Login
Mineral resources of Poland> Exports and imports of mineral raw materials
English SelectedChange language to Polish
  
    2020     
    2019     
    2018     
    2017     
    2016     
    2015     
    2014     
    2013     
    2012     

Export and import of mineral raw materials

The data source

The information on the trade turnover in exports and imports of mineral raw materials in Poland was prepared on the basis of data collected by the Polish Custom Service. Given information is actual data coming from the custom declarations and INTRASTAT declarations. The data do not include the upward adjustments from the entities which were off the hook to report in the INTRASTAT system and which have not fulfilled the obligation within the required time limit. The custom declarations apply in the trade in goods carried out by European Union Member States with third countries which are not EU Member States. Such declarations are the basis for the EU statistical system EKSTRASTAT. The INTRASTAT system, however, is the statistical system containing the trade between EU Member States and is obligatory since the 1st January 1993 on the European Single Market. The INTRASTAT declarations have to be filled when the commodities value exceeds the certain threshold – the threshold values are every year defined by the President of Statistics Poland and published in the statistical survey program introduced in the form of the Prime Minister regulation. In 2018 the basic threshold for the commodities import was PLN 3 million, whereas for the export it was PLN 2 million. The Polish Custom Service informed that the underestimation of the trade turnover data not exceeding the mentioned above limits was in 2018 equal 4.3% in imports and 2.1% in exports.

The integrated Tariff of the European Union - TARIC

In relation to the previous editions of “The balance…” the list of presented commodities is upgraded according to the Polish Custom Service tabulations. These tabulations are based on the integrated Tariff of the European Union – TARIC. The legal base of the TARIC is Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 of 23 July 1987 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff (Official Journal L 256, 07/09/1987). The Regulation was amended by Council Regulation (EEC) No 1006/2011 of 27 September 2011 changing the Annex I to the Regulation No 2658/87 (Official Journal L 282, 28/10/2011).

The TARIC is based on the Combined Nomenclature (CN) which is set up to meet the requirements both of the Common Custom Tariff (CCT) and of the EU’s external trade statistics. The CN is also used in intra-EU trade statistics. The CN was established by Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff. Every year Annex I to the basic CN Regulation (No 2658/87) is updated and published as a stand-alone Regulation in the EU’s Official Journal (L series). The CN contains about 10,000 items and is the 8-digit code system – it is a further development (with special EU-specific subdivisions) of the World Customs Organization’s Harmonized System Nomenclature (HS). On the 6-digit level the CN is analogous to the HS. The HS was established by the International Convention on the Harmonized System prepared under the auspices of World Customs Organization in Brussels of 14 June 1983 (Official Journal No 11, pos. 62, 1997).

The TARIC is a multilingual database integrating all measures relating to EU customs tariff, commercial and agricultural legislation. The TARIC is updated and maintained daily in almost every of the EU languages. The TARIC data are transmitted daily via an electronic network to the Member States which guarantee immediate and correct information for the national administrations of the Member States, who use this data mainly to feed their national systems for customs clearance, with the goal of maximizing automatic customs clearance.

The TARIC is not legally binding, nevertheless it’s codes have to be used during the custom clearance and in statistics according to the Article 5 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2658/87 amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 254/2000 (Official Journal of 3/02/2000).

In Poland, the TARIC database is carried out by the Customs Department of the Ministry of Finance as a part of the Integrated Customs Tariff Information System – ISZTAR 3. It provides detailed information concerning the commodity turnover to the Customs Administration and to all interested in that issue. Both the EU data coming from the TARIC system and the Polish data (VAT and excise taxes), as well as some national non-tariff measures not integrated in the TARIC database, are presented in the browser. Similarly to the TARIC, the ISZTAR is not legally binding, nevertheless it’s codes have to be used during the custom clearance and in statistics.

The tendencies of the mineral raw materials turnover in Poland

The accession to the European Union caused substantial changes in the mineral raw materials turnover in Poland – in 2004 and in the following years. The significant growths of exports and imports value were recorded in 2006 with the magnitude remaining at the similar level as in 2004-2005. Next two years (2007-2008) brought the increase in the import value and volume; the export magnitude decreased while the export value after the drop in 2007 slightly increased in 2008. Due to the worldwide economic crises in 2009 there were drops recorded both for imports and exports – regarding the value and the amount. In 2010 the tendency reversed and growths were noted. In the next two years (2011-2012) such tendency remained regarding the value of the import and the export, whereas the import magnitude grew in 2011, decreased in 2012, and the export volume dropped in 2011 and then increased in 2012. In 2013 the value decreased both for the import and export with the import magnitude drop and the export magnitude increase. In 2014-2015 the value of raw materials turnover dropped. The turnover amount in 2014 decreased for export and increased for import and in 2015 it grew for both turnover aspects. In 2016 the import and export value got better, whereas the import volume grew and the export magnitude decreased. The significant import and the slight export growth were noted in 2017 with the import magnitude growth and the slight export magnitude decline. The similar changes took place in 2018.

The summary statistic for minerals and mineral commodities in Poland in 2018 was presented within four groups: fuels, metals, chemicals and rocks. The magnitude and the value for the total of imports-exports as well as for the particular groups of raw materials are presented in Table 1a/1b. The export/import values are presented both in PLN and EURO.

The data on the mineral raw materials turnover do not cover natural gas. The 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. The natural gas export from Poland amounts only to dozens million m3 annually and the lack of data does not affect the total balance of the raw materials turnover. The lack of data on the natural gas import to Poland brings down the total amount and the value of raw materials brought to Poland. The data officially presented by the Central Statistical Office of Poland cover only the magnitude of natural gas imported by Poland but without publishing the imports directions. Therefore, such data are not included in this study. Nevertheless, it should be noted that in analyzed period natural gas import increased from 9-10 billion m3 in 2009-2010 to about 15.44 billion m3 in 2017. Information covering 2018 will be issued later. Therefore, it is worth mentioning that the balance of mineral raw materials turnover is higher than the balance taking into account these figures.

The exports and imports of the mineral raw materials in 2018 – the comparison with the previous years

The total raw materials export value increased by 9.77% in comparison with the previous year and amounted to PLN 55,206,742 thousand (EURO 12,974,169 thousand) in 2018. The imports value amounted to PLN 113,355,475 thousand (EURO 26,630,994 thousand), increasing substantially – by 23.62%. The exports-imports turnover balance remained negative and was much more adverse – it enlarged by 40.46% (PLN 16,748,519 thousand, EURO 3,964,611 thousand) and amounted to PLN 58,148,733 thousand (EURO 13,656,825 thousand) – excluding natural gas. It was the second consecutive year with the negative balance growth.

The most important, regarding the value of the raw materials exports in 2018, were: hard coal and coal derivatives (21.08% of the total export value), crude oil and petroleum products (20.34%), the raw materials and products of copper metallurgy (13.29%), iron and ferroalloys (7.09%), aluminum (6.58%), precious metals (4.56%), nitrogen and multi-component fertilizers (4.39%), silver (3.80%) and insulating materials (2.36%; Fig. 1).

The highest values of imports, causing negative balance of the turnover value, related mainly to the such raw materials as: crude oil and petroleum products (60.37% of the total import value), hard coal and coal derivatives (7.93%), aluminum (7.08%), iron and ferroalloys (4.83%), raw materials and products of copper metallurgy (2.58%), nitrogen and multi-component fertilizers (1.89%), zinc (1.45%), precious metals (1.23%) and potassium raw materials (1.02%; Fig. 2).

The total quantity of the raw materials imports increased by 15.44% in 2018 and amounted to 83,228 thousand tonnes, while the export quantity decreased by 1.75% and amounted to 32,618 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 2018
Figure 2. The structure of mineral raw materials imports in Poland in 2018

Table 2 shows values of an 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 remained positive till 2016. Nevertheless, it should be noted that 2016 was the fourth consecutive year with the declining balance for this group. In the 2017-2018 period the balance got significantly worse and nowadays remains negative. For three remaining raw material groups the balance has been clearly negative in the analized period. Chemical raw materials are characterized by the declining tendency, especially in 2009-2016; which was stopped only in 2017. For fuels the positive tendency which lasted in the 2015-2016 period, was replaced by the twice balance drop till 2018. The balance for rock raw materials was decreasing in 2010-2011, this negative trend has been stopped in the five following years and then it again decreased in the 2017-2018 period.

