Welsh international goods trade: October to December 2022

The data in this report are provisional estimates for January 2022 – December 2022 and will be revised routinely over the next 18 months to account for late returns.

Data covers exports and imports of goods.

From 31 December 2020, the way HMRC collects trade in goods data changed, resulting in a break in the time series for published UK to EU trade statistics from January 2021, therefore historic comparisons should be treated with caution (see notes).

Year ending December 2022 (provisional)

Exports

The value of goods exports for Wales was £20.5 billion in 2022, up £5.3 billion (34.9%) compared to 2021.

Comparing 2019 (pre-pandemic), goods export values for Wales were up £2.8 billion (15.5%).

There was an increase in export values to EU countries of £2.5 billion (27.5%) up to £11.6 billion and an increase in export values to non-EU countries of £2.8 billion (45.8%) up to £8.9 billion, compared with the previous year.

Export values to the EU accounted for 56.5% of Welsh export value compared with 52.1% for the UK.

Export values from Wales continue to be dominated by ‘Machinery and Transport Equipment’ ^{[footnote 1]} which made up £7.5 billion (36.8%) of export values. However, a substantial increase was seen in the export values of Mineral Fuels, up £2.5 billion (116.5%) to £4.6 billion compared with the previous year. Mineral Fuels exports accounted for 22.6% of all exports from Wales.

Power Generating Machinery and Equipment’ was the largest value product within the ‘Machinery and transport Equipment category’ with £3.0 billion (14.5%) of Welsh exports. This is an increase of £0.8 billion (39.0%) compared with the previous year.

Within the Mineral Fuels category, ‘Petroleum, Petroleum Products and Related Materials’ (SITC 33) was the highest value product with £4.6 billion (22.4%) of Welsh exports. While this is a value increase of £2.6 billion (127.3%) compared with the previous year, the volume exported only increased by 33.1%.

Footnotes

[1] This includes Power Generating Machinery and Equipment, Machinery Specialized For Particular Industries, Metalworking Machinery, General Industrial Machinery and Equipment and Machine Parts not Elsewhere Specified, Office Machines and ADP Machines, Telecomms and Sound Recording and Reproducing Apparatus and Equipment, Electric Machinery, Apparatus and Appliances and Electric Parts Thereof not Elsewhere Specified, Road Vehicles (Including Air Cushion Vehicles), Other Transport Equipment.

Imports

The value of goods imports for Wales was £24.1 billion for 2022, up £8.0 billion (49.3%) compared to 2021.

Compared to 2019 (pre-pandemic), goods import values to Wales were up £5.9 billion (32.3%) (r).

There was an increase in import values of goods from both EU countries of £2.1 billion (36.0%) up to £8.1 billion and non-EU countries of £5.8 billion (57.0%) up to £16.0 billion, compared with the previous year.

Import values from the EU accounted for 33.5% of the total Welsh import value, compared with 48.9% for the UK.

‘Mineral Fuels’ is still the largest import value category at £8.6 billion, accounting for 35.7% of total import values. The second largest category remains as ‘Machinery and Transport Equipment’ with £7.6 billion (31.4%) of total imports.

Within the ‘Mineral Fuels’ category, ‘Petroleum, Petroleum Products and Related Materials’ was the highest value product with £7.5 billion (30.9%) of Welsh imports. While this is a value increase of £4.0 billion (116.0%) compared with the previous year, the volume imported only increased by 28.0%.

Power Generating Machinery and Equipment’ was the largest value product within the ‘Machinery and transport Equipment category’ with £3.2 billion (13.3%) of Welsh exports. This is an increase of £1.5 billion (87.7%) compared with the previous year.

(r) Revised on 5 April 2023.

Notes

Because of changes to the way in which the data is collected, additional low 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 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.

Further information

The data above relates to international goods trade. Experimental statistics produced by the Office for National statistics suggest that service exports make up approximately 30% of total exports in Wales.

Main results are published quarterly, StatsWales will be updated with 2022 figures later next week. To note, Welsh Government Trade Analysts are considering stopping updating the following StatsWales Cubes with the completion of the 2022 dataset. However, this data will continue to be available from the International goods trade: interactive dashboard and the HMRC UK Trade Data website. If this will be an issue, or you would like to give us feedback, please contact stats.trade@gov.wales