Ludwigshafen: The European Union’s chemicals trade surplus reached €238 billion in 2024, up €40 billion on 2023, according to a Eurostat article published on 15 October 2026. The result shows how much the Union’s chemical and pharmaceutical industries lean on foreign customers, and it puts a number on the stakes in any future trade dispute.

Exports of chemicals and related products to countries outside the Union rose by 7.0% to €560 billion in 2024. Imports fell by 1.1% to €322 billion. Total trade in these goods therefore came to €882 billion, and chemicals now account for 17.6% of all extra-EU trade, compared with 14.3% in 2014. A decade ago the chemicals trade surplus stood at €119 billion, so it has doubled over that period.

The United States is the single most important partner in the chemicals trade surplus. The Union sold €170 billion of chemicals there in 2024 and bought €78 billion in return. Switzerland came second, with €64 billion in each direction. The United Kingdom took €46 billion of EU exports and supplied €28 billion, while China bought €36 billion. Eurostat’s text contains a printed figure for Chinese imports that is clearly out of line with the Union’s total, so this report leaves it out.

The comparison with other major traders puts the chemicals trade surplus in context. The United States is the world’s largest importer of chemicals at €380 billion and the second-largest exporter at €283 billion, which leaves it with a trade deficit of €97 billion. China ranks third in both imports at €231 billion and exports at €278 billion. The Union stands out as the only one of the three with a large surplus.

Production tells the other half of the story. The value of sold production in the EU chemical sector reached €830 billion in 2024, against €790 billion in 2023 and €663 billion in 2014. The year 2023 had seen a fall of 10.0%, so the 2024 recovery matters to producers. Medical and pharmaceutical products grew fastest over the decade, at an average of 4.3% a year, followed by inorganic chemicals at 4.2%, while organic chemicals shrank by 0.9% a year.

One product dominates the list. Medicaments sold in mixed or unmixed form were worth €78 billion, and antisera and other immunological products added €48 billion. No other product group passed €25 billion. That concentration explains why trade negotiators watch pharmaceutical tariffs so closely and why the Commission links the sector to its health and security agendas.

The numbers cover 2024, so they predate recent tariff moves and the energy price spike of 2026. They still set a useful baseline for the chemicals trade surplus. A chemicals trade surplus of €238 billion gives the Union leverage in talks with Washington, Bern and London, and it also exposes the sector to any retaliation that follows a dispute.