Europe cut import of certain commodity groups

In the first quarter of 2013 the total cargo turnover from the EU to the countries of the Customs Union by road transport has comprised 2 018,000 t. It is 10,6% less compared to the same period last year. According to the trading stock analysis, reduction in cargo turnover has been caused by shrinking oil product imports to the EU.

Compared to the same period last year, a completely different trading scenario is observed this year. According to Eurostat 2012, cargo imports from the Customs Union by road transport were stepping up because of significant increase in transported oil products. If oil product imports had declined at a rapid pace through the first half of 2012, the volume of road transportations to the EU could have been considerably lower.

The number of oil transportation by road transport more than halved during 2013. Based on the total statistics for the first quarter, there is a downward trend in cargo imports that has been affected by sharp decrease in cargo turnover of oil products group.   

As for agricultural products, including wood materials, the volume of automobile carriages from the Customs Union to the EU has increased by 16,1% in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same period last year. The world’s largest importers of agricultural products are Finland (306,000 t), Germany (96,000 t), Poland (56,000 t) and Lithuania (37,000 t).

During the first quarter of 2013 (compared to the same period last year) road transportations of metal products from the Customs Union to the EU has increased by 20% which is another largest commodity group in the shared distribution. The list of countries by metal product imports includes Germany (131,000t), Poland (32,000 t), Belgium (21,000 t), Lithuania (19,000 t), France (17,000 t), Italy and the Czech Republic (16, 000 t for each state).

In this context the import volumes of industrial products to European countries has decreased by 4% which no longer affects the overall downward trend. The largest industrial importer by road transport is Finland (232,000t). The other top 5 European countries are Germany (91,000t), Poland (35,000t), Italy (30,000t) and Lithuania (23,000t).

Eurostat analysis reflects data for a particular type of transport used to transfer cargo to the specified destination point. It may happen that several cargo transportations involved a number of transport types, especially for intercontinental deliveries.