Table 3 shows the imports-exports quantity balance of particular mineral raw materials groups in last 10 years.

The turnover balance within fuels, metals and rocks has been clearly negative in the whole analyzed period. In the case of metallic raw materials the negative tendency has been occurring since 2012, the balance for rocks – after significant drops in 2008-2012 – have been characterized by a quite stable level in the last few years. The balance for fuels was at the quite even level in 2013-2016 and then dropped largely in 2017 and 2018. For chemical raw materials the balance was slightly positive in 2009 and then was followed by the visible negative tendency in the next seven years. Considering fuels, it should be noted that taking into account the magnitude of the natural gas import given by the Central Statistical Office of Poland (about 15.4 million tonnes in 2017) the balance would drop in 2018 to about -53 million tonnes. Accordingly, the total balance would decrease to about -66 million tonnes.

The variation of the imports–exports balance by the value and the quantity for the last 10 years is shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4.

Figure 3. The balance of Polish imports and exports in terms of mineral raw materials value (PLN billion)
Figure 4. The balance of Polish imports and exports in terms of mineral raw materials quantity (million tonnes)

The value balance decreased substantially in two periods: 2010-2011 and 2017-2018 (Fig. 3). The negative tendency was stopped in 2012-2013 and 2015. The lowest level was attained in 2018 - it amounted to PLN -58.15 billion. The quantity balance declined significantly in 2010-2011 (Fig. 4). There was a meaningful improvement of the balance in 2012-2013 when it amounted to -23.31 million tonnes. In 2014-2018 the balance decreased to the level of about -51 million tonnes. Taking into account the magnitude of the gas import given by the Central Statistical Office of Poland (about 15.4 million tonnes) the balance would drop in 2018 to about -66 million tonnes.

The percentage contributions of the particular groups of raw materials to the value of exports and imports in 2017-2018 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 import (by 5.3%) and fuels export (by 2.7%). The highest decreases were observed within metals import (by 4.2%) and metals export (by 2.4%). Fuels are still the most important group regarding Polish imports (mainly due to the crude oil and petroleum products) and export (mainly due to the petroleum products and coke and semi-coke).

Figure 5. The contribution of mineral raw materials to the value of Polish exports in 2017–2018
Figure 6. The contribution of mineral raw materials to the value of Polish imports in 2017–2018

Regarding the quantity of raw materials exports it can be seen that rocks export increased in 2018 – by 0.92 million tonnes, whereas metals export grew by 0.38 million tonnes. Fuels export dropped significantly – by 1.47 million tonnes, and chemical export decreased by 0.43 million tonnes (Fig. 7).

Figure 7. The magnitude of mineral raw materials exports in 2017–2018 (million tonnes)

There were imports growths within three raw materials groups in 2018. The biggest increase was recorded for fuels import – by 8.88 million tonnes, while rocks import increased by 2.06 million tonnes and metals import by 0.35 million tonnes. The only drop was noted forchemicals import – by 0.17 million tonnes (Fig. 8).

Figure 8. The magnitude of mineral raw materials imports in 2017–2018 (million tonnes)

Tables given below show the comparison between export/import values (Table 4) and quantities (Table 5) in 2017–2018.

The total import value in 2018 increased by 23.62% and export value by 9.77% in comparison with 2017. Regarding imports, the value grew significantly for two groups: - fuels by 33.64%; - rocks by 22.05%. There were also slightly increases - for metals by 3.30% and for chemicals by 3.05%. The export value rose by 16.74% for fuels, by 13.56% for rocks, by 3.92% for metals and by 2.96% for chemicals (Table 4).

The total import magnitude in 2018 increased by 15.44% and the export magnitude decreased by 1.75% in comparison with 2017. The import quantity increased within three groups: - rocks by 28.26%; - fuels by 18.81%; - metals by 3.09%. It decreased for chemicals by 2.74%. The export quantity increased for rocks – by 19.25%, and for metals – by 11.84%. For the two other groups there were drops recorded – the export magnitude decreased by 8.30% for chemicals and by 7.34% for fuels (Table 5).

