Butyl Acrylate Trade Data to 2025, with a 2026 Monthly Update: EU Anti-Dumping Case and a June Import Spike
Summary. EU27 imports of acrylic esters from outside the bloc reached 21,390 tonnes in June 2026 — the highest month in the 31 months from January 2024 through July 2026 — and 16,995 tonnes in July, after the European Commission opened an anti-dumping investigation on certain acrylic esters (butyl acrylate and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate) on 12 March 2026 and made imports subject to registration from 22 May 2026. In the five months from March to July 2026, extra-EU imports averaged 14,849 t per month against 11,979 t in the six preceding months, while the average unit value rose from 1,492 EUR/t to 1,675 EUR/t. China, one of the origins under investigation, supplied 8,298 t in June and 8,407 t in July — 49.5% of the July total — after averaging under 3,000 t per month through 2025.
Data updated: 2026-10-14
Latest 12 months: monthly import and export volumes
The table covers August 2025 to July 2026, the most recent complete window available from Eurostat Comext, which reports monthly extra-EU trade through July 2026. Product scope is CN 2916 12 00, esters of acrylic acid; the anti-dumping case covers the sub-category butyl acrylate and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate under TARIC code 2916 12 00 15, so the customs series is wider than the product under investigation. The latest two months are provisional.
| Month | Imports (t) | Import value (m EUR) | Import unit value (EUR/t) | Exports (t) | Export unit value (EUR/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-08 | 7,673.2 | 13.95 | 1,819 | 9,289.6 | 1,814 |
| 2025-09 | 11,314.5 | 17.86 | 1,579 | 7,401.1 | 1,904 |
| 2025-10 | 12,101.2 | 18.66 | 1,542 | 8,805.3 | 1,760 |
| 2025-11 | 13,312.7 | 20.03 | 1,504 | 8,898.8 | 1,916 |
| 2025-12 | 8,647.9 | 12.86 | 1,487 | 6,489.3 | 2,005 |
| 2026-01 | 10,907.0 | 16.29 | 1,494 | 9,530.4 | 1,776 |
| 2026-02 | 15,591.9 | 21.56 | 1,383 | 10,754.7 | 1,529 |
| 2026-03 | 12,641.1 | 18.36 | 1,453 | 8,569.5 | 2,142 |
| 2026-04 | 9,938.9 | 16.65 | 1,676 | 10,219.2 | 2,162 |
| 2026-05 | 13,281.3 | 22.70 | 1,710 | 8,893.4 | 2,133 |
| 2026-06 | 21,389.8 | 36.09 | 1,687 | 12,043.3 | 2,146 |
| 2026-07 | 16,995.0 | 30.55 | 1,798 | 8,858.8 | 2,194 |
Source: Eurostat Comext DS-045409, EU27_2020 reporter, extra-EU partners, product CN 2916 12 00. Unit values are value divided by net weight, calculated from the same dataset.
Twelve-month imports totalled 153,795 t at an average of 1,597 EUR/t. The distribution is heavily skewed to the end of the window: June 2026 alone accounted for 13.9% of the twelve-month volume, and the last two months together for 25.0%, while the average import unit value climbed from a low of 1,383 EUR/t in February 2026 to 1,798 EUR/t in July 2026 — a 30% increase in five months.
The case: what the EU opened, and when
The Commission published notice C/2026/1469 on 12 March 2026 initiating an anti-dumping proceeding concerning imports of certain acrylic esters originating in China, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United States. The product under investigation is butyl acrylate (CAS 141-32-2) and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (CAS 103-11-7), classified under CN code ex 2916 12 00, TARIC code 2916 12 00 15. On 21 May 2026, Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1085 made imports of the product under investigation subject to registration with effect from 22 May 2026 — the procedural step that allows duties, if imposed, to be collected retroactively on registered volumes.
Analysis / outlook. Registration is not a duty, and no duty has been collected as of the data in this article. What registration does is create contingent liability: an importer booking registered goods faces the possibility that a duty, if imposed, is collected on those specific consignments rather than only on future ones. The June and July volume spikes sit immediately after that step, which is the classic pattern before a trade-defence decision — buyers accelerating deliveries into the window where duties are not yet collected but also cannot be escaped retrospectively. Monthly customs data cannot prove that motive; it is consistent with the timing and is presented here as an interpretation.
Where the tonnes came from
| Month | China (t) | Saudi Arabia (t) | United States (t) | South Africa (t) | Taiwan (t) | Total (t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-08 | 2,185.0 | 848.9 | 2,669.4 | 0.0 | 254.7 | 7,673.2 |
| 2025-11 | 4,129.7 | 841.5 | 4,576.9 | 1,799.7 | 388.3 | 13,312.7 |
| 2026-01 | 2,491.7 | 1,997.0 | 4,157.9 | 3.4 | 386.0 | 10,907.0 |
| 2026-02 | 3,468.4 | 1,347.3 | 6,309.8 | 2,299.3 | 275.8 | 15,591.9 |
| 2026-03 | 4,710.0 | 2,852.2 | 3,016.6 | 0.0 | 274.1 | 12,641.1 |
| 2026-05 | 3,567.2 | 215.9 | 6,136.6 | 501.8 | 428.9 | 13,281.3 |
| 2026-06 | 8,298.0 | 407.7 | 7,581.5 | 1,894.2 | 982.4 | 21,389.8 |
| 2026-07 | 8,407.2 | 0.0 | 2,228.5 | 3,502.9 | 1,069.7 | 16,995.0 |
Source: Eurostat Comext DS-045409, EU27_2020 reporter, extra-EU partner detail, CN 2916 12 00. Selected months; small residual volumes from other origins are omitted.
