Summary. EU27 imports of ethylbenzene (HS 290230), the benzene-ethylene intermediate that feeds styrene, reached 142,475 tonnes in the twelve months to August 2026, 107.9% more than the preceding twelve months, at EUR 823 per tonne, 8.3% higher. Exports fell 34.2% to 92,785 tonnes. The bloc that shipped 12.8 tonnes abroad for every tonne it bought in 2020 became a net importer by 49,690 tonnes in the latest twelve months, from a surplus of 72,581 tonnes a year earlier. China supplied 105,376 tonnes in January–August 2026, 77.6% of the import book and nearly three times its entire 2025 volume; Israel supplied another 19.4%. The price did not move with the volume until June: the import unit value sat at EUR 636 in February 2026 and EUR 1,072 in August, a 69% rise in six months that Indian and US customs files corroborate in their own currencies.
Data updated: 2026-10-31
Latest 12 months: the import book doubled, the export book lost a third
Table 1 covers September 2025 to August 2026 for CN 290230, EU27 trade with partners outside the bloc, from Eurostat Comext DS-045409, refreshed 16 October 2026. Unit values are declared value divided by net mass. They are customs values, not price assessments, and the difference matters in the last section.
| Month | Imports (t) | Import value (EUR m) | Import unit value (EUR/t) | Exports (t) | Export unit value (EUR/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-09 | 1,062 | 0.8 | 780 | 10,119 | 756 |
| 2025-10 | 959 | 0.7 | 744 | 5,497 | 703 |
| 2025-11 | 3,792 | 2.6 | 688 | 6,606 | 755 |
| 2025-12 | 920 | 0.7 | 794 | 7,797 | 696 |
| 2026-01 | 13,874 | 8.9 | 642 | 5,514 | 719 |
| 2026-02 | 14,433 | 9.2 | 636 | 8,441 | 696 |
| 2026-03 | 25,131 | 16.5 | 655 | 9,893 | 979 |
| 2026-04 | 13,190 | 9.7 | 736 | 9,800 | 988 |
| 2026-05 | 10,428 | 7.4 | 711 | 10,619 | 1,019 |
| 2026-06 | 4,215 | 4.3 | 1,030 | 7,252 | 1,043 |
| 2026-07 | 17,836 | 17.1 | 959 | 6,769 | 1,117 |
| 2026-08 | 36,635 | 39.3 | 1,072 | 4,478 | 1,145 |
| Total | 142,475 | 117.3 | 823 | 92,785 | 886 |
The monthly path is not a trend line; it is a sequence of cargoes. Imports ran below 4,000 tonnes a month from September to December 2025, then jumped to 13,874 tonnes in January and 25,131 in March, fell to 4,215 in June and reached 36,635 in August. Exports moved the other way, from 10,119 tonnes in September 2025 to 4,478 in August 2026, the lowest month since November 2024.
The money did not follow the volume immediately. Imports cleared at EUR 780 per tonne in September 2025, fell to EUR 636 in February 2026 as the first Chinese parcels arrived, then rose to EUR 1,072 in August. That is 69% above the February trough and 55% above the EUR 690 recorded in August 2025. Export values followed a similar curve with a lag, from EUR 696 in December 2025 to EUR 1,145 in August 2026.
Over the full twelve months the EU paid EUR 117.3 million for 142,475 tonnes and received EUR 82.2 million for 92,785 tonnes: it bought 1.5 tonnes for every tonne it sold, having sold 2.1 tonnes for every tonne it bought in the preceding twelve months.
From a 318,000-tonne surplus to a 73,000-tonne deficit
The flip is recent, and the annual record shows how narrow the runway had become.
| Period | Imports (t) | Import unit value (EUR/t) | Exports (t) | Export unit value (EUR/t) | Net balance (t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 50,492 | 625 | 210,934 | 651 | +160,442 |
| 2020 | 26,964 | 462 | 344,980 | 439 | +318,016 |
| 2021 | 14,040 | 765 | 322,532 | 621 | +308,492 |
| 2022 | 23,766 | 1,327 | 243,200 | 1,227 | +219,434 |
| 2023 | 20,800 | 1,098 | 191,506 | 1,038 | +170,706 |
| 2024 | 43,105 | 992 | 150,902 | 919 | +107,798 |
| 2025 | 68,957 | 749 | 116,797 | 801 | +47,840 |
| Jan–Aug 2025 | 62,224 | 751 | 86,779 | 825 | +24,555 |
| Jan–Aug 2026 | 135,742 | 828 | 62,766 | 960 | −72,977 |
The surplus shrank every year: 318,016 tonnes in 2020, 219,434 in 2022, 107,798 in 2024, 47,840 in 2025. Imports multiplied 9.7 times between 2021 and the first eight months of 2026 while exports fell 81.8% from their 2020 peak. The 2026 deficit of 72,977 tonnes in eight months is already 1.5 times the full-year 2025 surplus.