The quantitative and valuable relations of exports and imports within particular mineral raw materials groups were as follows:

  • Fuels – the quantity of the raw materials import was in 2018 bigger than export despite not including the data on natural gas. Therefore, the quantity balance was negative and amounted to 37,572 thousand tonnes. It got worse by 10,352 thousand tonnes (38.03%) in comparison with 2017. The value balance remained definitely negative and amounted to PLN 54,900,915 thousand. The balance got worse by PLN 16,514,515 thousand (43.02%). It was the second year of the negative tendency – in 2017 it enlarged by PLN 12,687,113 thousand (49.37%). Taking into account the natural gas import, the total import value would be much higher and therefore the balance much more negative.
  • Metals – the quantity of the raw materials import was in 2018 bigger than export and such difference was slightly smaller than in 2017. The quantity balance was negative and equal 8,095 thousand tonnes (smaller by 41 thousand tonnes – 0.50% in comparison with 2017). Despite such proportion, two years ago (in 2016) the positive value balance was noted – due to the beneficial price situation (the more expensive metals were being sold and the cheaper ones bought by Poland). Still in 2016 the balance amounted to PLN 459,088 thousand. However in 2017 the value balance for the first time dropped to the negative one – it got worse in comparison with 2016 by PLN 1,801,291 thousand and amounted to PLN 1,342,203 thousand. In 2018 the balance remained at the similar level and amounted to PLN 1,252,588 thousand (improved by PLN 89,615 thousand – 6.68%).
  • Chemicals – similarly to the two groups mentioned above the import amount exceeded the export magnitude in 2018. Therefore, the quantity balance remained negative (1,293 thousand tonnes) and enlarged by 260 thousand tonnes (25.17%). The import value increased by PLN 180,874 thousand (3.05%), whereas the export value increased by PLN 133,408 thousand (2.96%). The value balance remained negative and enlarged in comparison with 2017 – it amounted to PLN 1,428,025 thousand.
  • Rocks – the quantity balance was negative and got significantly worse than in 2017 (by 1,148 thousand tonnes – 45.88%). It amounted to 3,650 thousand tonnes. The value balance remained negative and enlarged more than twice in comparison with 2017 (213.37%) - the export value increased by PLN 354,933 thousand (13.56%) whereas the import value grew by PLN 631,086 thousand (22.05%). The balance amounted to PLN 519,739 thousand.

The main partners of the raw materials exports and imports

Directions of Polish export and import of mineral raw materials (divided into 4 main groups) are presented in Table 6. There were 25 most important countries selected (according to import/export value).

Regarding the exports directions, the highest value – similarly to the previous years – was reached by the raw materials export to Germany. It amounted to PLN 12,815,230 thousand, which constituted 23.21% of the total Polish raw materials exports value. Other important countries with the significant contribution to the total Polish raw materials exports value were: Czech Republic (PLN 6,100,504 thousand – 11.05%) and Netherlands (PLN 4,309,674 thousand – 7.81%) (Fig. 9). These three items on the list of the export directions have not changed in comparison with 2017. The total export value to these three countries amounted to PLN 23,225,408 thousand (42.07% of the total export value).

Figure 9. The Polish raw materials export in 2018, by countries

The major part of the mineral raw materials imports in 2018 came from Russia. The import value was PLN 50,619,996 thousand, which constituted 44.66% of the total mineral raw materials imports value in Poland. Other important countries were Germany (PLN 9,380,896 thousand – 8.28%) and Kazakhstan (PLN 6,346,505 thousand – 5.60%) (Fig. 10). The first two items on the list of the import directions have not changed in comparison with 2017, whereas Kazakhstan took the place occupied in 2017 by Norway. The total import value from these three countries amounted to PLN 66,347,397 thousand (58.53% of the total import value).

There are quantities and values of import and export of mineral raw materials and selected semi-finished products presented in the Table 7.

Figure 10. Polish raw materials import in 2018, by countries

Prepared by: Marcin Tymiński