Summary. The European Union imported 128,849 tonnes of ortho-xylene (HS 290241) from outside the bloc in the twelve months to August 2026, 5.4% more than a year earlier, and paid EUR 990 per tonne on average, 1.7% less. The average hides the turn: the declared import unit value ran EUR 856 per tonne in October–December 2025 and EUR 1,231 in July–August 2026, a 43.9% rise, and August 2026 alone cleared 22,449 tonnes at EUR 1,272 — the largest monthly volume since January 2024 and the highest value since November 2023. China supplied 33.6% of January–August 2026 imports against 13.5% in 2024, Korea 47.1%, and Taiwan fell from 41.0% of the 2024 book to 11.6%. On the other side, the bloc exported 2,959 tonnes in 2025, 87.0% fewer than in 2024, after the United States lane that took 20,865 tonnes in 2024 closed to 5 tonnes.
Data updated: 2026-11-02
Latest 12 months: volumes recovered first, prices followed
Table 1 covers September 2025 to August 2026 for HS 290241, 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 — a customs ratio, not a price assessment.
| Month | Imports (t) | Import value (EUR m) | Import unit value (EUR/t) | Exports (t) | Export unit value (EUR/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-09 | 11,961 | 10.4 | 867 | 225 | 1,207 |
| 2025-10 | 8,382 | 7.6 | 902 | 285 | 1,150 |
| 2025-11 | 4,195 | 3.4 | 814 | 337 | 1,186 |
| 2025-12 | 13,922 | 11.7 | 841 | 208 | 1,156 |
| 2026-01 | 616 | 0.5 | 884 | 237 | 1,167 |
| 2026-02 | 7,134 | 5.8 | 814 | 215 | 1,297 |
| 2026-03 | 21,909 | 19.4 | 888 | 518 | 1,101 |
| 2026-04 | 5,746 | 4.6 | 809 | 85 | 1,741 |
| 2026-05 | 13,553 | 13.7 | 1,009 | 417 | 1,511 |
| 2026-06 | 12,338 | 14.6 | 1,183 | 83 | 1,841 |
| 2026-07 | 6,646 | 7.3 | 1,092 | 443 | 1,604 |
| 2026-08 | 22,449 | 28.6 | 1,272 | 539 | 1,682 |
| Total | 128,849 | 127.6 | 990 | 3,591 | 1,368 |
The monthly import line is not a market rhythm but a cargo calendar. January 2026 recorded 616 tonnes and March 2026 21,909 — a 36-fold difference inside one quarter — because o-xylene arrives in full parcels, and a month either catches one or does not. The quarterly reading is reliable: 26,499 tonnes at EUR 856 in October–December 2025, 29,658 at EUR 870 in January–March 2026, 31,637 at EUR 1,040 in April–June, then 29,095 at EUR 1,231 across July–August.
What changed is the price, not the tonnage. Volume ran 5.4% above the previous twelve at 128,849 tonnes against 122,273, while the average unit value slipped 1.7% to EUR 990 from EUR 1,007 — a number that describes a year which stopped in December. From the fourth quarter of 2025 the declared import unit value is up 43.9%.
The export book is small and noisy: 3,591 tonnes at EUR 1,368 per tonne, 43.1% more volume than the prior twelve at 4.6% higher value. One 539-tonne month (August 2026) is 15.0% of the annual total, and monthly export unit values swing from EUR 1,101 to EUR 1,841 with no matching move in imports.
The annual record: a 38% import fall in 2025, then a partial recovery
Table 2 puts the last twelve months in a six-year frame. The European import book did not grow into 2026; it fell sharply in 2025 and has recovered part of that fall.
| Period | Imports (t) | Import unit value (EUR/t) | Exports (t) | Export unit value (EUR/t) | Net balance (t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 113,572 | 906 | 23,183 | 771 | −90,390 |
| 2020 | 141,425 | 608 | 26,502 | 506 | −114,923 |
| 2021 | 154,978 | 761 | 23,381 | 796 | −131,596 |
| 2022 | 175,636 | 1,296 | 17,957 | 1,096 | −157,680 |
| 2023 | 172,728 | 1,259 | 21,998 | 1,124 | −150,730 |
| 2024 | 181,949 | 1,162 | 22,687 | 1,053 | −159,262 |
| 2025 | 112,537 | 928 | 2,959 | 1,248 | −109,578 |
| Jan–Aug 2025 | 74,077 | 963 | 1,905 | 1,288 | −72,173 |
| Jan–Aug 2026 | 90,390 | 1,046 | 2,537 | 1,448 | −87,853 |
Imports peaked at 181,949 tonnes in 2024, the largest year in the series, then fell 38.1% to 112,537 tonnes in 2025 as the unit value dropped 20.2% to EUR 928. January–August 2026 recovered 22.0% of the lost volume at 90,390 tonnes and 8.6% of the price, at EUR 1,046: the bloc is buying more than in 2025 and paying more for it, and still 32.4% less tonnage than in the same eight months of 2024, when it took 133,753 tonnes.
