China–France Trade Pulse
Imports into France from China were €12.34bn in Q2 2026, up 6.4% on the same quarter of 2025. A quarterly read of Eurostat's official trade statistics for imports into France from China, published by Cambridge China Bridge. It updates automatically when Eurostat publishes a new quarter.
Q2 2026, compared with Q2 2025
- Imports from China
- €12.34bn
- Change on a year earlier
- +6.4%
- Product chapters traded
- 96
Data brief: Q2 2026
Imports into France from China were €12.34bn in Q2 2026, up 6.4% (€746m) on Q2 2025.
Top 3 rising headings
- Engines and motors (HS 8412): €110m, up 386.8% from €23m
- Parts and accessories (other than covers, carrying cases and the… (HS 8473): €390m, up 371.5% from €83m
- Cruise ships, excursion boats, ferry-boats, cargo ships, barges and… (HS 8901): €208m, up 344.5% from €47m
Top 3 falling headings
- Medicaments consisting of mixed or unmixed products for therapeutic… (HS 3004): €42m, down 93.2% from €607m
- Machines and mechanical appliances having individual functions, not… (HS 8479): €53m, down 59.1% from €129m
- Powered aircraft (HS 8802): €135m, down 39.3% from €221m
Headings (HS4) worth at least €10m in both quarters.
Among these six headings, value per kg runs from €7.51 for Engines and motors to €3,246,473 for Cruise ships, excursion boats, ferry-boats, cargo ships, barges and… Why € per kg matters →
Cite as: Cambridge China Bridge, "China–France Trade Pulse", Q2 2026, https://camchinabridge.co.uk/china-eu-trade-pulse/france/briefs/2026-q2/. Source: Eurostat (Comext, DS-045409); quarterly totals, changes and value per kg calculated by Cambridge China Bridge. Open data:https://github.com/bonoxu/camchinabridge-open-data
What stands out
- Imports into France from China were €12.34bn in Q2 2026, up 6.4% on the same quarter of 2025.
- That is the highest Q2 total since the series starts in 2019.
- Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof was the largest chapter at €2.80bn.
- The fastest-rising large heading was Engines and motors, up 386.8% to €110m.
- The steepest fall was Medicaments consisting of mixed or unmixed products for therapeutic…, down 93.2% to €42m.
- Among the largest chapters, value per kg runs from €3.10 for Articles of iron or steel to €190.78 for Ships, boats and floating structures.
How to read this
- Figures are imports into the member state from China as recorded by that country's customs and published by Eurostat, in euros. Goods that clear customs in one EU country and travel on to another are counted where they were declared, so a port country such as the Netherlands or Belgium records goods consumed elsewhere.
- Each quarter is the sum of three published months and is compared with the same quarter a year earlier, so seasonal patterns (Chinese New Year, the run-up to Christmas) do not show as rises or falls.
- A heading only counts as a mover when it was large in both quarters; the threshold is stated under each table.
- Value per kg is value divided by net mass. It ranks products; it is not a freight rate.
Every quarter since 2019
Across 2025 as a whole, imports into France from China were €45.97bn, up 4.7% on 2024 and up 43.3% on 2019.
| Year | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Full year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | €7.85bn | €7.77bn | €8.61bn | €7.85bn | €32.08bn |
| 2020 | €7.54bn | €9.80bn | €9.88bn | €8.75bn | €35.97bn |
| 2021 | €9.21bn | €9.21bn | €10.43bn | €11.88bn | €40.73bn |
| 2022 | €12.15bn | €11.77bn | €13.54bn | €11.72bn | €49.18bn |
| 2023 | €10.60bn | €10.90bn | €10.70bn | €9.85bn | €42.04bn |
| 2024 | €9.94bn | €10.31bn | €12.58bn | €11.07bn | €43.90bn |
| 2025 | €11.51bn | €11.59bn | €11.58bn | €11.28bn | €45.97bn |
| 2026 | €12.03bn | €12.34bn | – | – | – |
Quarterly totals on the same basis as the headline figure. A full-year total appears once all four quarters are published.
The largest product chapters
| Code | Product | Value | Change | € per kg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85 | Electrical machinery and equipment and parts thereof | €2.80bn | +7.0% | €10.81 |
| 84 | Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances | €2.51bn | +22.3% | €9.14 |
| 87 | Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling stock, and parts and… | €720m | +66.3% | €7.19 |
| 94 | Furniture | €683m | +3.3% | €3.26 |
| 39 | Plastics and articles thereof | €455m | +6.8% | €3.36 |
| 90 | Optical, photographic, cinematographic, measuring, checking,… | €396m | +4.4% | €29.33 |
| 62 | Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, not knitted or crocheted | €395m | −4.1% | €16.15 |
| 61 | Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, knitted or crocheted | €338m | −4.0% | €14.75 |
| 95 | Toys, games and sports requisites | €330m | −1.0% | €6.43 |
| 73 | Articles of iron or steel | €319m | +2.4% | €3.10 |
| 29 | Organic chemicals | €294m | +3.0% | €6.18 |
| 89 | Ships, boats and floating structures | €224m | +251.1% | €190.78 |
Fastest-rising headings
| Code | Product | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8412 | Engines and motors | €110m | +386.8% |
| 8473 | Parts and accessories (other than covers, carrying cases and the… | €390m | +371.5% |
| 8901 | Cruise ships, excursion boats, ferry-boats, cargo ships, barges and… | €208m | +344.5% |
| 8703 | Motor cars and other motor vehicles principally designed for the… | €361m | +261.8% |
| 2841 | Salts of oxometallic or peroxometallic acids | €33m | +153.3% |
| 8207 | Tools, interchangeable, for hand tools, whether or not… | €39m | +111.7% |
| 8429 | Self-propelled bulldozers, angledozers, graders, levellers, scrapers,… | €22m | +100.7% |
| 8523 | Discs, tapes, solid-state non-volatile storage devices, smart cards… | €45m | +88.0% |
Steepest falls
| Code | Product | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3004 | