Summary. EU27 imports of propan-1-ol and propan-2-ol (HS 290512, the code under which isopropanol moves) from outside the bloc ran 115,316 tonnes in the twelve months to August 2026, 8.7% more than the year before, at EUR 1,008 per tonne, 8.7% less. Exports fell 14.5% to 94,799 tonnes at EUR 1,222 per tonne, 3.1% more. The bloc paid EUR 116.3 million for imports and earned EUR 115.9 million from an export book 20,517 tonnes smaller, so the balance moved from a surplus of 4,819 tonnes to a deficit of 20,517 tonnes. Two origins supplied 90.1% of January–August 2026 imports — the United States 58.9%, South Africa 31.2% — and China supplied 1.2%. Declared import values bottomed at EUR 879 per tonne in December 2025 and reached EUR 1,158 across July–August 2026, a 31.7% rise that US export and Indian import declarations date to the same quarter.
Data updated: 2026-11-01
Latest 12 months: more tonnes in, fewer out, and the balance flipped
Table 1 covers September 2025 to August 2026 for CN 290512, 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 — not a price assessment, and the difference matters below.
| Month | Imports (t) | Import value (EUR m) | Import unit value (EUR/t) | Exports (t) | Export unit value (EUR/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-09 | 8,497 | 8.7 | 1,027 | 7,352 | 1,109 |
| 2025-10 | 14,506 | 13.0 | 899 | 10,457 | 1,045 |
| 2025-11 | 6,421 | 6.5 | 1,016 | 7,749 | 1,097 |
| 2025-12 | 11,647 | 10.2 | 879 | 7,539 | 941 |
| 2026-01 | 8,748 | 8.2 | 941 | 9,295 | 1,079 |
| 2026-02 | 7,217 | 7.3 | 1,017 | 8,933 | 1,039 |
| 2026-03 | 10,088 | 9.5 | 942 | 7,335 | 1,177 |
| 2026-04 | 8,881 | 9.2 | 1,037 | 6,744 | 1,434 |
| 2026-05 | 12,682 | 12.9 | 1,018 | 6,841 | 1,709 |
| 2026-06 | 7,882 | 8.8 | 1,118 | 3,706 | 1,954 |
| 2026-07 | 11,379 | 12.9 | 1,137 | 9,909 | 1,352 |
| 2026-08 | 7,368 | 8.8 | 1,191 | 8,939 | 1,258 |
| Total | 115,316 | 116.3 | 1,008 | 94,799 | 1,222 |
Imports ran between 6,421 tonnes in November 2025 and 14,506 tonnes in October 2025 — a band narrow enough that the quarterly pattern, not the monthly one, carries the signal. The heaviest import quarter was October–December 2025, at 32,575 tonnes and EUR 915 per tonne, the lowest unit value in the series. The first half of 2026 added volume at a rising price: 26,053 tonnes at EUR 963 in January–March, 29,444 tonnes at EUR 1,051 in April–June, then 18,747 tonnes at EUR 1,158 across July–August.
The export book moved the other way on volume and the same way on price. April–June 2026 shipped 17,291 tonnes, 40.9% fewer than the 29,267 tonnes of April–June 2025, at EUR 1,654 per tonne against EUR 1,136, a 45.6% rise. June 2026 alone cleared 3,706 tonnes at EUR 1,954, the highest monthly export unit value in the twelve months on the smallest monthly volume, which is exactly the combination that makes a single month unreliable.
Over the twelve months the bloc received 115,316 tonnes for EUR 116.3 million and shipped 94,799 tonnes for EUR 115.9 million: the two books are within EUR 0.4 million of each other while differing by 20,517 tonnes.
Six years of contraction, one year of rebalancing
The annual record shows that the 2026 shift is a change of direction inside a smaller market, not a recovery.
| Period | Imports (t) | Import unit value (EUR/t) | Exports (t) | Export unit value (EUR/t) | Net balance (t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 123,059 | 913 | 93,325 | 981 | −29,734 |
| 2020 | 164,732 | 1,162 | 134,939 | 1,172 | −29,792 |
| 2021 | 118,642 | 1,073 | 107,317 | 1,266 | −11,325 |
| 2022 | 127,348 | 1,343 | 79,100 | 1,541 | −48,248 |
| 2023 | 130,289 | 1,067 | 78,486 | 1,294 | −51,803 |
| 2024 | 120,490 | 1,157 | 103,706 | 1,320 | −16,784 |
| 2025 | 113,056 | 1,030 | 109,046 | 1,127 | −4,010 |
| Jan–Aug 2025 | 71,984 | 1,083 | 75,949 | 1,162 | +3,965 |
| Jan–Aug 2026 | 74,245 | 1,047 | 61,702 | 1,316 | −12,542 |
Imports peaked at 164,732 tonnes in 2020 and have not returned above 131,000 tonnes since; 2025 was 31.4% below the peak and the latest twelve months 30.0% below. Exports peaked in the same year at 134,939 tonnes, fell to 78,486 tonnes in 2023 and recovered to 109,046 in 2025 before the latest twelve months cut them to 94,799 tonnes, 29.7% below the high.
