Europe imported 218,520 tonnes of methyl methacrylate (MMA) from outside the bloc in the twelve months to August 2026, 4.1% less than in the previous twelve months, and paid EUR 387.4 million for it — 16.8% less. Volumes barely moved; the price did everything. Import unit values fell to EUR 1,379 per tonne in January 2026, 42.7% below September 2024, then climbed 62.3% to EUR 2,238 by August. The trough was not a composition effect: Saudi and Chinese parcels also bottomed in the first quarter of 2026, and Korean parcels in April. What matters for a 2027 contract is that the rebound is running while Japan’s last large MMA line is being shut down.
Data updated: 2026-10-25
Latest 12 months: flat tonnes, a V-shaped price
The table covers EU27 trade with partners outside the EU in HS 291614, monthly, September 2025 to August 2026. It is the latest window in the Eurostat Comext database, refreshed on 16 October 2026. Values are declared customs values, so unit values are transaction-weighted averages at the border — they include freight and insurance on the import side and mix grades and packaging inside each month.
| Month | Imports (t) | Import unit value (EUR/t) | Exports (t) | Export unit value (EUR/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-09 | 11,768 | 2,030 | 3,387 | 2,292 |
| 2025-10 | 21,407 | 1,684 | 2,923 | 2,468 |
| 2025-11 | 12,067 | 1,669 | 2,583 | 2,165 |
| 2025-12 | 12,012 | 1,610 | 1,857 | 3,525 |
| 2026-01 | 21,919 | 1,379 | 3,450 | 2,279 |
| 2026-02 | 20,763 | 1,566 | 2,576 | 2,431 |
| 2026-03 | 21,753 | 1,442 | 3,456 | 2,426 |
| 2026-04 | 18,288 | 1,697 | 3,133 | 2,437 |
| 2026-05 | 17,800 | 1,839 | 2,899 | 3,084 |
| 2026-06 | 25,385 | 2,081 | 3,685 | 2,790 |
| 2026-07 | 21,245 | 2,150 | 4,010 | 2,459 |
| 2026-08 | 14,115 | 2,238 | 2,585 | 2,953 |
Three features matter. First, import volume has no trend: the monthly range runs from 11,768 tonnes in September 2025 to 25,385 tonnes in June 2026, and the three heaviest months of the first quarter (21,919, 20,763 and 21,753 tonnes) all cleared within EUR 200 per tonne of the window’s lowest price. Second, the price path is a clean V: import unit values fell for four consecutive months from EUR 2,030 in September 2025 to EUR 1,379 in January 2026, then rose in six of the next seven months, reaching EUR 2,238 in August. Third, the EU never comes close to balancing this molecule: exports ran between 1,857 and 4,010 tonnes a month against imports of 11,800 to 25,400 tonnes.
August 2026 is the newest month in the series and, like any newest month in a customs dataset, subject to revision. Monthly export unit values are also fragile: December 2025 cleared 1,857 tonnes at EUR 3,525 per tonne, a level that reflects small, high-purity parcels rather than the commodity price.
The import bill fell faster than the volume
On a calendar basis the divergence is starker. January to August 2026 brought in 161,268 tonnes, 7.0% more than the same eight months of 2025, while the average unit value fell 9.3% from EUR 1,969 to EUR 1,786. Over the full twelve-month window the volume change is only −4.1% but the value change is −16.8%, which is the arithmetic of a price move rather than a demand move.
That distinction changes how the number should be read. A falling import bill normally signals weaker European demand. Here it signals a cheaper world price: European buyers took roughly the same tonnage and paid EUR 78 million less for it than in the previous twelve months.
Where the tonnes come from
Five origins supply 91.2% of the import book. Saudi Arabia is the largest and the cheapest; China is second and prices close to the average; the United States is third and lost volume; Korea and Singapore gained.
| Origin | Volume (t) | Share of volume | Unit value (EUR/t) | Volume vs prior 12m |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | 66,310 | 30.3% | 1,136 | −7.0% |
| China | 55,822 | 25.5% | 2,051 | +1.0% |
| United States | 41,690 | 19.1% | 1,989 | −10.9% |
| Korea | 18,279 | 8.4% | 1,773 | +7.1% |
| Singapore | 17,274 | 7.9% | 1,287 | +28.6% |
| Japan | 9,207 | 4.2% | 3,835 | −27.7% |
The Saudi line carries the most information. Volumes were broadly stable at 66,310 tonnes, but the value attached to them fell from EUR 118.3 million to EUR 75.3 million: Saudi Arabia held 30.3% of the tonnes and only 19.4% of the money, against 25.4% of the money a year earlier. At EUR 1,136 per tonne, Saudi parcels clear 36% below the EUR 1,773 average, and they set the marginal price that every other origin is measured against.
China’s 25.5% share looks stable at the annual level but not month to month. Chinese arrivals ran between 2,000 and 4,500 tonnes a month through the winter and spring, then jumped to 13,505 tonnes in June and 8,723 tonnes in July before settling at 5,358 tonnes in August. Japanese parcels, at EUR 3,835 per tonne, are a specialty business rather than a commodity lane, and they are shrinking.
Six years of a deficit that does not close
Annual data put the twelve-month window in context. The EU has imported between 204,500 and 265,600 tonnes every year since 2020 and exported between 39,600 and 68,600 tonnes, so the deficit has never been smaller than 156,662 tonnes.
| Year | Imports (t) | Import unit value (EUR/t) | Exports (t) | Export unit value (EUR/t) | Net balance (t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 254,529 | 1,477 | 68,626 | 1,932 | −185,903 |
| 2021 | 265,620 | 2,049 | 67,897 | 2,477 | −197,723 |
| 2022 | 231,638 | 2,548 | 39,585 | 3,637 | −192,053 |
| 2023 | 204,539 | 1,982 | 47,877 | 2,750 | −156,662 |
| 2024 | 244,760 | 2,076 | 54,196 | 2,686 | −190,565 |
| 2025 | 207,909 | 1,905 | 39,963 | 2,545 | −167,947 |
Two things stand out. 2022 was the price peak of the series: EUR 2,548 per tonne on imports and EUR 3,637 on exports. And 2025 was the second-smallest import year of the six: the tonnage has stayed inside a 204,500–265,600 tonne band for six years, which is what a structural deficit looks like.
The latest twelve months widen the deficit again, to 181,977 tonnes from 179,014 tonnes, because exports fell 25.1% while imports fell only 4.1%.
Exports: one lane, and a smaller one
European MMA exports are a single trade route with accessories. The United States took 17,756 tonnes, 48.6% of the total, at EUR 1,872 per tonne — down 43.8% in volume. The United Kingdom took 7,332 tonnes at EUR 2,411, up 82.0%, Turkey 2,692 tonnes at EUR 2,421, Switzerland 2,550 tonnes at EUR 2,826. China bought 782 tonnes at EUR 11,006 per tonne, which is a specialty sale, not a commodity one.
The average export unit value was EUR 2,571 per tonne against an import average of EUR 1,773, a 45% gap. Read carefully, that gap is not evidence that European material is worth more: delivery terms differ (imports are valued with freight and insurance, exports without), and the premium is concentrated in the small lanes while the largest lane, the United States, clears at EUR 1,872, within 6% of the import average.
Analysis: the floor was real, and it was global
Analysis. A single-origin price fall can be a grade change; a synchronised one cannot. Between January 2026 and August 2026 the import unit value rose for Saudi parcels from EUR 1,078 to EUR 1,537, for Chinese parcels from EUR 1,857 to EUR 2,195 and for Korean parcels from EUR 1,633 to EUR 2,066. Three origins, three pricing structures, one direction.
The same move is visible at the source. UN Comtrade export unit values for the main suppliers fell from 2023 to 2025: Saudi Arabia from USD 2,524 to USD 1,344 per tonne, China from USD 1,935 to USD 1,641, Korea from USD 2,186 to USD 2,157, the United States from USD 2,369 to USD 2,196. Europe did not import a discount that existed only at its border; it imported the bottom of a global price cycle, and it is now importing the recovery.
