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 2019 the basic threshold for the commodities import was PLN 4 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 2019 equal 4.5% in imports and 2.0% 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. In 2019, the import decreased, both for the value and for the magnitude, whereas the export value increased slightly and the export volume dropped significatnyl.
The summary statistic for minerals and mineral commodities in Poland in 2019 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 14.95 billion m3 in 2018. Information covering 2019 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 2.02% in comparison with the previous year and amounted to PLN 56,323,891 thousand (EURO 13,105,933 thousand) in 2019. The imports value amounted to PLN 108,057,496 thousand (EURO 25,143,621 thousand), decreasing by 4.67%. The exports-imports turnover balance remained negative and was more gainful – it dropped by PLN 6,415,129 thousand (EURO 1,619,137 thousand) and amounted to PLN 51,733,604 thousand (EURO 12,037,688 thousand) – excluding natural gas. It was the first time for three years with the negative balance drop.
The most important, regarding the value of the raw materials exports in 2019, were: hard coal and coal derivatives (19.94% of the total export value), crude oil and petroleum products (15.95%), the raw materials and products of copper metallurgy (15,24%), precious metals (7.60%), iron and ferroalloys (6.91%), aluminum (5.69%), silver (4.96%), nitrogen and multi-component fertilizers (4.79%) and insulating materials (2.49%; 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 (58.81% of the total import value), hard coal and coal derivatives (7.23%), aluminum (6.61%), iron and ferroalloys (4.68%), raw materials and products of copper metallurgy (3.27%), nitrogen and multi-component fertilizers (2.38%), precious metals (1.83%), zinc (1.40%) and bitumen and natural asphalt (1.36%; Fig. 2).
The total quantity of the raw materials imports decreased by 4.95% in 2019 and amounted to 79,108 thousand tonnes, while the export quantity decreased by 9.10% and amounted to 29,646 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 2019
Figure 2. The structure of mineral raw materials imports in Poland in 2019
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 remains negative, the 2019 brought the significant improvement and the noted balance was positove. 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. In 2019, there was a slightly improvement noted.The balance for rock raw materials decreased in 2011 and in the 2017-2018 period, whereas the most positive tendency was recorded in the 2012-2013 periodn and then in the 2015-2016 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 in the 2012-2018 period and the slight improvement was noted in 2019. The balance for rocks – after a significant drop in 2011 – have been characterized by a quite stable level till 2017. The last two years were characterized by the negative tendency. The balance for fuels was at the quite even level in 2013-2016 and then dropped largely in 2017 and 2018. Such negative tendency was stopped in 2019. For chemical raw materials the balance was slightly positive in 2009 and then was followed by the visible negative tendency in the 2010-2016 period and in the 2019. 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 14.95 million tonnes in 2018) the balance would drop in 2019 to about -50.50 million tonnes. Accordingly, the total balance would decrease to about
-64.40 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: 2010-2012 and 2017-2018 (Fig. 3). The negative tendency was stopped in the 2013, 2015 and 2019. The lowest level was attained in 2018 - it amounted to PLN -58.15 billion. The quantity balance declined significantly in 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. The last year brought the slight improvement of the balance. Taking into account the magnitude of the gas import given by the Central Statistical Office of Poland (about 15 million tonnes) the balance would drop in 2019 to about -64.40 million tonnes.
The percentage contributions of the particular groups of raw materials to the value of exports and imports in 2018-2019 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 metals export (by 5.20%) and chemical import (by 0.80%). The highest decreases were observed within fuels export (by 5.50%) and fuels import (by 2.10%). Fuels are still the most important group regarding Polish imports (mainly due to the crude oil and petroleum products) and metals are the most important group regarding the export (mainly due to the copper).
Figure 5. The contribution of mineral raw materials to the value of Polish exports in 2018–2019
Figure 6. The contribution of mineral raw materials to the value of Polish imports in 2018–2019
Regarding the quantity of raw materials exports it can be seen that only metals export increased in 2019 – by 0.41 million tonnes. Fuels export dropped significantly – by 1.79 million tonnes, and rocks export decreased by 1.15 million tonnes (Fig. 7).
Figure 7. The magnitude of mineral raw materials exports in 2018–2019 (million tonnes)
There were imports growths within two raw materials groups in 2019. The biggest increase was recorded for chemicals import – by 0.48 million tonnes, while rocks import increased by 0.45 million tonnes. The drops were noted for fuels import and metals import – by 3.85 million tonnes and 1.19 million tonnes, respectively (Fig. 8).
