Basque Country exports reached record levels before the epidemic

Vitoria Basque foreign trade continues to show a good tone in the latter part of the year despite the slowdown in the economy. Basque companies exported 20,983 million euros between January and October, already exceeding the figures for the whole of 2020 in the absence of two months. But that year was conditioned by the outbreak of the epidemic and the closing of a large part of the economy during confinement.

So to find a valid reference you have to compare the data with the two from previous years and the export rate so far this year is very close to the 2019 rate and not too far from 2018, when the foreign sales record of the Basque economy was reached.

Specifically, the growth of recorded exports was 14.6% in October, exceeding 2,292 million euros. The cumulative increase in the first 10 months was 22.3%, with a surplus of more than 4,000 million euros in relation to imports, according to data prepared by Ustat.

Exports of energy products in October grew by 434.7% year on year, while exports of non-energy products (94% of the total value), grew by 9.3%. The main protagonist of the recovery in energy sales is Petronor, which gradually came out of its hibernation during the year and in October started the last remaining idle refining unit. This circumstance and the weight of Muskiz in the Biscayan economy, put this region on top

This month also witnessed the recovery of metals and energy products (372.4%), metals and their products (20.1%), and plastics and rubber (12.4%).

For their part, imports grew by 44.5% in October 2021, amounting to 2,031.6 million euros. Energy imports increased by 194.6% and non-energy imports by 22.4%.

The highest growth in exports in October was in Bizkaia by 24.4%, due to the rise in metals and their products (10.2%), and above all, in metal products and energy (403.3%) which, with an increase of 108 million, this month represents 15.7% of total exports from this region. Petronor is the catalyst for that dynamic. The increase in Jibuzcoa was 15.2% due to an increase in metals and articles thereof (35.8%), paper and articles thereof (30.8%) and transport materials (15.2%).

Mercedes stop As for Wagon, the balance was also positive, with an increase of 3.7%, exceeding the slight decrease recorded in the previous month (-0.8%). This change in trend in this region resulted from the 26.1% rise in metals and articles thereof, despite the slight decrease in transport materials (-3.6%). In this latest tariff chapter, it’s worth emphasizing the low Mercedes-Benz production rate at Justice.

If the cumulative development so far is analyzed this year, Bizkaia is also the most growing region, and with an annual increase of 31.8%, it leads merchandise sales, reaching 8412.6 million euros. In Chariot, the increase was 17.1% (5,994.6 million) and 16.3% in the case of Gibuzcoa (6,576.7 million).

As usual and repeat demand, in October, five countries (France, Germany, USA, UK and Belgium) were the main customers of Basque companies, absorbing 49.8% of the total. Three of them belong to the European Union 27, an entity that accounts for 62% of Basque exports.

Regarding the main importing countries, Germany (293 million), France (193 million), Mexico (127 million), China (123 million) and Italy (103 million), among the five, accounted for 41.3% of the total imports.

Basque Exports

20.983

In the first ten months, companies issued nearly 21 thousand million euros. It’s the third-highest number at this time of year, after record export numbers for 2019 and 2018.

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+ 22.3%

If you compare with the development of last year, the foreign trade of the Basque Country has grown by 22% until October. It is only 1% of the 2019 rate and 3.1% of the 2018 rate.

Barrier 25000 million. At the current rate, the Basque economy will once again surpass the 25,000 million export barrier this year and return to pre-COVID numbers.