2-Ethylhexanol Trade Data to 2025, with a 2026 Monthly Update: EU Export Volumes, Unit Values and Plasticiser Demand
Summary. EU27 exports of 2-ethylhexanol to destinations outside the bloc fell to 62,188 tonnes in the twelve months from August 2025 to July 2026, 52% below the previous twelve months, and export value fell 41% to EUR 99.3 million. The customs unit value moved the other way, from 1,290 to 1,597 EUR per tonne. A destination-level decomposition shows that just under half of that rise, 141 EUR/t, reflects what buyers paid in the destinations that kept buying; the larger part, 167 EUR/t, is composition, because Türkiye, Mexico and the United States together took 99,201 tonnes a year earlier and only 35,630 in the latest window. Imports went the other way: extra-EU volume rose 14% to 19,233 tonnes at a broadly unchanged unit value of 1,661 EUR/t.
Data updated: 2026-10-16
Latest 12 months: monthly export and import volumes
The table covers 2025-08 to 2026-07, the most recent complete window published by Eurostat Comext, which carries EU27 extra-EU trade by month through July 2026. The product line is HS 290516, defined in the UN nomenclature as “alcohols; saturated monohydric, octanol (octyl alcohol) and isomers thereof”. That heading is wider than 2-EH: it covers 1-octanol and the other C8 isomers on one line, and 2-ethylhexanol is the dominant traded isomer. Every figure below is a reported customs value, a reported net weight, or the ratio of the two.
| Month | Exports (t) | Export unit value (EUR/t) | Imports (t) | Import unit value (EUR/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-08 | 3,637.4 | 1,615 | 1,268.2 | 1,836 |
| 2025-09 | 6,686.1 | 1,480 | 1,487.1 | 1,445 |
| 2025-10 | 1,940.4 | 1,741 | 1,615.5 | 1,333 |
| 2025-11 | 7,752.8 | 1,766 | 1,858.8 | 1,641 |
| 2025-12 | 9,021.7 | 1,244 | 808.9 | 1,610 |
| 2026-01 | 5,831.0 | 1,324 | 1,258.7 | 1,446 |
| 2026-02 | 5,567.0 | 1,290 | 1,878.9 | 1,468 |
| 2026-03 | 6,320.9 | 1,642 | 1,888.7 | 1,615 |
| 2026-04 | 2,039.2 | 1,874 | 977.3 | 1,801 |
| 2026-05 | 5,294.2 | 2,047 | 2,372.0 | 1,759 |
| 2026-06 | 3,030.7 | 1,820 | 2,630.7 | 1,956 |
| 2026-07 | 5,066.3 | 1,931 | 1,188.0 | 1,904 |
| 12-month total / weighted average | 62,187.8 | 1,597 | 19,232.8 | 1,661 |
Source: Eurostat Comext, dataset DS-045409, EU27 extra-EU monthly trade in HS 290516, indicators VALUE_IN_EUROS and QUANTITY_IN_100KG. Unit value = value ÷ quantity.
Two features stand out. First, the export trend is a staircase rather than a straight line: the six months to January 2026 shipped 34,869 tonnes and the six months to July 2026 shipped 27,318 tonnes. Second, the export unit value turns up sharply after March 2026: 1,290 EUR/t in February, 1,642 in March, 1,874 in April and 2,047 in May, the highest monthly reading in the whole 24-month series. Import volumes rose on the year while their unit value stayed flat, which is the opposite shape to exports.
Two 12-month windows: the headline switch
Comparing two consecutive twelve-month windows removes month-to-month noise. Extra-EU exports moved from 130,671 tonnes at 1,290 EUR/t in 2024-08 to 2025-07, to 62,188 tonnes at 1,597 EUR/t in 2025-08 to 2026-07: volume -52.4%, value -41.1%, unit value +23.8%. Extra-EU imports moved from 16,881 tonnes at 1,655 EUR/t to 19,233 tonnes at 1,661 EUR/t.
Where the tonnes went: destination mix
The export fall is not spread evenly. It is concentrated in the three largest bulk outlets of the earlier window, and it is almost exactly offset by smaller, higher-value destinations that grew. The table ranks destinations by volume in the latest window.
| Destination | 2024-08 to 2025-07 (t) | 2025-08 to 2026-07 (t) | Change (t) | Unit value, prior (EUR/t) | Unit value, latest (EUR/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TR | 57,418.4 | 19,879.2 | -37,539.2 | 1,016 | 919 |
| US | 27,774.9 | 12,246.4 | -15,528.4 | 1,530 | 1,501 |
| SG | 10,790.4 | 10,861.9 | +71.5 | 1,197 | 2,092 |
| GB | 5,125.6 | 3,958.5 | -1,167.1 | 2,663 | 2,863 |
| MX | 14,008.2 | 3,504.3 | -10,503.8 | 1,156 | 962 |
| CH | 2,712.6 | 3,218.1 | +505.5 | 2,272 | 2,348 |
| IN | 1,367.3 | 2,925.7 | +1,558.4 | 2,111 | 2,655 |
| CN | 702.4 | 2,184.2 | +1,481.8 | 2,232 | 2,022 |
Source: Eurostat Comext, dataset DS-045409, EU27 extra-EU exports of HS 290516 by partner, aggregated over each twelve-month window. EU member states and the intra-EU aggregate are excluded. Partner codes follow the Eurostat two-letter geonomenclature (TR = Türkiye, US = United States, MX = Mexico, SG = Singapore, GB = United Kingdom, IN = India, CH = Switzerland, CN = China).
Türkiye took 57,418 tonnes in the earlier window and 19,879 tonnes in the latest one, a fall of 37,539 tonnes, and it is the lowest-value outlet on the list at about 919 EUR/t. Mexico went from 14,008 to 3,504 tonnes and the United States from 27,775 to 12,246 tonnes. Against that, Singapore held volume flat at 10,862 tonnes while its unit value nearly doubled, to 2,092 EUR/t, while India and China both took more than twice their earlier tonnage and Switzerland rose to 3,218 tonnes.
On the like-for-like partner set — the 43 destinations with positive tonnage in both windows, which between them account for 100.0% of earlier-window volume — the unit value rose from 1,289 to 1,597 EUR/t. Holding each destination’s prior tonnage fixed and applying its latest unit value gives 1,430 EUR/t. So of the 308 EUR/t headline gain, about 141 EUR/t (46%) is a real change in per-tonne realisation and about 167 EUR/t (54%) is the withdrawal of cheap bulk destinations. A reader who takes the headline unit-value move as a price signal will overstate it by roughly a factor of two.
The annual picture, 2020–2025
The annual customs panel puts the monthly window in context. The 2025 column is first-reported data and subject to revision, so the comparison below uses a like-for-like set: only reporters that filed a net weight for HS 290516 in both 2024 and 2025. That set contains 15 exporting and 19 importing economies.
| Reporter (exports) | 2024 (t) | 2025 (t) | Change (t) | 2024 (USD/t) | 2025 (USD/t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | 179,903 | 176,808 | -3,095 | 1,292 | 1,056 |
| Indonesia | 116,028 | 121,769 | +5,741 | 1,272 | 1,035 |
| China | 94,257 | 101,615 | +7,358 | 1,311 | 936 |
| Germany | 107,268 | 82,407 | -24,861 | 1,365 | 1,554 |
| Netherlands | 75,956 | 48,808 | -27,147 | 1,624 | 1,926 |
| Malaysia | 32,223 | 21,774 | -10,449 | 1,425 | 1,478 |
| Rep. of Korea | 136,059 | 17,698 | -118,361 | 1,193 | 961 |
| 15-economy like-for-like total | 754,850 | 587,739 | -167,111 | 1,338 | 1,207 |
| 19-economy like-for-like imports | 902,789 | 670,681 | -232,108 | 1,360 | 1,220 |
Source: UN Comtrade annual preview, HS 290516, partner = world, exports and imports. Unit value = primary value ÷ net weight; reporters that did not file a net weight are excluded from the totals. 2025 figures are first-reported and subject to revision.
Measured trade moved down in 2025 on both sides of the ledger. Reported exports across the like-for-like set fell 22.1% to 587,739 tonnes and the trade-weighted unit value slipped 9.8%; reported imports fell 25.7% to 670,681 tonnes with a unit value down 10.3%. The largest single change is Korea’s reported exports, from 136,059 tonnes to 17,698 tonnes; one reporter’s filing dominates that swing, so the total is a sum of reported filings rather than a settled measure of physical trade. China filed 185,208 tonnes of imports for 2025, so the Chinese side of the molecule does appear in the 2025 column.
Analysis and outlook: what moved the 2026 numbers
This section is analysis, not a data series. Each statement points to a named public source; none of it is a price forecast.
1. A trade measure now sits on the largest growing outlet. India has had an anti-dumping duty on 2-ethylhexanol since 29 March 2016, covering exports from the European Union, the United States, Indonesia, Korea RP, Malaysia and Taiwan. India’s Directorate General of Trade Remedies initiated a second sunset review on 9 September 2025 with a period of investigation of 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, and on 19 March 2026 issued its final finding recommending that the duty be imposed for a further five years. The recommended rates are USD 113.47 per tonne for goods of EU origin, USD 29.61 for the United States, USD 15.55 for Korea RP, USD 42.45 for Taiwan, USD 45.67 or USD 127.82 for Indonesia depending on producer, and USD 53.63 or USD 107.30 for Malaysia. For an Indian buyer, the EU rate is the highest in the table. India is the destination whose EU-sourced tonnage grew fastest in the latest window, from 1,367 to 2,926 tonnes, so buyers pricing EU-origin material into India should carry that duty explicitly rather than treat the customs unit value as landed cost.
