Propylene Glycol Import and Export Data to 2025, with a 2026 Monthly Update to August: EU Imports Double and China Supplies 63%
Summary. EU27 imports of propylene glycol from outside the bloc doubled in the twelve months to August 2026, to 104,119.9 tonnes from 51,367.3 tonnes a year earlier, while the average customs unit value fell 8.5% to 1,049 EUR per tonne. China supplied 65,191 tonnes, 62.6% of the total, and 40,385 tonnes of the 52,753-tonne increase. The fall is not a composition artefact: across the 24 origins that shipped in both windows, holding earlier tonnages fixed gives 1,055 EUR/t against an actual 1,146 EUR/t. From June 2026 the unit value turns sharply upward — 1,254 EUR/t in June, 1,365 in July and 1,474 in August, the highest since December 2024 — mainly because Chinese-origin unit values rose from 783 EUR/t in May to 1,346 in August. Exports were flat at 80,905.2 tonnes but their unit value rose 7.2% to 1,505 EUR/t, with one 7,463-tonne June shipment to the United States taking 68.3% of that month’s exports.
Data updated: 2026-10-17
Latest 12 months: monthly import and export volumes
The table covers 2025-09 to 2026-08, the most recent twelve complete months published by Eurostat Comext, whose dataset DS-045409 carried EU27 extra-EU trade in HS 290532 through August 2026 and was last refreshed on 16 October 2026. The line is “alcohols; acyclic, diols; propylene glycol (propane-1, 2-diol)” — monopropylene glycol alone; dipropylene glycol, tripropylene glycol and the glycol ethers sit under other headings. Every figure is a reported customs value, net weight, or the ratio of the two.
| Month | Imports (t) | Import unit value (EUR/t) | Exports (t) | Export unit value (EUR/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-09 | 8,374.3 | 942 | 3,954.2 | 1,553 |
| 2025-10 | 7,173.2 | 974 | 5,594.6 | 1,261 |
| 2025-11 | 10,203.9 | 925 | 5,547.6 | 1,283 |
| 2025-12 | 6,533.4 | 879 | 8,059.2 | 1,074 |
| 2026-01 | 6,676.3 | 951 | 4,585.3 | 1,330 |
| 2026-02 | 8,596.6 | 927 | 5,156.0 | 1,371 |
| 2026-03 | 7,553.1 | 826 | 6,018.9 | 1,220 |
| 2026-04 | 10,236.1 | 930 | 9,424.8 | 1,516 |
| 2026-05 | 9,432.8 | 971 | 10,371.8 | 1,532 |
| 2026-06 | 9,134.1 | 1,254 | 10,925.7 | 1,977 |
| 2026-07 | 11,589.0 | 1,365 | 6,173.5 | 1,815 |
| 2026-08 | 8,617.1 | 1,474 | 5,093.7 | 1,820 |
| 12-month total / weighted average | 104,119.9 | 1,049 | 80,905.2 | 1,505 |
Source: Eurostat Comext DS-045409, EU27 extra-EU monthly trade in HS 290532. Unit value = value ÷ quantity.
Import volume steps up after mid-2025 and stays up: the six months to February 2026 took 47,558 tonnes and the six months to August 2026 took 56,562 tonnes. The import unit value moves the other way for most of that time, sliding to 826 EUR/t in March 2026, before reversing hard in the last quarter of the window.
Two 12-month windows: the headline switch
Comparing two consecutive twelve-month windows removes month-to-month noise. Extra-EU imports moved from 51,367.3 tonnes at 1,146 EUR/t in 2024-09 to 2025-08, to 104,119.9 tonnes at 1,049 EUR/t in 2025-09 to 2026-08: volume +102.7%, value +85.6%, unit value −8.5%. Extra-EU exports moved from 80,770.1 tonnes at 1,404 EUR/t to 80,905.2 tonnes at 1,505 EUR/t: volume +0.2%, value +7.3%, unit value +7.2%. The bloc’s import book for this molecule doubled in a year; its export book did not move in tonnage at all, and the whole of the export change is price.
That asymmetry is the story. A doubling of imports at a falling average price is what a change in origin mix or a withdrawal of domestic supply looks like, not what a demand boom looks like. The next section tests the mix explanation directly.
Where the tonnes came from: import origins
The table ranks extra-EU origins by tonnage in the latest window; intra-EU shipments are excluded throughout.
| Origin | 2024-09 to 2025-08 (t) | 2025-09 to 2026-08 (t) | Change (t) | Unit value, prior (EUR/t) | Unit value, latest (EUR/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | 24,806 | 65,191 | +40,385 | 1,044 | 992 |
| Korea RP | 10,007 | 16,198 | +6,191 | 1,299 | 1,312 |
| United States | 10,537 | 12,670 | +2,133 | 1,108 | 965 |
| Norway | 2,180 | 2,849 | +669 | 205 | 195 |
| Singapore | 1,178 | 2,521 | +1,343 | 972 | 917 |
| Saudi Arabia | 0 | 2,388 | +2,388 | n/a | 936 |
| United Kingdom | 1,737 | 1,381 | −356 | 1,520 | 1,763 |
| Thailand | 710 | 433 | −278 | 599 | 649 |
Source: Eurostat Comext DS-045409, EU27 extra-EU monthly imports of HS 290532 by partner, summed over each window. Intra-EU and aggregate lines excluded.