Figure 8. The magnitude of mineral raw materials imports in 2018–2019 (million tonnes)
Tables given below show the comparison between export/import values (Table 4) and quantities (Table 5) in 2018–2019.
The total import value in 2019 decreased by 4.67% and export value grew by 2.02% in comparison with 2018. Regarding imports, the value grew significantly only for chemicals – by 10.32%; for rocks and metals it increased slightly – by 1.58% and 0.10%, respectively. There was a siginificant drop recorded for fuels – by 7.53%. The export value rose by 14.70% for metals, by 5.66% for chemicals and by 3.49% for chemicals. In the case of fuels it decreased by 10.26% (Table 4).
The total import magnitude in 2019 decreased by 4.95% and the export magnitude increased by 9.10% in comparison with 2018. The import quantity increased within two groups: - chemicals by 7.95%; - rocks by 4.81%. It decreased significantly for metals (by 10.18%) and fuels (by 6.86%). The export quantity increased only for metals – by 11.42%. For the three other groups there were drops recorded – the export magnitude decreased by 20.18% for rocks, by 9.64% for fuels and by 9.05% for chemicals (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 2019 bigger than export despite not including the data on natural gas. Therefore, the quantity balance was negative and amounted to 35,508 thousand tonnes. It got better by 2,064 thousand tonnes (5.49%) in comparison with 2018. The value balance remained definitely negative and amounted to PLN 51,443,678 thousand. The balance improved by PLN 3,457,237 thousand (6.30%). It was the first time for three years with the balance improvement (in 2018 it enlarged by PLN 16,514,515 thousand (43.02%). 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 2019 bigger than export and such difference was for the second consecutive year slightly smaller than in the previous year. Despite the negative proportion between the import and the export volume, and thanks to the positive economic situation (the import of more expensive raw materials together with the export of the cheaper ones), till 2016 the value balance was still positive. In the two following years the balance recorded the negative value – in 2017 it got worse in comparison with the previous year by PLN 1,801,291 thousand and amounted to PLN 1,342 203 thousand, whereas in 2018 it remained at the similar level and was equal PLN 1,252,588 thousand (the improvement by PLN 89,615 thousand that is by 6.68%). In 2019, there was the significant improvement noted and the balance was back positive – it amounted to PLN 2,061,470 thousand and got better by PLN 3,314,058 thousand in comparison with 2018.
- Chemicals – similarly to the two groups mentioned above the import amount exceeded the export magnitude in 2019. Therefore, the quantity balance remained negative (2,200 thousand tonnes) and enlarged by 907 thousand tonnes (70.15%). The import value increased by PLN 631,452 thousand (10.32%), whereas the export value increased by PLN 162,196 thousand (3.49%). The value balance remained negative and enlarged in comparison with 2018 – it amounted to PLN 1,944,747 thousand.
- Rocks – the quantity balance was negative and got significantly worse than in 2018 (by 1,600 thousand tonnes – 43.84%). It amounted to 5,250 thousand tonnes. Nevertheless, the value balance got better in comparison with 2018 by PLN 113,090 thousand due to the more significant growth of the export value (by PLN 168,392 thousand – that is by 5.66%) than that of the import value (only by PLN 55,302 thousand – that is by 1.58%).
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 13,322,806 thousand, which constituted 23.65% 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 6,317,927 thousand – 11.22%) and Netherlands (PLN 3,454,409 thousand – 6.13%; Fig. 9). These three items on the list of the export directions have not changed in comparison with 2018. The total export value to these three countries amounted to PLN 23,095,141 thousand (41.00% of the total export value).
Figure 9. The Polish raw materials export in 2019, by countries
The major part of the mineral raw materials imports in 2019 came from Russia. The import value was PLN 43,930,247 thousand, which constituted 40.65% of the total mineral raw materials imports value in Poland. Other important countries were Germany (PLN 8,447,008 thousand – 7.82%) and Saudi Arabia (PLN 6,881,976 thousand – 6.37%; Fig. 10). The first two items on the list of the import directions have not changed in comparison with 2018, whereas Saudi Arabia took the place occupied in 2018 by Kazakhstan. The total import value from these three countries amounted to PLN 59,259,232 thousand (54.84% 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 2019, by countries
Prepared by: Marcin Tymiński
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Table 1a/1b. Mineral raw materials exports and imports in 2019 (value in PLN and in EURO)