Two movements stand out. First, China: its monthly volume averaged 3,141 t over the six months from July to December 2025, then ran 8,298 t in June 2026 and 8,407 t in July — 16,705 t in two months, against 18,849 t in the whole of the preceding half-year. China’s unit value moved from 1,187–1,380 EUR/t in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 1,740 EUR/t in June and 1,741 EUR/t in July 2026. Second, the mix among the other named origins: the United States remained the largest single supplier in most months, peaking at 7,581 t in June 2026, but US unit values stayed near 1,289 EUR/t in that month — roughly 450 EUR/t below Chinese-origin material, a gap that would normally be read as evidence of the pricing the case is about, but which the data cannot separate from product-mix effects within a code that spans several esters.
The long-run squeeze, 2019–2025
| Year | Imports (t) | Import value (m EUR) | Unit value (EUR/t) | China + Saudi Arabia + South Africa + USA (t) | Their share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 189,675.4 | 304.95 | 1,608 | 81,843.5 | 43.1% |
| 2020 | 155,013.2 | 206.20 | 1,330 | 72,050.1 | 46.5% |
| 2021 | 249,970.3 | 567.84 | 2,272 | 156,581.9 | 62.6% |
| 2022 | 204,861.9 | 535.34 | 2,613 | 124,918.1 | 61.0% |
| 2023 | 181,525.1 | 320.70 | 1,767 | 131,611.8 | 72.5% |
| 2024 | 173,025.6 | 289.79 | 1,675 | 142,658.1 | 82.4% |
| 2025 | 145,559.4 | 243.65 | 1,674 | 118,282.2 | 81.3% |
Source: Eurostat Comext DS-045409 annual data, EU27_2020 reporter, extra-EU partners, CN 2916 12 00.
The annual series gives the case its context: the four origins now under investigation accounted for 43.1% of extra-EU acrylic ester imports in 2019 and 81.3% in 2025, while total extra-EU import volume fell to 145,559 t in 2025 — the lowest of the seven years shown — and the average unit value fell from 2,613 EUR/t in 2022 to 1,674 EUR/t in 2025. Rising origin concentration and falling unit values in the same window is the pattern that trade-defence cases are built on.
What this means for buyers
Analysis / outlook. Three practical points. First, tariff exposure is now contingent and time-stamped: registered volumes are the ones at risk of retroactive collection, so the commercial question is which consignments carry that exposure, not simply where the duty lands next year. Second, code discipline matters more than usual — the case covers TARIC 2916 12 00 15 (butyl acrylate and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate) inside a CN code that also contains methyl and ethyl acrylate, so a supplier quoting “acrylic esters” may not be quoting the product under investigation. Third, sourcing options are narrow: the four investigated origins supplied four fifths of extra-EU volume in 2025, and the alternatives visible in the data (Korea, Taiwan, Japan) ran 0.2–1.3 kt per month through 2026, an order of magnitude below the volumes required to replace them quickly.
Related PetroApex coverage
- Acrylic acid market analysis — the upstream acid esterified to make butyl acrylate.
- Octanol market analysis — 2-ethylhexanol is the alcohol feedstock for 2-ethylhexyl acrylate.
- Propylene market analysis — the base feedstock behind the acrylic value chain.
Data sources
- Hong Kong Trade and Industry Department, Commercial Information Circular No. 242/2026 — Initiation of an anti-dumping proceeding on imports of certain acrylic esters (12 March 2026). Product definition, CAS numbers, CN and TARIC codes.
- Hong Kong Trade and Industry Department, Commercial Information Circular No. 447/2026 — Making imports of certain acrylic esters subject to registration (21 May 2026). Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1085, in force 22 May 2026.
- CMS Legal Update — EU anti-dumping investigation concerning imports of certain acrylic esters (17 March 2026). Identification of the four countries under investigation.
- Eurostat Comext, dataset DS-045409 (EU trade since 1988 by HS/CN) — database access. Source of every volume, value and unit value in the tables above.
- UN Comtrade — comtradeplus.un.org. Cross-check source for partner-country trade outside the EU.
Data limitations
- Product scope: CN 2916 12 00 covers esters of acrylic acid generally, including methyl and ethyl acrylate. The anti-dumping case covers only butyl acrylate and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (TARIC 2916 12 00 15), so the customs series is an upper bound on the product under investigation rather than a precise measure of it.
- No duty yet: as of this update the measures in force are the initiation and the registration of imports. The article contains no estimate of a future duty rate and no forward price forecast.
- Revision status: Comext monthly data through July 2026 are the latest available; recent months are revised as member states re-file.
- Origin attribution: customs data record the country of consignment, not where the molecule was produced.
- No interpolation: every figure here is a reported customs value, a reported net weight, or the ratio of the two.
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