The export side is a different story and a cleaner one. Exports ran between 17,957 and 26,502 tonnes a year from 2019 to 2024, then collapsed to 2,959 tonnes in 2025 — a fall of 87.0% in a single year. The monthly file dates the break precisely: 15,026 tonnes left the bloc in January 2024, 3,366 in February, 3,107 in March, and then no month has exceeded 600 tonnes since April 2024. The destination of that early-2024 volume was the United States, which took 20,865 tonnes across 2024 and 5 tonnes in 2025.
Analysis. Europe has stopped exporting ortho-xylene in merchant volume. The export unit value rose 18.5% in 2025 to EUR 1,248 on a book 87.0% smaller — what remains when the large, price-setting outlet disappears and only small, high-service parcels are left. The file records the shipments, not the decision behind them.
Who supplies Europe: two lanes now carry four-fifths of the book
Table 3 breaks the import book by origin. The reordering is larger than the volume change.
| Origin | 2024 (t) | 2025 (t) | Jan–Aug 2025 (t) | Jan–Aug 2026 (t) | Share 2026 | Unit value 2026 (EUR/t) | Volume change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Korea | 56,140 | 48,631 | 34,492 | 42,583 | 47.1% | 1,082 | +23.5% |
| China | 24,515 | 27,663 | 18,228 | 30,343 | 33.6% | 1,030 | +66.5% |
| Taiwan | 74,573 | 30,572 | 16,683 | 10,508 | 11.6% | 827 | −37.0% |
| United States | 4,366 | 511 | 510 | 4,641 | 5.1% | 1,242 | +809.8% |
| Israel | 12,364 | 5,149 | 4,158 | 2,310 | 2.6% | 1,186 | −44.4% |
| Total imports | 181,949 | 112,537 | 74,077 | 90,390 | 100.0% | 1,046 | +22.0% |
Taiwan was the largest single origin in 2024, with 74,573 tonnes and 41.0% of the book; it shipped 10,508 tonnes in January–August 2026, 11.6%, at EUR 827 per tonne, the cheapest lane in the table. China went the other way, from 24,515 tonnes and 13.5% in 2024 to 30,343 tonnes and 33.6% in the first eight months of 2026, at EUR 1,030 — 66.5% more volume than in the same period of 2025. Korea is still the largest single supplier at 42,583 tonnes and 47.1%, and its unit value, EUR 1,082, sits between the Chinese and Israeli lanes.
August 2026 shows how concentrated a month can be: 10,884 tonnes from Korea and 11,065 from China accounted for 21,949 of the 22,449 tonnes imported, with no Taiwanese parcel at all. In March 2026 Taiwan led with 10,508 tonnes.
Analysis. Two origins now carry 80.7% of the import book and three 92.3%. The fastest-growing lane is the smallest: the United States went from 510 to 4,641 tonnes, one or two cargoes rather than a supply relationship. For a buyer the question is no longer which origin is cheapest — the Korean and Chinese unit values differ by EUR 52 per tonne — but whether a second qualified origin exists if a Korean parcel slips a month.
The global picture: China tripled its export book in one year
Eurostat alone cannot say whether 2026 is a European or a global event; the UN Comtrade annual file for HS 290241 shows where the material came from.
China declared 92,225 tonnes of ortho-xylene exports in 2024 and 276,834 tonnes in 2025 — three times the volume, at USD 850 per tonne against USD 1,001, 15.1% cheaper. Korea exported 87,465 tonnes in 2024 and 90,994 in 2025 at USD 877 against USD 1,047, 16.2% cheaper. Japan, which exported 37,302 tonnes in 2023, declared 3,928 in 2024 and 2,003 in 2025. Taiwan declared 87,645 tonnes in 2024 at USD 1,177 and has not filed a 2025 annual record. The same file confirms the European numbers independently: the EU27 reporter shows 112,537 tonnes of imports in 2025 at USD 1,048 per tonne and 2,985 tonnes of exports at USD 1,398, against Eurostat’s 112,537 tonnes and 2,959 tonnes.
China’s import side completes the flip: it took 187,456 tonnes in 2020 and 12,072 in 2024, and its 2025 import record carries value without net mass, so no unit value is offered. A country that imported 187,000 tonnes in 2020 and exported 276,834 in 2025 is the source of the surplus now landing in European ports.
Analysis. A tripling of declared exports at a 15% lower unit value is the signature of length in the exporting balance, not of a demand surge, and it matches the European lane data, where China added 12,115 tonnes in eight months while Taiwan lost 6,175. The 2025 decline in every Asian export series (China −15.1%, Korea −16.2%, Japan −7.2%) and the 2026 European rebound describe a market that bottomed in late 2025.
Two other customs files date the 2026 turn to the second quarter
The European monthly series puts the trough in February 2026 at EUR 814 per tonne and the peak in August at EUR 1,272. Two national files show the same move in the same months, in dollars.
India imported 12,806 tonnes in February 2026 at USD 779 per tonne, 6,847 tonnes in March at USD 845, 27,158 tonnes in April at USD 1,065 and 4,782 tonnes in June at USD 1,377 — a 76.8% rise in four months. (Its May and July records carry value without net mass.) The United States exported 5,778 tonnes in January 2026 at USD 801 per tonne and 5,343 tonnes in August at USD 1,163, a 45.2% rise.
