Most of us are familiar with some Spanish export products and at least a few brand names. In the world market, Spain is well known for its agricultural products, including wines, but there is much more to Spanish exports. Some of its highest-value sectors are transportation, utilities, banking, and fashion-wear. In this article we’ll examine Spanish trade, and get an overview of the most important exports and imports of products by value. We will also have a look at the country’s main trading partners. Let’s get started!
In the past, Find Your Spain has written about The size of the Spanish economy. This time we will delve a little further into the subject and take a closer look at the country’s exports and imports. (We wrote a related article on Spain’s trade with Ukraine and Russia following outbreak of war that you might also find interesting.) Our main source of information for this post is OEC.world (The Observatory for Economic Complexity). The OEC website offers a vast amount of data and information, if you would like to explore the topic further.
A little background
The Spanish economy has grown and developed at a fast pace over the past decades as the country transitioned from dictatorship to democracy.
A quote from the US Library of Congress’ website Countrystudies sums up the amazing growth and development of the Spanish economy over the past six decades: “Spain was a latecomer to economic and industrial modernization. Early in the twentieth century, economic progress was made in fitful starts, but in the 1960s the process of renewal began in earnest. Before then, the Spanish economy was one of the most underdeveloped in Western Europe, and it was sometimes characterized as a Third World economy. A spectacular period of growth and modernization during the 1960s and the early 1970s profoundly transformed the Spanish economy, bringing it much closer to the West European consumer society prototype.”
Admittedly, there were setbacks during the period. For example, the oil crises of the 70s proved challenging for Spain’s economy. In addition, Spain underwent a turbulent transition to democracy starting in 1978 followed by major reform work, before the country became a member of the European Union (then known as the European Community or EC) on 1 January of 1986.
The EC/EU membership required further societal restructuring but provided for free flow of products, manpower and capital and made available funding for major modern infrastructure projects such as the construction of highways. Spain’s continued efforts began paying off in in earnest in the late 80s. Since then, the growth and development of the Spanish economy has picked up speed, although the country has struggled with periods of high unemployment.
Over a relatively short period of time, Spain has become a modern and diversified economy as you will see below.
Exports: Products, Sectors and Trade Partners
In 2020, Spain’s exports totaled about $298 billion which according to OEC makes the country the world’s 17th largest exporter. Spain’s exports are diverse and represent a multitude of sectors as you would expect in a developed economy.
By value, the top exported products from Spain are motor vehicles ($32B), Packaged Medicaments ($11.6B), Vehicle Parts ($9.14B), Refined Petroleum ($7.77B), and Pork ($6.46B).
We encourage you to have a look at the to the OEC website here: www.OEC.world (choose Spain and scroll down the page). Scroll down the page until you find Yearly Trade on your left. To switch between exports and imports, just click on the desired button.
The single largest export sector is transportation. The category includes motor vehicles, airplanes, railroad cars, tractors, and locomotives, motorcycles, fishing vessels and more as well as related parts. The Transportation category constitutes about 19 percent of Spain’s total exports adding up to about $57 billion. In fact, Spain’s automotive industry is a major European car manufacturer, second only to Germany. Many European and some American vehicle brands are represented locally, and major manufacturing facilities are located primarily in the northern parts of the country.
The second most valuable export category is Machinery. Exports of machines and machine parts have a total value of $39 billion and constitute about 13 percent of Spanish exports. Metal exports also play an important role in the Spanish economy, with exports valued at $24 billion annually or about eight percent of total exports. Although the value of textile and footwear products has dropped over the past few decades, the sector remains important to Spain’s employment and exports about $18 billion worth of goods equal to around six percent of the total.
Spanish exports are mostly destined for Europe: Over 71 percent to be precise. Its biggest European destination countries are France ($47.6B), Germany ($34B), Portugal ($23.8B), Italy ($22.8B), and the United Kingdom ($18.9B).
It might be worth noting that despite Spain’s traditionally strong links with the South and Central Americas, exports to these areas constitute a very limited proportion of total exports. Total exports to the Americas, including the USA and Canada, only amount to about 10 percent or some $30 billion (ca. $22 billion from North & Central America and approx. $8 billion to South America).
Asia, including Turkey and the Middle East, make up a total of 12 percent or about $35 billion of the products that Spain sells to other countries. And trade with African countries is even more limited: Despite the proximity of the continent’s northwestern parts, Africa, only receives approx. six percent (or $18 billion) of total Spanish exports.
