30/09/2025 (Agence Europe) – European chemical exports reached €560 billion in 2024. This is a new record, Eurostat, the European statistics agency, revealed on Monday 29 September. This compares with exports of €523 billion in 2023. The top five European exporters are Germany (€134 billion), Ireland (€82 billion), Belgium (€62 billion), France (€54 billion) and the Netherlands (€50 billion). Eurostat points out that trade flows between the Netherlands and Belgium are overestimated due to the ‘Rotterdam effect’, whereby goods originating in other EU countries and exported via the ports of these two countries are, according to EU rules, recorded by the Netherlands and Belgium as extra-EU exports. Exports go mainly to the United States (€170 billion), Switzerland (€64 billion), the United Kingdom (€47 billion), China (€36 billion) and Japan (€18 billion). (FS)