MOSCOW (MRC) -- The euro zone's trade surplus with the rest of the world declined in July from a year earlier, data released by the European Union's statistics office showed today, as imports grew at a faster rate than exports, said RTE.
Eurostat said the euro zone's unadjusted trade surplus with the rest of the world fell to EUR20.7 billion in July from EUR26.8 billion the same month last year.
However, the surplus for the first seven months of 2021 was comfortably higher, at EUR122.4 billion from EUR112.8 billion the same time last year. Adjusted for seasonal swings, the euro zone trade surplus increased to EUR13.4 billion in July from EUR11.9 billion in June, as exports rose 1% on the month while imports were only 0.3% higher.
For the European Union as a whole, the non-seasonally adjusted data showed a decline in the trade surplus in both July and in the January to July period from a year earlier. The bloc is a major importer of oil and other raw materials and a major exporter of chemicals, machinery and vehicles.
The European Union's trade deficit with China increased, while its surplus with the US and Britain expanded in the first seven months of 2021. To Britain, which has left the bloc, exports rose by 6.2% and imports fell by 17.1%, although Eurostat has calculated trade with Britain differently since the start of the year. Goods that had an origin outside Britain are now treated as imports from that country rather than from Britain.
As it was written earlier, EU chemicals trade flow growth in and out of the bloc in the first half of 2021 undershot the levels seen in the wider manufacturing sector compared with January-June last year. At EUR217.7bn and EUR128.6bn, EU chemicals exports and imports rose by 3% and 5.3% respectively, compared with double-digit percentage-point growth, compared with 13.5% and 11.9% for overall manufactured goods trade flows.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
MRC