Analysis: Asia is closing capacity, not adding it
Analysis. The supply side is moving in the opposite direction from the price. Asahi Kasei announced on 27 May 2025 that it will withdraw from MMA monomer, CHMA, PMMA and SB latex, ending MMA monomer production at Kawasaki between March 2026 and September 2027 — the MMA monomer line, about 100,000 tonnes a year, is scheduled to stop in September 2026. The company attributed the decision to demand that had deteriorated because of the expansion of petrochemical products in China, and booked an extraordinary loss of about JPY 25 billion.
Mitsubishi Chemical Group had already stopped MMA monomer production by the ACH route at its Hiroshima plant in July 2024, while keeping C4-process MMA there. Japan’s shipments to the EU are down 27.7% to 9,207 tonnes, which is what a retreating supplier looks like in customs data.
Outlook. Two forces now pull in opposite directions. Chinese capacity keeps the ceiling on price: China exported 259,129 tonnes of MMA in 2025 according to Comtrade, down from 315,486 tonnes in 2024 but still far above the 146,407 tonnes of 2023, and Saudi exports were 206,785 tonnes in 2025 at a falling unit value. Against that, the non-Chinese Asian alternative is thinning as Japanese lines close, which narrows the number of origins a European buyer can qualify. The January 2026 floor is unlikely to return without a demand shock; a repeat of the 2026 second-half climb is the more probable path for 2027 budgets.
What to do with this before the next tender
Index to a declared series, not to an assessment. The monthly import unit value in this dataset is public, reproducible and refreshed monthly, which makes it a defensible reference in a contract formula — and it cannot be revised retrospectively by a price reporting agency.
Treat Saudi parcels as the marginal price. A 30.3% volume share at 36% below the average means the Gulf sets the number that clears the market, even when Chinese or US material fills the balance of the book.
Qualify a second Asian origin before Japan leaves. Specification approval for a new MMA source takes months; the Asahi Kasei timetable leaves less room than a normal qualification cycle.
The neighbouring molecules are covered in the library: MMA market analysis for the product and demand side, acrylic acid for the sibling acrylate chain, and phenol and acetone for the ACH feedstock route.
Data limitations
Customs record only what crosses a border. MMA consumed where it is produced never appears, and a shift from extra-EU to intra-EU sourcing would look like falling imports even if consumption were unchanged.
Import values include freight and insurance; export values do not. The 45% gap between export and import unit values therefore overstates any quality premium, which is why the lane-by-lane comparison above matters more than the aggregate.
HS 291614 covers methyl methacrylate only, but not grade: inhibited bulk, drummed material and high-purity parcels all pass through the same code, and a single large specialty shipment moves a monthly average. Where an origin’s monthly quantity is negligible, its unit value is not used.
Comtrade annual figures for 2025 are first-reported and subject to revision. No subscription price assessment was used and no series was interpolated; every figure is a declared customs value or a ratio computed from one.
Data sources
- Eurostat Comext, DS-045409 (EU trade since 1988 by HS2-4-6 and CN8), EU27 extra-EU monthly and annual trade in HS 291614, extracted 25 October 2026, dataset updated 16 October 2026 — https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/DS-045409/default/table (accessed 2026-10-25)
- Eurostat Comext API, DS-045409 monthly query, EU27 imports from EXT_EU27_2020, 2024-01 to 2026-08 — monthly imports query (accessed 2026-10-25)
- Eurostat Comext API, DS-045409 monthly query, EU27 exports to EXT_EU27_2020, 2024-01 to 2026-08 — monthly exports query (accessed 2026-10-25)
- Eurostat Comext API, DS-045409 annual query, EU27 extra-EU trade in HS 291614, 2020 to 2025 — annual query (accessed 2026-10-25)
- UN Comtrade public preview API, annual HS 291614 exports by reporter (Saudi Arabia 682, China 156, Korea 410, United States 842), 2022–2025 — preview endpoint (accessed 2026-10-25)
- Mitsubishi Chemical Group, “Announcement on the Discontinuance of MMA Production by the ACH Process and Acrylonitrile-Related Production at the Hiroshima Plant”, 27 February 2024 — MCGC news release (accessed 2026-10-25)
- CHEManager, “Asahi Kasei to Exit MMA and PMMA Businesses”, June 2025 — CHEManager news (accessed 2026-10-25)
If you need the full monthly matrix behind these tables — twelve origins by month from 2020 to August 2026, with volumes, values and unit values — you can request a sample or a custom cut.