Prices tell a separate story. The 2022 import unit value of EUR 1,327 per tonne was the high of the series; 2025 fell to EUR 749, 43.6% below it, before recovering to EUR 828 in 2026. Volume and value have moved in opposite directions for two years: the EU has been buying more tonnes at a lower unit value, which is what a buyer’s market looks like from the customs file, until the June–August 2026 reversal.
One lane in, a narrowing book out
Concentration is the defining feature of the 2026 book. Two origins account for 97.0% of imports, and one destination for 41.3% of exports.
| Lane | 2024 (t) | 2025 (t) | Jan–Aug 2025 (t) | Jan–Aug 2026 (t) | Share 2026 | Unit value 2026 | Volume change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imports from | |||||||
| China | 4,884 | 36,738 | 36,738 | 105,376 | 77.6% | 815 | +186.8% |
| Israel | 16,609 | 14,196 | 9,804 | 26,377 | 19.4% | 875 | +169.0% |
| United Kingdom | 2,838 | 2,418 | 1,433 | 1,802 | 1.3% | 1,193 | +25.8% |
| Switzerland | 2,464 | 2,032 | 1,384 | 1,400 | 1.0% | 340 | +1.2% |
| Total imports | 43,105 | 68,957 | 62,224 | 135,742 | 100.0% | 828 | +118.1% |
| Exports to | |||||||
| Türkiye | 41,416 | 58,915 | 44,659 | 25,927 | 41.3% | 962 | −41.9% |
| Switzerland | 23,866 | 21,745 | 16,049 | 14,139 | 22.5% | 886 | −11.9% |
| United Kingdom | 5,965 | 7,996 | 5,449 | 5,520 | 8.8% | 1,066 | +1.3% |
| United States | 40,841 | 338 | 198 | 4,068 | 6.5% | 1,016 | n/m |
| Total exports | 150,902 | 116,797 | 86,779 | 62,766 | 100.0% | 960 | −27.7% |
China’s lane did not exist at scale two years ago: 4,884 tonnes in all of 2024, 36,738 tonnes in 2025, 105,376 tonnes in eight months of 2026. In August alone, Chinese-origin parcels were 34,812 tonnes of the 36,635-tonne import book, 95.0%. Israel, the other origin, went from 9,804 tonnes in January–August 2025 to 26,377 tonnes, at EUR 875 per tonne against China’s EUR 815.
The export side is thinner and older. Türkiye took 25,927 tonnes in January–August 2026, 41.9% less than a year earlier; Switzerland 14,139 tonnes; the United Kingdom 5,520. The United States line is the outlier: 40,841 tonnes in 2024, 338 in 2025, then 4,068 tonnes in eight months of 2026 at EUR 1,016 per tonne, above the Turkish and Swiss lanes.
Analysis. One lane in and three out is a fragile structure for a buyer. A single origin can move the European balance by tens of thousands of tonnes within a quarter, and the destination book is concentrated enough that a slowdown in Turkish styrene or polystyrene demand removes a fifth of the export outlet. Neither side has the depth to absorb a disruption quietly.
Feedstock in, styrene out: what the chain says
Ethylbenzene is not an end product. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s hazard summary states it is used primarily in the production of styrene, with smaller volumes as a solvent and in asphalt, naphtha and fuels. That makes the EB file a read on the styrene chain rather than on a standalone market, and the other two customs lines moved in a way that supports the interpretation.
EU27 imports of benzene (HS 290220) ran 305,301 tonnes in January–August 2026 against 211,656 a year earlier, 44.2% more, at EUR 961 per tonne against EUR 723, up 32.8%. Imports of styrene (HS 290250) fell 31.0% to 468,295 tonnes while styrene exports rose 50.7% to 189,319 tonnes. In the same eight months, EB imports rose 118.1% to 135,742 tonnes.
Read together, the three lines say the EU imported more of the feedstock and more of the intermediate, imported less of the product and exported more of it. That is the profile of a region running its styrene units on imported EB rather than on EB made at home from imported benzene and domestic ethylene. The customs files cannot prove plant-level sourcing, and this is an inference from three independent series, not a statement about any named site.