Analysis. Three administrations, two currencies and three positions in the chain — a European importer, an Asian importer and an American exporter — put the same turn in the same quarter. That rules out a European classification artefact; it does not establish the cause, since a feedstock move, a freight move and regional tightness all produce this shape, and none of these files separates them.
The derivative confirms it: phthalic anhydride repriced in parallel
Ortho-xylene is mostly oxidised into phthalic anhydride, so the two customs series should move together if the change is in the chain rather than in one product’s classification. They do.
EU27 extra-EU imports of phthalic anhydride (HS 291735) ran 48,036 tonnes in 2024 at EUR 1,136 per tonne and 48,367 tonnes in 2025 at EUR 1,013; January–August 2026 was 31,890 tonnes at EUR 1,022 against 32,294 tonnes at EUR 1,054 a year earlier, so volume fell 1.3% and the average value 3.0%. The monthly path is the informative part: the declared import unit value bottomed at EUR 838 in February 2026 and reached EUR 1,307 in August, a 56.0% rise — within four points of the 56.3% move in ortho-xylene over the same two months.
Analysis / outlook. Two links of one chain repricing by the same magnitude in six months is what a feedstock-led move looks like. And the derivative did not decouple: a buyer who switched from ortho-xylene to phthalic anhydride did not escape the increase. The longer record points the other way on structure — EU phthalic anhydride exports fell from 36,966 tonnes in 2021 to 13,716 tonnes in 2025, a 62.9% decline — which is the same pattern as ortho-xylene itself: the bloc is importing more of the chain and exporting less of it.
What this means for buyers
- Qualify a second origin against a lane that actually ships. Korea and China carry 80.7% of the import book; Taiwan, still the cheapest lane at EUR 827 per tonne, lost two-thirds of its volume since 2024 and shipped nothing in August 2026. A qualification list built on 2024 shares is out of date.
- Re-base contracts that index to an annual average. The 2025 average of EUR 928 per tonne is 27.0% below the August 2026 value of EUR 1,272; any clause referencing the calendar-year average prices a market that ended in December.
- Price parcels, not months. January 2026 cleared 616 tonnes and March 21,909. A monthly average unit value computed on a 616-tonne month is one cargo’s terms, and the same is true of the EUR 827 Taiwanese figure: it is a single-parcel price, not a market level.
- Watch the export side as an availability signal, not a price one. EU exports of 2,959 tonnes in 2025 are 13% of the 2024 figure; with no merchant balance left to arbitrage against, import pricing has no domestic ceiling.
- Treat the China lane as structural, not opportunistic. China’s export book went from 92,225 to 276,834 tonnes in one year at a falling unit value, and its European share rose from 13.5% in 2024 to 33.6% in January–August 2026. Due diligence should treat Chinese producers as a base-load option, not a swing source.
Data limitations
- HS 290241 covers ortho-xylene only; mixed xylene isomers (HS 290244) and para-xylene (HS 290243) are separate codes and are not included in any figure here.
- 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 much larger internal market.
- Unit values are declared customs values divided by net mass. They move with Incoterms, packaging, grade and related-party pricing without any change in the underlying market.
- April 2025 recorded 1 tonne at EUR 2,979 per tonne and is excluded from unit-value conclusions; the 616-tonne January 2026 month is retained as real, if thin.
- Taiwan has not filed a 2025 annual record in the Comtrade preview database, so its series ends in 2024. China’s 2025 import record and India’s 2025 import record carry value without net mass; no unit value is computed for either, and neither is interpolated.
- US annual export records for 2020–2025 carry value without net mass, so only the 2026 monthly records, which do include net mass, are used for unit values.
- 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 290241, January 2019 to August 2026: API query, flow 1
- Eurostat Comext DS-045409, monthly extra-EU exports of HS 290241: API query, flow 2
- Eurostat Comext DS-045409, monthly extra-EU imports of phthalic anhydride (HS 291735): API query
- Eurostat, international trade in goods database: database entry point
- UN Comtrade, China annual exports of HS 290241, 2025: preview API
- UN Comtrade, Republic of Korea annual exports of HS 290241, 2025: preview API
- UN Comtrade, Taiwan annual exports of HS 290241, 2024: preview API
- UN Comtrade, India annual imports of HS 290241, 2024: preview API
- UN Comtrade, India monthly imports of HS 290241, June 2026: preview API
- UN Comtrade, United States monthly exports of HS 290241, August 2026: 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 origin lanes for ortho-xylene and the phthalic anhydride chain — and can cut them to a specific origin, destination, grade or period, including historical lane detail back to 2019. To request a sample report or a custom data extract, contact our research team. For the product view, see the ortho-xylene market analysis, the downstream phthalic anhydride market analysis and the isomer family at xylene and para-xylene; our EU phthalic anhydride trade note covers the ortho-phthalate demand shift that sits downstream of this feedstock.