The agricultural sector is organized into several subcategories that include vegetable products, foodstuffs, animal products and animal & vegetable bi-products. The total for all of these groups amounts to an impressive 20 percent of total Spanish exports with an estimated value of $61 billion. Vegetable products alone make up approximately $22 billion and 7 percent of total exports. Foodstuff (a category which includes wines) is valued at about $18 billion and constitutes six percent of the total while Animal products, which includes the world-famous Iberico hams, has a total export value of around $15 billion annually and constitutes some five percent of total exports. Animal and vegetable bi-products, such as various oils and fats (olive oil, soybean oil, palm oil, margarine and more) make up the rest of the Agriculture sector. So, if your first association to Spanish exports was food and beverages, you were certainly right in thinking that agricultural products are important to Spain’s economy.
The category Other industries include wood products, precious metals, arts and antiquities (where paintings constitute the largest part along with sculptures). Spain also has revenues from weapons exports. However, all of the above mentioned sectors made up very small proportions of total exports in 2020.
Each product category is color coded and equipped with a symbol. For an explanation of what these mean, see below.
Imports: Products, Sectors and Trade Partners
In 2020, Spain imported about $315 billion worth of goods which according to OEC makes it the world’s 15th biggest trade destination. Spain recorded a $17 billion goods trade deficit that year with exports adding up to $298 billion as stated above.
The top single imported products by value to Spain are Crude oil Petroleum ($15.8B), Cars ($13.9B), Vehicle Parts ($11B), Packaged Medicaments ($10.7B), and Petroleum Gas ($5.5B).
Imports are more diversified than exports with the value of imports more evenly split among sectors.
The largest sectors of imported goods were machines and machines parts ($62 billion / 20%), chemicals ($43 billion / 14%) and transportation ($37 billion / 12%). Minerals and mineral products ($32 billion / 10%), textiles ($24 billion / 8%), metals ($22 billion / 7%) and plastics/rubbers ($16 billion / 5%) are also important imports to the country. Agricultural products ($40 billion / 13%) and instruments such as medical and orthopedic instruments and appliances, hydrometers and more ($10 billion / 3%) contribute substantially to total imports as well.
Spain’s trading partners are mostly other European countries. However, Spain relies less on European partners for imports than as export markets. Imports from other European manufacturers amounted to $196 billion or about 62 percent of total Spanish imports in 2020. However, China shows up as Spain’s third largest supplier with imports from China valued at more than $30 billion (approx. 9.6 percent of total imports). Spain’s five largest supplier countries are: Germany ($ 41.2B), France ($ 33.9B), China ($ 30.3B), Italy ($ 22B), and the Netherlands ($ 15.5B).
Again, it is interesting to note that despite Spain’s traditionally strong links with the South and Central Americas, imports from these areas constitute a very limited proportion of total imports. Total imports from the Americas, including the USA and Canada, amount to a mere 10 percent or about $30 billion (ca. $21 billion from North & Central America and ca. $9 billion from South America) of Spain’s total imports.
Turning to Asia, which includes Turkey and the Middle East, a total of 21 percent or about $67 billion of Spanish imports originate from sellers in this region. The whole continent of Africa is responsible for as little as approx. 7 percent or about $22 billion of total imports into Spain.
Spain runs a deficit in its foreign goods trade. For 2020 this deficit amounted to about $17 billion.
Each product category is color coded and equipped with a symbol. For an explanation of what these mean, see below.
Services: Exports & Imports
Turning to the service sector, however, we find a Spanish trading surplus. Spain is one of the world’s most attractive tourist destinations. But, there is also significant business travel to and from the country as well as other sizeable service sector trades. The surplus for 2019 was estimated at about $58 billion with exports of $138 billion and imports of ca. $80 billion.
Spain Exports Services (2019): $138B
In 2019, Spain exported $138 billion worth of services. The top services exported by Spain in 2019 were Personal travel ($74.9 billion), Miscellaneous business, professional, and technical services ($24.8 billion), Transportation ($18.7 billion), Business travel ($4.8 billion), and Financial services ($3.85 billion).
Spain Imports Services (2019): $80B
The top services imported by Spain in 2019 were Travel ($27.9 billion), Miscellaneous business, professional, and technical services ($21.2 billion), Transportation ($12.4 billion), Royalties and license fees ($6.84 billion), and Merchanting and other trade-related services ($3.05 billion).
Services exports/imports are not split into countries from where non-residents emerge/belong.
The Export/Import featured pictures are by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
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