2. The feedstock shock is visible in the monthly turn. The World Bank’s Commodity Markets Outlook describes the disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East as the largest oil market disruption on record: global oil supply fell by 10.1 million barrels per day in March 2026 and the Brent price rose about 65% (USD 46 per barrel) by the end of that month. 2-Ethylhexanol is an oxo alcohol made by hydroformylating propylene, so its cost base is tied to the oil and naphtha complex. The EU export unit value steps up in the same months — from 1,642 EUR/t in March 2026 to 2,047 EUR/t in May — which is what a feedstock-led move looks like in this series. This is a timing association across two public series, not a demonstrated causal estimate; the export unit value also reflects the destination mix described above.
3. Demand sits in plasticisers, which is where substitution lives. 2-Ethylhexanol is the alcohol used to esterify phthalic anhydride into dioctyl phthalate (DOP), and the same alcohol makes the non-phthalate grades dioctyl terephthalate (DOTP) and trioctyl trimellitate (TOTM) that have taken share where phthalate restrictions bind. That is why the export unit value differs so widely by destination: a shipment into Türkiye at about 919 EUR/t and one into the United Kingdom at roughly 2,863 EUR/t are not the same commercial event. Buyers comparing European quotations should fix the ester grade before comparing a tonnage-weighted average.
What this means for buyers
Two consequences follow. First, European supply into the bulk destinations is materially thinner than it was a year ago, and those destinations were the ones clearing low-value material, so a buyer who was paying near the Türkiye or Mexico unit value is now negotiating from a different starting point. Second, the headline EU export unit value of 1,597 EUR/t is mix-weighted: for contract benchmarking, the like-for-like figure of 1,597 EUR/t and the constant-mix counterfactual of 1,430 EUR/t bracket the move more honestly. The bloc is meanwhile supplying less of this heading and absorbing more, with extra-EU imports up 13.9% on the year at a flat unit value — a sourcing condition rather than a price story.
Related PetroApex coverage
- Octanol market analysis — the C8 alcohol line that shares this customs heading.
- Dioctyl phthalate (DOP) market analysis — the largest single ester outlet for 2-ethylhexanol.
- Dioctyl terephthalate (DOTP) market analysis — the non-phthalate replacement grade made from the same alcohol.
- Trioctyl trimellitate (TOTM) market analysis — the high-temperature plasticiser grade for cable compounds.
- Phthalic anhydride market analysis and n-butanol market analysis — the acid and the sister oxo alcohol in the same esterification route.
Data sources
- Eurostat Comext, dataset DS-045409 (EU trade since 1988 by HS2-4-6 and CN8), EU27 extra-EU monthly trade in HS 290516 — exports query and imports query. Source of every monthly volume, value and unit value in the tables.
- UN Comtrade annual preview, HS 290516, exports and imports, partner = world — annual query. Source of the 2020–2025 panel. Monthly cross-check: monthly query.
- UN Comtrade HS nomenclature reference — official line description for 290516, “alcohols; saturated monohydric, octanol (octyl alcohol) and isomers thereof”.
- Directorate General of Trade Remedies, Government of India — case file for 2-Ethyl Hexanol (File No. 14/24/2014-DGAD) and the Final Finding of 19 March 2026, Case No. AD (SSR)-07/2025. Measure history and recommended duty rates.
- US International Trade Administration — India initiates review of its antidumping duty on 2-Ethyl Hexanol. Confirmation of the 9 September 2025 initiation, the origins covered and the period of investigation.
- World Bank, Data Blog and Commodity Markets Outlook — Strait of Hormuz disruption sends oil prices surging (7 May 2026). Oil supply loss and Brent price move used in the analysis section; the underlying quarterly outlooks are at the Commodity Markets Outlook.
Data limitations
- Product scope: HS 290516 covers octanol and its isomers on a single line, so the series measures the heading rather than 2-ethylhexanol alone. 2-EH is the dominant traded isomer, but the average carries the isomer mix with it.
- Origin and destination attribution: customs records show the country of consignment, not where the molecule was produced, and EU free-zone and re-export flows can appear as extra-EU trade.
- Revision status: Eurostat Comext carried data through July 2026 and was last updated on 15 September 2026 when this article was written; the most recent months are revised as member states re-file. The 2025 annual column is first-reported and subject to revision, and a reporter that filed 2024 but not 2025 is excluded from the like-for-like totals rather than counted as zero.
- Unit values are not prices: they are customs value divided by customs net weight, so 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 in the tables is modelled, seasonally adjusted or forecast.
PetroApex builds comparable customs-based trade panels for oxo alcohols, aromatics, intermediates and plasticisers from Eurostat Comext and UN Comtrade. For a sample report or a custom extract on 2-ethylhexanol, octanol or the plasticiser esters, contact our research desk.