The spreads make the economics visible. In August 2026 the EB import unit value was EUR 1,072 per tonne, benzene imports cleared at EUR 1,169 and styrene imports at EUR 1,232: EB sat EUR 97 below its own feedstock and EUR 160 below the product it makes. A negative EB-benzene spread on declared values is not a normal steady state. It can be a valuation artefact — parcel timing, contract lags, different terms of sale — but it is also what a market looks like when the intermediate is long and the feedstock is tight, and the August volume (36,635 tonnes, the largest month in the series) suggests the material was placed, not held.
Analysis / outlook. The arbitrage that opened in the first half of 2026 was a Chinese export price well below the European domestic equivalent. China-origin parcels cleared at EUR 677 per tonne in May 2026 and EUR 1,069 in August, a 58% rise in three months. If that convergence holds, the incentive to ship EB to Europe weakens and the import book should shrink back toward the 2025 pattern. If it does not, the European styrene unit is being fed by a price it does not control.
Three other customs files, one direction
Eurostat alone cannot separate a European event from a global one. Other administrations report the same product, two of them through mid-2026, and both show the same step-up in unit value.
India, the largest buyer in the set, imported 47,226 tonnes in June 2026 at USD 1,112 per tonne, against 33,863 tonnes at USD 784 in July 2025 and 30,361 tonnes at USD 1,176 in May 2026. Its March 2026 volume of 71,655 tonnes at USD 809 was the second-largest month in the file behind December 2025’s 87,625 tonnes. The United States exported 13,999 tonnes in May 2026 at USD 1,309 per tonne, against 12,047 tonnes at USD 765 in May 2025; its January 2026 export unit value of USD 740 had become USD 1,258 by July. Japan exported 306,823 tonnes in 2025 at USD 699 per tonne, down from 344,446 tonnes at USD 826 in 2024. Korea imported 610,284 tonnes in 2025 at USD 712.
Analysis. A 55–71% rise in declared unit value between mid-2025 and mid-2026 appears in EUR on the EU file and in USD on the Indian and US files. That is not a currency effect and not a single administration’s classification quirk. It is the same benzene-led cost push reaching every importer, and it is the reason the European import book changed character in the second quarter.
What it means for buyers
- Import parity is now the reference price in Europe. With 77.6% of the 2026 import book from one origin, the Chinese offer sets the marginal tonne in the months when cargoes land. Domestic contract discussions that ignore the import line are arguing with half the market.
- Watch the cargo calendar, not the monthly average. Monthly volumes swung between 920 and 36,635 tonnes in twelve months. A single 10,000–35,000 tonne parcel moves the national balance, so a two-month average can invert the direction of the market.
- The chain spread is the early warning. EB below benzene on declared values, with styrene only EUR 160 above EB, leaves little room for conversion cost. Either the feedstock corrects or the intermediate does; a buyer planning quarterly volumes should hold the option to switch between imported EB and imported styrene.
- Concentration is the risk, not the price. Two origins supply 97% of imports and one destination takes 41% of exports. A supplier outage or a Turkish demand shock is a bigger exposure than a EUR 50 move in the unit value.
Data limitations
- Eurostat Comext DS-045409 reports extra-EU trade only. Intra-EU flows between member states are a separate dimension and are excluded here, so the totals describe the bloc’s external book, not its internal market.
- Unit values are declared customs values divided by net mass. They include the terms of sale recorded by the declarant and are not price assessments; a shift in Incoterms or in the share of related-party transactions moves them without any change in the market.
- China does not report HS 290230 monthly in the UN Comtrade preview, so Chinese-origin volumes are read from the EU declaration only. India and Korea report value without net mass in several months; unit values are computed only where net mass exists and are not interpolated.
- 2025 annual figures from Comtrade are first-reported and subject to revision. The 2026 comparison is January–August against January–August, not a full year against a full year.
Sources
- Eurostat Comext DS-045409, monthly extra-EU trade, ethylbenzene imports: API query, flow 1
- Eurostat Comext DS-045409, monthly extra-EU trade, ethylbenzene exports: API query, flow 2
- Eurostat international trade in goods database: database entry point
- UN Comtrade, India annual imports 2025: preview API
- UN Comtrade, India monthly imports May 2026: preview API
- UN Comtrade, United States monthly exports May 2026: preview API
- UN Comtrade database: comtradeplus.un.org
- US Environmental Protection Agency, Ethylbenzene hazard summary (uses and properties): EPA fact sheet
PetroApex maintains the monthly import and export panels behind this article — volumes, declared values, unit values and partner lanes for ethylbenzene and the rest of the benzene–styrene chain — and can cut them to a specific origin, destination or period. To request a sample report or a custom data extract, contact our research team. For the downstream view, see the styrene market analysis and the benzene market analysis; the upstream leg is covered in the ethylene market analysis and in our EU styrene trade note.