Three origins supplied 90.3% of the latest window. China alone took 62.6%, up from 48.3% a year earlier, at 992 EUR/t — below the 1,049 EUR/t all-origin average. Korea RP held its unit value at 1,312 EUR/t while adding 6,191 tonnes; the United States supplied 12,670 tonnes at 965 EUR/t; and Saudi Arabia appears for the first time in the period covered, with 2,388 tonnes.
On the like-for-like origin set — the 24 origins with positive tonnage in both windows — the unit value moved from 1,146 to 1,049 EUR/t, and applying each origin’s latest unit value to its prior tonnage gives 1,055 EUR/t. So of the 97 EUR/t decline in the headline average, about 91 EUR/t is a real change in what buyers paid per tonne and only about 6 EUR/t is composition.
Where they went: export destinations
The United Kingdom took 21,533 tonnes (26.6%) at 1,260 EUR/t and the United States 19,045 tonnes (23.5%) at 1,605 EUR/t; with Türkiye at 9,585 tonnes and Switzerland at 9,225 tonnes, the top four destinations are 73.4% of the latest window. The United States is where the change is: 8,169 tonnes a year earlier against 19,045 now, while the United Kingdom lost 7,374 tonnes. June 2026 alone shipped 7,463.2 tonnes to the United States — the largest tonnage sent to any single extra-EU destination in any month of the 25-month series, against a 1,053-tonne monthly average there across the other eleven months.
The export unit-value gain is genuine rather than compositional, though mix works against it: on the 111 destinations present in both windows the unit value rose from 1,403 to 1,505 EUR/t; applying latest destination unit values to prior tonnages gives 1,539 EUR/t, a real move of about +136 EUR/t damped by about 34 EUR/t because the fastest-growing outlet prices below Switzerland and Egypt.
The annual picture, 2020–2025
The annual panel puts the monthly window in context. The 2025 column is first-reported and subject to revision, so the comparison uses a fixed core panel: reporters that filed a net weight for HS 290532 in all six years — 10 exporting and 9 importing economies. A reporter without a net weight is excluded rather than counted as zero.
| Year | Core-panel exports (t) | Export unit value (USD/t) | Core-panel imports (t) | Import unit value (USD/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 486,342 | 1,144 | 196,098 | 1,228 |
| 2021 | 540,679 | 2,262 | 212,540 | 2,472 |
| 2022 | 473,851 | 2,476 | 205,763 | 2,571 |
| 2023 | 402,623 | 1,563 | 183,550 | 1,552 |
| 2024 | 456,756 | 1,362 | 200,759 | 1,402 |
| 2025 | 450,199 | 1,341 | 226,803 | 1,286 |
Source: UN Comtrade annual preview, HS 290532, partner = world. Unit value = primary value ÷ net weight; reporters without a net weight are excluded. The core panel is fixed across all six years. 2025 is first-reported and subject to revision.
Value has fallen for four years from the 2022 peak: the core-panel export unit value is 1,341 USD/t in 2025 against 2,476 in 2022, and the import unit value 1,286 against 2,571. Volumes tell the opposite story. Core-panel export tonnage in 2025, at 450,199 tonnes, is within 7.4% of 2020, while core-panel import tonnage at 226,803 tonnes is the highest of the six years and 15.7% above 2020. On the wider 2024-versus-2025 like-for-like sets, reported imports rose 17.5% to 313,382 tonnes (n=12) with the unit value down 10.1% to 1,271 USD/t, and reported exports slipped 1.4% to 568,655 tonnes (n=15) at 1,321 USD/t. China, the largest reported exporter, filed a 2025 value without a net weight, so it drops out of the weight-based comparison rather than appearing as a swing: its absence, not a collapse in its shipments, is why the export total looks flat.
Analysis and outlook: what moved the 2026 numbers
This is analysis, not a data series; each statement points to a named public source.
1. European production has withdrawn from this molecule. INEOS Oxide ended propylene oxide and propylene glycol production at its Cologne site with effect from a letter to customers dated 8 September 2025, citing raw-material, natural gas and energy costs alongside PO oversupply. Trade press reporting gives the site’s capacity as 210,000 t/yr of PO and 120,000 t/yr of PG on the chlorohydrin route, and records parallel closures at Dow’s Freeport PO unit and the Maasvlakte PO unit in Rotterdam. An import book that doubles at a unit value below the previous year’s is what the loss of European PG capacity looks like from the customs side — a timing-and-capacity association, not a modelled causal estimate.