The price record runs in a different cycle. The import unit value rose from EUR 913 in 2019 to EUR 1,162 in 2020 and EUR 1,343 in 2022, then fell every year to EUR 1,030 in 2025, 23.3% below the peak. The widest deficit of the series, 48,248 tonnes in 2022, was also the dearest year; the narrowest, 4,010 tonnes in 2025, was close to the cheapest.
January–August 2026 imports were 74,245 tonnes against 71,984 tonnes a year earlier, 3.1% more, at EUR 1,047 against EUR 1,083. Exports fell 18.8% to 61,702 tonnes while their unit value rose 13.3% to EUR 1,316: the export price turned before the import price, and export volume turned down first.
Two origins supply 90% of the import book
Concentration on the import side has tightened rather than loosened.
| Lane | 2024 (t) | 2025 (t) | Jan–Aug 2025 (t) | Jan–Aug 2026 (t) | Share 2026 | Unit value 2026 | Volume change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imports from | |||||||
| United States | 78,290 | 64,435 | 41,046 | 43,716 | 58.9% | 929 | +6.5% |
| South Africa | 28,488 | 36,059 | 23,836 | 23,155 | 31.2% | 908 | −2.9% |
| United Kingdom | 2,985 | 3,574 | 2,421 | 2,281 | 3.1% | 4,395 | −5.8% |
| Norway | 2,325 | 2,648 | 1,511 | 1,697 | 2.3% | 577 | +12.3% |
| Türkiye | 1,208 | 3,021 | 1,970 | 1,425 | 1.9% | 1,231 | −27.7% |
| China | 2,314 | 836 | 315 | 861 | 1.2% | 1,424 | +173.3% |
| Korea | 4,166 | 1,894 | 539 | 590 | 0.8% | 833 | +9.5% |
| Total imports | 120,490 | 113,056 | 71,984 | 74,245 | 100.0% | 1,047 | +3.1% |
| Exports to | |||||||
| United Kingdom | 24,649 | 25,241 | 17,311 | 14,714 | 23.8% | 1,470 | −15.0% |
| Türkiye | 21,245 | 30,951 | 22,538 | 13,706 | 22.2% | 885 | −39.2% |
| Switzerland | 13,128 | 13,473 | 9,492 | 8,136 | 13.2% | 1,698 | −14.3% |
| Norway | 6,898 | 7,709 | 5,194 | 5,974 | 9.7% | 1,235 | +15.0% |
| India | 4,636 | 2,316 | 1,119 | 3,634 | 5.9% | 820 | +224.8% |
| Israel | 2,297 | 2,670 | 1,589 | 2,326 | 3.8% | 1,129 | +46.4% |
| Ukraine | 2,061 | 2,208 | 1,373 | 2,300 | 3.7% | 1,139 | +67.5% |
| Total exports | 103,706 | 109,046 | 75,949 | 61,702 | 100.0% | 1,316 | −18.8% |
The United States shipped 43,716 tonnes in January–August 2026, 58.9% of the import book, 6.5% more than a year earlier, at EUR 929 per tonne. South Africa shipped 23,155 tonnes, 31.2%, 2.9% less, at EUR 908. Together they supplied 66,871 of 74,245 tonnes. The third origin, the United Kingdom, supplied 2,281 tonnes at EUR 4,395 per tonne — more than four times the American and South African unit values, on 3.1% of the volume.
China is the anomaly. The largest producer of isopropanol shipped 861 tonnes in eight months, 1.2% of the book, against 315 tonnes in January–August 2025. The lane is 2.7 times its year-earlier volume and still immaterial: at 861 tonnes it is smaller than the Norwegian lane on the export side. Whatever volume China exports, it is not landing in Europe at scale.
The export side is broader and thinner. The United Kingdom took 14,714 tonnes, 23.8% of the book, down 15.0%; Türkiye 13,706 tonnes, 22.2%, down 39.2%; Switzerland 8,136 tonnes, 13.2%, down 14.3%; Norway 5,974 tonnes, 9.7%, up 15.0%. Those four lanes are 68.9% of exports. India took 3,634 tonnes, more than three times its year-earlier volume, at EUR 820 per tonne, the lowest unit value in the export book.
Analysis. This is the shape of a product Europe no longer makes in merchant volume, and the risk in the file is continuity rather than price: one outage on the US Gulf Coast or one logistics interruption in South Africa moves 31% to 59% of the import book, and no Asian lane is deep enough to replace either. Qualifying only one of the two origins is an unhedged position on a single plant.
Two prices: the EUR 214 gap between buying and selling
The same eight-digit code clears at two different prices depending on direction and destination, and the gap is not noise.
Across the latest twelve months the import unit value was EUR 1,008 and the export unit value EUR 1,222, a difference of EUR 214 per tonne, or 21.2%. By lane the range is wider still: from EUR 820 for India and EUR 885 for Türkiye to EUR 1,470 for the United Kingdom and EUR 1,698 for Switzerland, a spread of 2.1 times on identically classified material. The monthly detail shows the gap opening in the second quarter of 2026: in April, May and June export unit values were EUR 1,434, EUR 1,709 and EUR 1,954 against import unit values of EUR 1,037, EUR 1,018 and EUR 1,118, gaps of EUR 397, EUR 691 and EUR 836 per tonne.
