Welsh exports: 2020

The provisional data in this report is for January to December 2020. The data for this period shows significant decreases in the value of goods exports for Wales. Trade in recent months has seen abnormally low values as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Data covers exports of goods and includes information by destination and product sector.

Main points

October to December 2020 (provisional)

Short term, quarterly changes can be volatile, although are presented here given the changes seen during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

• In October to December 2020, the value of goods exports in Wales was £3.4 billion. This is an increase of 7.8% compared to the previous quarter. Over the same period, the increase across the UK was 13.4%.
• All four nations saw increases in exports compared to the previous quarter. England saw the largest increase of 14.8%, Northern Ireland 4.6%, Wales 7.8% and Scotland 4.3%.
• Compared to the same quarter in the previous year (October to December 2019) the decrease in Wales was 20.6%, compared with a decrease of 7.5% across the UK.

Year ending December 2020

• The value of goods exports for Wales was £13.4 billion in the year ending December 2020, down £4.3 billion (24.4%) compared to the year ending December 2019.
• For the third time since comparable records began in 2013, the value of goods exports in all the UK countries and English regions have decreased compared to the year ending December 2019. Wales saw the largest decrease (24.4%) followed by the West Midlands (22.8%) and then Scotland (21.3%).
• The decreases in Wales and the UK as a whole are the largest since comparable records began.
• There was a decrease in exports to EU countries of £3.0 billion (27.5%) and a decrease in exports to non-EU countries of £1.4 billion (19.7%), compared with the previous year. Exports to the EU accounted for 58.1% of Welsh exports compared with 48.1% for the UK.
• Germany remained the top goods export destination for Wales (year ending December 2020). Goods exports to Germany accounted for 16.0% of exports. This proportion is down from 16.2% of exports in the previous year.
• Exports from Wales continue to be dominated by ‘Machinery and Transport Equipment’ which made up 46.2% of exports.
• 9 out of 10 product groups experienced decreases in the value of goods exports compared with the previous year. The largest decreases were in “Commodities not Classified Elsewhere” (down 43.7%) and “Minerals, Fuels, Lubricants etc.” (down 43.3%).
• The only product group that increased was “Animal and Vegetable Oils etc” (up 11.1%), however this product group only constitutes 0.02% of Welsh goods exports.

Further information

The figures are modelled estimates produced by HM Revenue and Customs and relate to goods exported to destinations outside of the UK. Exports of goods are allocated to UK countries and regions based on the proportion of employees in that area.

The figures do not include service exports. The latest experimental statistics produced by the Office for National statistics suggest that value of total service exports from Wales in 2018 was £7.4bn.

Main results and StatsWales data cubes are published quarterly and a report published every 12 months. StatsWales will be updated with this latest data by 31 March 2021.

Note

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