2. The replacement tonnes are Asian, and Asia is substituting for its own imports. Dow started up an 80,000 t/yr propylene glycol expansion at Map Ta Phut, Thailand in May 2024, taking that site to 250,000 t/yr. In India, Manali Petrochemicals told the stock exchanges in July 2025 that its expanded plant would add 50,000 t/yr to an existing 22,000 t/yr, to reduce India’s reliance on imported propylene glycol.
3. Feedstock costs turned up, and Chinese-origin unit values followed. The World Bank’s April 2026 Commodity Markets Outlook records the largest oil market disruption on record: global oil supply fell 10.1 million barrels per day in March 2026 and Brent rose about 65% (USD 46 per barrel) by the end of that month, with Brent projected to average USD 86 per barrel in 2026. Propylene glycol is made from propylene oxide, whose cost base is propylene and, upstream, naphtha. Chinese-origin unit values on EU imports ran at 751 EUR/t in March, 874 in April and 783 in May, then 1,203 in June, 1,332 in July and 1,346 in August — a turn about one quarter after the crude move that accounts for the bulk of the rise in the all-origin average from 826 to 1,474 EUR/t. That is timing across two public series, not a causal estimate.
What this means for buyers
Three consequences follow. First, the comparator matters more than the average: the EU import unit value averaged 1,049 EUR/t over the latest twelve months, but the origins supplying 90.3% of the volume cleared at 992 EUR/t (China), 1,312 (Korea RP) and 965 (United States). Second, the fall in the average is real rather than mix, so the reading that cheap Asian barrels were merely displacing dearer Western ones does not hold for this window. Third, the trailing average now lags the market: unit values have risen in each of the last three published months and August’s 1,474 EUR/t is the highest since December 2024, so a contract indexed to a trailing twelve-month average will under-price a market that turned in June. Concentration is the other risk: three origins supply 90.3% of volume.
Related PetroApex coverage
- Propylene glycol — the product page.
- Propylene oxide and polyether polyol — the feedstock and its competing outlet.
- Maleic anhydride — the co-monomer behind unsaturated polyester resin demand.
- Isopropanol — the competing de-icing solvent.
Data sources
- Eurostat Comext DS-045409, EU27 extra-EU monthly trade in HS 290532 — imports query, exports query. All monthly volumes, values, unit values, origins and destinations; updated 16 October 2026.
- UN Comtrade annual preview, HS 290532, partner = world — 2025 exports, 2025 imports. The annual panel and the official line description.
- S&P Global Chemical Week / Borderless — Ineos ceases propylene oxide, glycol production at Cologne (20 September 2025). The 8 September letter, its stated reasons, the capacity figures and the Freeport and Maasvlakte closures. Cross-checked against Urethanes Technology International (22 September 2025) on the chlorohydrin route and the chlorine-supply interruption, and against INEOS Oxide’s Cologne listing.
- Dow — Dow expands propylene glycol capacity in Thailand (16 May 2024): 80,000 t/yr added at Map Ta Phut.
- Polymerupdate — Manali Petrochemicals gears up to launch expanded propylene glycol operations (18 July 2025): 50,000 t/yr added to 22,000 t/yr, and the exchange filing on import dependence.
- World Bank — Strait of Hormuz disruption sends oil prices surging (7 May 2026); underlying report at the Commodity Markets Outlook.
Data limitations
- Product scope: HS 290532 covers propane-1,2-diol alone, so this is not the whole propylene glycols complex.
- Origin and destination attribution follows the country of consignment, not where the molecule was produced; EU free-zone and re-export flows can appear as extra-EU trade.
- Revision status: Comext carried data through August 2026 and was last updated on 16 October 2026; recent months are revised as member states re-file, and the 2025 annual column is first-reported.
- Totals basis: the headline windows use the extra-EU aggregate line; the origin and destination tables sum partner records, which can differ marginally from the aggregate because of residual partner codes.
- One line is an unexplained outlier: Norway is reported at 205 and then 195 EUR/t, about a fifth of every other origin. The tonnage is small and the pattern stable, so it is not used as a price signal here.
- Unit values are not prices: they blend grade, contract length, Incoterms and freight. No subscription price assessment is used or redistributed here.
- No interpolation: every figure is a reported value, a reported weight or the ratio of the two; nothing is modelled or forecast.
PetroApex builds comparable customs-based trade panels for glycols, oxo alcohols, aromatics, intermediates and plasticisers from Eurostat Comext and UN Comtrade. For a sample report or a custom extract on propylene glycol or the wider glycols complex, contact our research desk.