and its salts. The food contact regulation covers BPA plus other bisphenols and bisphenol derivatives, so the two do not map one-to-one.
- Reporting gaps. Several reporters, including Korea in most years, filed customs values without net weights; those cells show n/r and no estimate has been substituted.
- Unit values are not prices. They are declared customs value divided by declared net weight, and for small volumes they are dominated by parcel composition.
- Non-comparability of aggregates. UN Comtrade’s “European Union” aggregate and Eurostat’s extra-EU27 series are not interchangeable; every EU figure here comes from Eurostat.
Data sources
- Eurostat, Comext DS-045409, monthly extra-EU27 trade, CN 2907 23 00, partner EXT_EU27_2020, flows 1 and 2 — API query — https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/api/comext/dissemination/statistics/1.0/data/DS-045409?format=JSON&freq=M&reporter=EU27_2020&partner=EXT_EU27_2020&product=29072300&flow=1&flow=2&indicators=VALUE_IN_EUROS&indicators=QUANTITY_IN_100KG&sinceTimePeriod=2025-01 (accessed 2026-10-13)
- Eurostat, Comext DS-045409, CN 2907 23 00, imports, partner KR — https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/api/comext/dissemination/statistics/1.0/data/DS-045409?format=JSON&freq=M&reporter=EU27_2020&partner=KR&product=29072300&flow=1&indicators=VALUE_IN_EUROS&indicators=QUANTITY_IN_100KG&sinceTimePeriod=2025-01 (accessed 2026-10-13)
- Eurostat, Comext DS-045409, CN 2907 23 00, imports, partner TW — https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/api/comext/dissemination/statistics/1.0/data/DS-045409?format=JSON&freq=M&reporter=EU27_2020&partner=TW&product=29072300&flow=1&indicators=VALUE_IN_EUROS&indicators=QUANTITY_IN_100KG&sinceTimePeriod=2025-01 (accessed 2026-10-13)
- Eurostat, Comext DS-045409, database entry point — https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/DS-045409/default/table (accessed 2026-10-13)
- European Commission, DG Health and Food Safety, “Commission adopts ban of Bisphenol A in food contact materials”, 19 December 2024 — scope of the ban, the 18-month phase-out and the EFSA assessment — https://food.ec.europa.eu/food-safety-news-0/commission-adopts-ban-bisphenol-food-contact-materials-2024-12-19_en (accessed 2026-10-13)
- Finnish Food Authority, “Regulation (EU) 3190/2024 of bisphenols in food contact materials” — materials covered and repeal of Regulation 213/2018 — https://www.ruokavirasto.fi/en/foodstuffs/food-sector/packages-and-other-food-contact-materials/rules-for-food-contact-materials/regulation-2132017-on-bpa/ (accessed 2026-10-13)
- knoell, “Food Contact Materials Regulation Update: New EU Guidance on Bisphenols”, 4 February 2026 — transitional dates of 20 July 2026 and 20 January 2028 and the 1 µg/kg detection limit — https://www.knoell.com/en/news/food-contact-materials-regulation-update-new-eu-guidance-on-bisphenols (accessed 2026-10-13)
- RegASK, “EU Corrects BPA Rules for Food Contact Materials, Clarifying Transitional Deadlines”, 3 February 2026 — correction published 3 February 2026 and enforced from 23 February 2026 — https://regask.com/eu-corrects-bpa-rules-for-food-contact-materials-clarifying-transitional-deadlines/ (accessed 2026-10-13)
- Food Packaging Forum, “European Commission bans Bisphenol A in food contact materials”, 20 December 2024 — adoption date, 18-month phase-out and EFSA’s revised assessment — https://foodpackagingforum.org/news/european-commission-bans-bisphenol-a-in-food-contact-materials (accessed 2026-10-13)
- UN Comtrade, public preview API, annual HS 290723, reporters Rep. of Korea (410), Taiwan “Other Asia, nes” (490) and China (156), 2025 — https://comtradeapi.un.org/public/v1/preview/C/A/HS?includeDesc=true&reporterCode=410,490,156&period=2025&flowCode=X,M&cmdCode=290723&partnerCode=0 (accessed 2026-10-13)
- UN Comtrade, public preview API, monthly HS 290723, reporter India (699) — monthly channel checked; no monthly figures from this reporter are quoted in this note — https://comtradeapi.un.org/public/v1/preview/C/M/HS?includeDesc=true&reporterCode=699&period=202606&flowCode=X,M&cmdCode=290723&partnerCode=0 (accessed 2026-10-13)
- UN Comtrade, public preview API, monthly HS 290723, reporter USA (842) — monthly channel checked; no monthly figures from this reporter are quoted in this note — https://comtradeapi.un.org/public/v1/preview/C/M/HS?includeDesc=true&reporterCode=842&period=202606&flowCode=X,M&cmdCode=290723&partnerCode=0 (accessed 2026-10-13)
If you are sourcing bisphenol A, qualifying a BPA-free food contact formulation, or underwriting the polycarbonate and epoxy chain, and need the underlying monthly series, origin-level unit-value bands or a supplier-by-supplier breakdown, request a sample report or a custom research brief.