Analysis. Three things can produce a spread this size inside one code, and the customs file records none of them: grade (technical, pharmaceutical, electronic), packaging (bulk parcel against drums and IBCs), and terms of sale (value is recorded at the border, so an FOB import and a delivered export are not measured alike). It persists across eighteen months and destinations, which argues for structure rather than a few mispriced cargoes; the file cannot apportion it.
Analysis / outlook. “The” isopropanol price does not exist in European trade statistics: a clause referencing an import unit value and one referencing an export unit value can differ by a fifth with both parties right about the market. If the second-quarter pattern holds, the gap widens when European material is short, because the small, grade-specific export book reprices faster than the bulk import book.
The turn: three customs files agree on the second quarter of 2026
Eurostat alone cannot distinguish a European event from a global one. Two other administrations report the same code monthly through June 2026, and both show the same shape.
In the European file the import unit value fell for four consecutive quarters, from EUR 1,151 in January–March 2025 to EUR 915 in October–December 2025, then rose to EUR 963, EUR 1,051 and EUR 1,158 in the three quarters that followed. The United States exported 32,377 tonnes at USD 867 per tonne in August 2025 and 24,285 tonnes at USD 1,222 in June 2026; its quarterly export unit value bottomed at USD 891 in January–March 2026 and reached USD 1,106 in April–June, a 24.1% rise in one quarter. India imported 5,892 tonnes at USD 768 in December 2025, then 34,458 tonnes at USD 1,158 in May 2026 and 4,438 tonnes at USD 1,210 in June — a 57.6% rise in six months, on a May volume more than twice any other month in the file, which reads as one large parcel rather than a new run rate.
The 2025 down-leg is visible in Asia too: Korea exported 118,592 tonnes in 2025 at USD 942 per tonne against 123,967 tonnes at USD 1,115 in 2024, 15.5% cheaper, and Japan exported 51,244 tonnes at USD 1,181 in 2024. Neither has a 2026 monthly series in the preview database, so the Asian leg of the 2026 turn cannot be dated from them.
Analysis. Three independent declarations, in two currencies, put the trough between August and December 2025 and the turn in April–June 2026. The American file bottoms one quarter after the European one, which is what a lagged pass-through from a European balance to an export price looks like. The coincidence of direction rules out a classification quirk; it does not identify the cause, and nothing in these files does.
What it means for buyers
- Qualify a third origin before you need one. Two origins hold 90.1% of the import book and China 1.2%. A single qualified source is exposure to one plant, not to a market.
- Write grade, packaging and Incoterm into the contract. The code clears at EUR 820 to EUR 1,698 per tonne depending on lane. A price clause that names the product and the month but not the grade and the basis is not a price.
- Re-base index-linked contracts. Declared import values rose 26.6% from the fourth quarter of 2025 to July–August 2026; contracts still indexed to the 2025 average price a market that ended.
- Watch the export side for availability, not price. EU export volume fell 40.9% in April–June 2026 while unit value rose 45.6%: European material stayed home, and Turkish buyers, down 39.2%, have already felt it.
Data limitations
- HS 290512 covers propan-1-ol and propan-2-ol together. The declarations do not separate the two alcohols, so every figure here describes the group, not isopropanol alone.
- Comext DS-045409 reports extra-EU trade only; flows between member states are excluded, so the totals describe the bloc’s external book, not its internal market.
- Unit values are declared customs values divided by net mass. They move with Incoterms, packaging and related-party pricing without any change in the underlying market.
- Low-volume lanes produce unstable unit values. South Africa recorded 1 tonne in March 2026 at EUR 2,556 and 1 tonne in June 2026 at EUR 3,119; those months are excluded from lane conclusions.
- India reports value without net mass in several months, including all of January–March 2026. Unit values are computed only where net mass exists and never interpolated, so no quarterly aggregates are used for India.
- Comtrade 2025 annual figures 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 imports of HS 290512: API query, flow 1
- Eurostat Comext DS-045409, monthly extra-EU exports of HS 290512: API query, flow 2
- Eurostat, international trade in goods database: database entry point
- UN Comtrade, United States monthly exports, June 2026: preview API
- UN Comtrade, United States annual exports 2025: preview API
- UN Comtrade, India monthly imports, June 2026: preview API
- UN Comtrade, Republic of Korea annual exports 2025: preview API
- UN Comtrade database: comtradeplus.un.org
PetroApex maintains the monthly import and export panels behind this article — volumes, declared values, unit values and partner lanes for isopropanol and the alcohols around it — and can cut them to a specific origin, destination, grade or period. To request a sample report or a custom data extract, contact our research team. For the product view, see the isopropanol market analysis, the upstream propylene market analysis and the co-product acetone market analysis; our EU phenol and acetone trade note covers the route that competes with direct hydration.