Exports and imports of mineral raw materials
Information on the trade turnover in exports and imports of raw materials in Poland was prepared on the basis of data collected by Polish Custom Service. These data come from special custom statements - SAD (in case of the trade turnover by European Union countries to/from non-EU countries) and INTRASTAT (in case of export and import within EU). Information is prepared according to Combined Nomenclature (CN), which is deeply connected with the international classification system named Harmonized System - HS. Combined Nomenclature is the obligatory one in Polish Customs Tariff since 1991. The Combined Nomenclature is the part of the Integrated Tariff of the European Communities (TARIC) which was established by virtue of Article 2 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff. Regulation (EC) No 1789/2003 of 11 October 2003 amended the Regulation mentioned above. The Regulation established in 2003 is the obligatory one in Poland since the 1st of May 2004.
In 2013 summary statistic for minerals and mineral commodities in Poland was presented in four groups: fuels, metals, chemicals and rocks. The total magnitude and value of imports-exports of the raw materials as well as for the particular groups of raw materials are presented in Table 1.
The data on raw materials turnover in 2006-2013 do not cover natural gas. Data on natural gas export and import are not available since 2006 due to the confidentiality of the information – according to the Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on Community statistics relating to the trading of goods between Member States and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3330/91. Natural gas export in Poland amounts only to dozens million m3 annually and the lack of data does not affect the total balance of raw materials turnover. The lack of data on natural gas import to Poland brings down the total amount and value of raw materials brought to Poland. Therefore, the balance of mineral raw materials turnover is higher than the balance taking into account these figures.
The total value of the raw materials exports decreased by 5.03 % in comparison with the previous year and amounted to PLN 55,060 million (USD 17,532 million) in 2013. The imports value amounted to PLN 96,618 million (USD 30,708 million) and was lower than in 2012 by 8.74 %. The exports-imports turnover balance was still negative and amounted to PLN 41,558 million (USD 13,176 million) in 2013 (excluding natural gas).
The most important, regarding the value of the raw materials exports in 2013, were: petroleum products (29.55 % of the total import value), hard coal and coal derivatives (17.50 %), raw materials and products of copper metallurgy (16.57 %), iron and ferroalloys (6.58 %), silver (5.12 %), nitrogen and multi-component fertilizers (3.96 %), aluminum (3.63 %) and zinc (1.80 %).
The highest values of imports, causing negative balance of the turnover value, related to such raw materials as: crude oil (58.81 % of the total import value), petroleum products (12.10 %), iron and ferroalloys (4.38 %), aluminum (4.30 %), hard coal and coal derivatives (4.29 %), raw materials and products of copper metallurgy (2.76 %), nitrogen and multi-component fertilizers (1.80 %), potassium raw materials (1.20 %) and silica (0.75 %).
The total quantity of the raw materials imports decreased (by 7.34 %) in 2013 and amounted to 59,852 thousand tonnes, while the export quantity significantly increased (by 17.15 %) and amounted to 36,540 thousand tonnes.
Figures 1 and 2 show the structure of exports and imports in Poland, i.e. total values and shares of various groups of commodities in the international turnover.
Figure 1. The structure of mineral raw materials exports in Poland in 2013
Figure 2. The structure of mineral raw materials imports in Poland in 2013
Table 2 shows values of imports-exports balance of particular mineral raw materials groups in last 10 years.
It can be seen that only for metallic raw materials the turnover balance remains positive, while for other raw material groups the balance is clearly negative (especially for fuels).
Table 3 shows imports-exports balance quantity of particular mineral raw materials groups in last 10 years.
The turnover balance within fuels, metals and rocks has been negative since 2004, while for chemical raw materials the balance remained slightly positive till 2009 and then dropped significantly in the next four years.
The variation of the imports-exports balance by value and quantity for the last 10 years is shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4. Due to the lack of data on natural gas there are two versions of the graph presented on each figure – first reflecting natural gas (till 2005) and the second one excluding natural gas.
Figure 3. Balance of Polish imports and exports in terms of mineral raw materials value (PLN billion)
Figure 4. Balance of Polish imports and exports in terms of mineral raw materials quantity (million tonnes)
The value balance decreased substantially till 2008 and in 2010-2011. It amounted to PLN -48.82 billion in 2012 and improved significantly in 2013 – amounted to PLN -41.56 billion. The quantity balance was quite constant in 2004-2005 and then has been declining till 2008 and in 2010-2011. There was significant improvement of the balance in last two years – in 2013 it amounted to -23.31 million tonnes.
The percentage contributions of the particular groups of raw materials to the value of exports and imports in 2012-2013 are presented in Figures 5 and 6. The highest increase in the contribution to the turnover value with respect to the previous year took place in fuels export (by 3.8 %) and metals import (by 1.6 %). The highest decreases were observed within metals export (by 3.6 %) and fuels import (by 2.0 %). Fuels are still the most important group especially in Polish imports (due to the crude oil and petroleum products) but they are also contributing strongly in exports value (mainly thanks to the petroleum products and hard coal).
Figure 5. Contribution of mineral raw materials to the value of Polish exports in 2012-2013
Figure 6. Contribution of mineral raw materials to the value of Polish imports in 2012-2013
Regarding quantity of raw materials exports it can be seen that fuels export increased significantly in 2013 (by 4.78 million tonnes). Rock and metallic raw materials exports magnitude rose – by 0.85 million tonnes and 0.09 million tonnes respectively. Chemical raw materials export decreased by 0.37 million tonnes in 2013 (Figure 7).
Figure 7. Magnitude of mineral raw materials exports in 2012-2013 (million tonnes)
Rocks imports dropped significantly in 2013 (by 4.08 million tonnes) while fuels import decreased by only 1.35 million tonnes. There was significant growth observed within chemical raw materials group – by 0.44 million tonnes, while metals import increased by 0.25 million tonnes (Figure 8).
Figure 8. Magnitude of mineral raw materials imports in 2012-2013 (million tonnes)
Tables given below show the comparison between export/import values (Table 4) and quantities (Table 5) in 2012-2013.
Total import value in 2013 decreased by 8.74 % and export value by 5.03 % in comparison with 2012. The import value slightly increased in metal and chemical groups (by 1.64 % and 0.39 % respectively) while there were significant drops observed within fuels and rocks – by 11.00 % and 10.93 % respectively. Export value rose by 9.00 % for rocks and by 2.47 % for fuels, whereas there were significant drops noted for chemicals (by 14.80 %) and metals (by 13.33 %).
Total import magnitude in 2013 decreased by 7.34 % and export increased by 17.15 % in comparison with 2012. The import quantity increased within chemical raw materials (by 10.00 %) and metals (by 2.72 %). There were significant drops in two other groups - by 38.53 % within rocks and by 3.32 % within fuels. The export quantity increased within three groups of mineral raw materials – by 25.84 % (rocks), 23.43 % (fuels) and 2.82 % (metals). Chemical raw materials export decreased by 8.58 %.
Directions of Polish export and import of mineral raw materials (divided into 4 main groups) are presented in Table 6. There where 25 most important countries selected (according to import/export value).
Regarding the exports directions, the highest value was reached by raw materials export to Germany. The export value to this country amounted to PLN 14,601 million, which constituted 26.52 % of the total Polish raw materials exports value. Other important countries with significant contribution to the total Polish raw materials exports value were Czech Republic (8.48 %) and Netherlands (6.91 %) (Figure 9). The total export value to these three countries amounted to PLN 23,078 million (41.91 % of the total export value).
Figure 9. Polish raw materials export in 2013, by countries
The major part of the mineral raw materials imports in 2013 came from Russia. The import value was PLN 61,899 million, which constitutes 64.07 % of the total mineral raw materials imports value in Poland. Other important countries were Germany (6.39 %) and Norway (3.69 %) (Figure 10). The total import value from these three countries amounted to PLN 71,639 million (74.15 % of the total import value).
Figure 10. Polish raw materials import in 2013, by countries
Prepared by: Marcin Tymiński
Table 1. Mineral raw materials imports and exports in 2013.