Welsh international goods trade: April 2021 to March 2022

From January 2022, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) implemented a change in data collection methods affecting trade in goods data on imports from the EU into Great Britain. This creates a break in the time series, users should take care when making comparisons with quarters and years prior to 2022. (see Notes).

Further explanation of the data collection changes can be found in the HMRC Full Commentary (UK Trade Info) explanatory notes.

Data for 2021 and 2022 are provisional estimates and will be revised routinely over the next 18 months to account for late returns.

Year ending March 2022

Exports

• The value of goods exports for Wales was £16.6 billion, up £4.1 billion (32.5%) compared to the year ending March 2021.
• There was an increase in exports to EU countries of £2.4 billion (32.7%) and an increase in exports to non-EU countries of £1.7 billion (32.2%) compared with the previous year. Exports to the EU accounted for 58.9% of Welsh exports compared with 50.5% for the UK.
• Exports from Wales continue to be dominated by ‘Machinery and Transport Equipment’ which made up 39.5% of exports.
• Comparing to the year ending March 2020 (pre-pandemic), goods exports for Wales are down £0.6 billion (3.4%).

Imports

• The value of goods imports for Wales was £18.4 billion, up £4.9 billion (36.6%) compared to the year ending March 2021.
• There was an increase in imports from EU countries of £0.7 billion (12.8%) and an increase in imports from non-EU countries of £4.1 billion (54.6%) compared with the previous year. Imports from the EU accounted for 35.6% of Welsh imports compared with 47.2% for the UK.
• The increase in imports was driven by an increase in the value of ‘Petroleum, Petroleum Products and Related Materials’, increasing by £2.6 billion (128.1%) compared with the previous year.
• ‘Machinery and Transport Equipment’ accounts for 30.9% of imports and ‘Mineral Fuels’ 29.1 % of imports.
• Comparing to the year ending March 2020 (pre-pandemic), goods imports for Wales are up £0.6 billion (3.1%).

January to March 2022 (provisional)

Short term, quarterly changes can be volatile, although are presented here given the impacts of EU Exit and the COVID-19 pandemic on trade.

Exports

• In January to March (Q1) 2022, the value of goods exports in Wales was £4.5 billion. This is an increase of 45.6% compared to Q1 2021 and an increase of 10.7% compared with Q1 2020. The UK saw an increase of 16.3% compared with Q1 2021, and an increase of 5.6% compared against Q1 2020.
• The value of goods exports from Wales to the EU in Q1 2022 was £2.6bn, an increase of 37.9% compared to Q1 2021, and an increase of 5.5% compared with Q1 2020.
• Non EU exports from Wales were valued at £1.9bn in Q1 2022, an increase of 57.5% compared with Q1 2021 and an increase of 18.5% Q1 2020.

Imports

• In January to March 2022, the value of goods imports to Wales was £5.8 billion. This is an increase of 64.3% compared to Q1 2021, and an increase of 34.1% compared with Q1 2020. The UK saw an increase of 48.6% compared with Q1 2021, and an increase of 38.3% compared against Q1 2020.
• The value of EU goods imports to Wales in Q1 2022 was £2.0bn, an increase of 43.7% compared with Q1 2021 and an increase of 32.0% Q1 2020.
• Non-EU goods imports to Wales were valued at £3.7bn in Q1 2022, and increase of 78.0% compared with the Q1 2021 and an increase of 35.3% compared with Q1 2020.

Notes

Because of changes to the way in which the data is collected, some small value trade that was previously allocated to countries and regions may now be reported under the ‘Unallocated-unknown’ category. This has led to a likely reduction in the UK to EU export values, and total export values for Wales (and other regions) from January 2021 onwards. More detailed notes of these effects can be read in the HMRC Full Commentary (UK Trade Info) on these statistics.

Some of the exports data included in this report may get revised by HMRC as part of their routine revisions to the data set. The latest data will be available on UK Trade Info website.

Further Information

The data above relates to international goods trade. The most recent experimental statistics (for 2020) produced by the Office for National statistics suggest that service exports made up approximately 28% of total exports in Wales in 2020, with services imports making up around 19% of total imports.

Key results are published quarterly.

If you would like to provide any feedback on any aspect of these statistics, please email stats.trade@gov.wales