Trade lanes

What Germany buys, and from whom.

Germany imported USD 1.1tn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, down 5 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 52 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.

Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.

By source

The twenty countries Germany imports most from.

A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what Germany is best placed to make itself, see Made here: Germany.

  1. 1

    China

    Share of Germany's imports13 per cent
    Changedown 12 per cent on 2022
    USD 146bnin 2024
  2. 2

    Poland

    Share of Germany's imports8 per cent
    Changeup 3 per cent on 2022
    USD 84bnin 2024
  3. 3

    Czech Republic

    Share of Germany's imports6 per cent
    Changeup 10 per cent on 2022
    USD 69bnin 2024
  4. 4

    France

    Share of Germany's imports6 per cent
    Changelevel with 2022
    USD 66bnin 2024
  5. 5

    Netherlands

    Share of Germany's imports6 per cent
    Changedown 13 per cent on 2022
    USD 64bnin 2024
  6. 6

    Italy

    Share of Germany's imports6 per cent
    Changedown 8 per cent on 2022
    USD 64bnin 2024
  7. 7

    United States

    Share of Germany's imports6 per cent
    Changeup 7 per cent on 2022
    USD 61bnin 2024
  8. 8

    Austria

    Share of Germany's imports5 per cent
    Changeup 1 per cent on 2022
    USD 50bnin 2024
  9. 9

    Switzerland

    Share of Germany's imports4 per cent
    Changeup 4 per cent on 2022
    USD 44bnin 2024
  10. 10

    Hungary

    Share of Germany's imports3 per cent
    Changeup 7 per cent on 2022
    USD 36bnin 2024
  11. 11

    Belgium

    Share of Germany's imports3 per cent
    Changedown 24 per cent on 2022
    USD 36bnin 2024
  12. 12

    Spain

    Share of Germany's imports3 per cent
    Changeup 1 per cent on 2022
    USD 32bnin 2024
  13. 13

    United Kingdom

    Share of Germany's imports3 per cent
    Changeup 1 per cent on 2022
    USD 32bnin 2024
  14. 14

    Slovakia

    Share of Germany's imports2 per cent
    Changeup 8 per cent on 2022
    USD 23bnin 2024
  15. 15

    Ireland

    Share of Germany's imports2 per cent
    Changedown 17 per cent on 2022
    USD 23bnin 2024
  16. 16

    Romania

    Share of Germany's imports2 per cent
    Changeup 5 per cent on 2022
    USD 19bnin 2024
  17. 17

    Japan

    Share of Germany's imports2 per cent
    Changedown 16 per cent on 2022
    USD 19bnin 2024
  18. 18

    Turkey

    Share of Germany's imports2 per cent
    Changedown 4 per cent on 2022
    USD 19bnin 2024
  19. 19

    Sweden

    Share of Germany's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 1 per cent on 2022
    USD 16bnin 2024
  20. 20

    Vietnam

    Share of Germany's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 11 per cent on 2022
    USD 14bnin 2024
What this record says

What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.

Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.

Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to Germany with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.

Share is China's part of everything Germany imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.

Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.

What it does not say

A record of trade, not a shopping list.

What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.

Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.