Welsh international goods trade: October 2024 to September 2025 (headline data)

The data in this report are provisional estimates for October 2024 to September 2025 with data revisions going back to Quarter 1 2025. Data will be revised routinely over the next 18 months to account for late returns. HMRC has pre-announced significant unscheduled corrections to UK overseas trade in goods statistics, specifically affecting ‘Oil’ (SITC 33) ^{[footnote 1]} exports. These revisions will increase reported 'Oil' export values and volumes, impacting headline totals for exports and overall trade in the March 2025 analysis (see Notes). As these corrections have not yet been applied, providing exports excluding ‘Oil’ ensures a stable baseline until revised data is published. Import figures are not expected to change significantly and therefore have not been included here.

Data covers the value (in current prices) of goods exports and imports.

It is important to consider the impact of global economic events on the value of trade as well as inflationary pressures pushing up current prices of products.

The following analysis is a comparison between the latest year of data (year ending September 2025) and the previous year (year ending September 2024).

Total trade (exports + imports)

• The total trade value for Wales was £37.7 billion, down £1.7 billion (4.3%) from £39.4 billion.
• The total trade value less ‘Oil’ for Wales was £32.1 billion, up £0.4 billion (1.4%) from £31.7 billion.
• The total trade volume for Wales was 20.0 billion kg, a decrease of 3.2 billion kg (13.8%) from 23.2 billion kg.
• The total trade volume less ‘Oil’ for Wales was 8.2 billion kg, a decrease of 1.9 billion kg (18.9%) from 10.2 billion kg.

Exports

• The value of goods exports for Wales was £16.9 billion, down £1.3 billion (7.3%) from £18.3 billion. This was largely driven by a £1.4 billion decline in the value of ‘Oil’^{[footnote 2]} exports.
• The volume of goods exports for Wales was 3.8 billion kg, a decrease of 2.1 billion kg (35.7%) from 6.0 billion kg. This was also largely driven by a 2.0 billion kg decline in the volume of ‘Oil’ exports.
• The value of goods exports for the UK was £352.3 billion, down £3.5 billion (1.0%) from £355.8 billion.
• The volume of goods exports for the UK was 110.9 billion kg, a decrease of 7.5 billion kg (6.3%) from 118.4 billion kg.
• All UK countries experienced a decrease in the value of exports, except for Scotland which increased.
• The EU continued to make up most of the Welsh export values, accounting for 56.2%, whilst the EU made up 48.5% of UK export values.
• Export values to EU countries decreased by £1.2 billion (11.3%) to £9.5 billion from £10.7 billion. Export values to non-EU countries decreased by £0.1 billion (1.7%) to £7.4 billion from £7.5 billion.
• The top 3 products exported from Wales were ‘Power Generating Machinery and Equipment’ (£4.3 billion), ‘Other Transport Equipment’ (£2.5 billion) and ‘Iron and Steel’ (£0.9 billion). These products accounted for 44.9% of Welsh goods exports.
• The top 3 countries that Wales exported to were Germany (£2.6 billion), United States (£2.2 billion) and France (£1.7 billion). These countries accounted for 38.0% of Welsh goods exports.

Exports less ‘Oil’

• The value of goods exports less oil for Wales was £16.4 billion, an increase of £0.1 billion (0.5%) from £16.3 billion.
• The volume of goods exports less Oil for Wales was 2.8 billion kg, a decrease of 0.1 billion kg (4.7%) from 2.9 billion kg.
• The value of goods exports less Oil for the UK was £334.9 billion, an increase of £4.1 billion (1.2%) from £330.8 billion.
• The volume of goods exports less Oil for the UK was 72.0 billion kg, an increase of 0.2 billion kg (0.3%) from 71.7 billion kg.

Imports

• The value of goods imports for Wales was £20.8 billion, down £0.3 billion (1.6%) from £21.1 billion. This was largely driven by a £0.7 billion decline in the value of ‘Oil’ imports.
• The volume of goods imports for Wales was 16.2 billion kg, a decrease of 1.1 billion kg (6.2%) from 17.2 billion kg.
• The value of goods imports for the UK was £597.2 billion, up £18.5 billion (3.2%) from £578.6 billion.
• The volume of goods imports for the UK was 271.5 billion kg, an increase of 5.0 billion kg (1.9%) from 266.6 billion kg.
• All UK countries experienced an increase in the value of imports, except for Wales which decreased.
• The EU accounted for 37.9% of Welsh import values compared with 52.9% of UK import values.
• Import values from EU countries increased by £0.3 billion (3.6%) to £7.9 billion from £7.6 billion. Import values from non-EU countries decreased by £0.6 billion (4.5%) to £12.9 billion from £13.5 billion.
• The top 3 products imported into Wales were ‘Oil’ (£5.0 billion), ‘Power Generating Machinery and Equipment’ (£3.8 billion) and ‘Other Transport Equipment’ (£1.1 billion). These products accounted for 47.7% of Welsh goods imports.
• The top 3 countries that Wales imported from were United States (£3.8 billion), China (£1.8 billion) and Netherlands (£1.4 billion). These countries accounted for 33.5% of Welsh goods imports.

Because of changes to the way in which the data is collected, additional low value trade that was previously allocated to countries and regions may now be reported under the ‘Unallocated-unknown’ category. This has led to a likely reduction in the UK to EU export values, and total export values for Wales (and other regions) from January 2021 onwards. More detailed notes of these effects can be read in the HMRC Full Commentary on these statistics.

There will be unscheduled corrections to this data in the next quarter’s headline, following the Pre-announcement of corrections to the UK overseas trade in goods statistics from HMRC. The result of these corrections will see a rise in export values and volumes of ‘Oil’ (SITC33). The greatest impacts are expected in London, Wales, and Unallocated-Known, while all other regions are anticipated to experience minimal changes following the corrections. As an indicative impact of these corrections, export values for Wales from January to December 2024 will increase by approximately 7.9%, which is about £1.4 billion more than the current published annual 2024 total of £17.5 billion. For January to September 2025, the increase will be around 12.1% or £1.5 billion more than the current 2025 published total of £12.7 billion.

Some of the trade data included in this report may get revised by HMRC as part of their routine revisions to the data set. The latest data will be available on UK Trade Info.

Pre-announcement of corrections to the UK overseas trade in goods statistics from HMRC.

The data above relates to international goods trade. For international trade in services, the latest official statistics in development (2023) produced by the Office for National Statistics suggest that service exports make up approximately 30% of total exports from Wales, and 20% of total imports. 

Note that the methods differ between HMRC and the ONS statistics. More detail is available on these main differences in the HMRC ‘Overseas trade in goods statistics methodology and quality report’ (section 8.4).

Main results and business counts are published quarterly and are available on HMRC’s UK Trade Info Pages and UK trade in goods statistics (HMRC), alongside our own interactive dashboard.

[1] ‘Petroleum, Petroleum Products and Related Materials’ (SITC33)

[2] This 'Oil' export value is likely to change due to the pre-announced corrections, which will be applied in March 2026.

Trade Analysis
Email: stats.trade@gov.wales

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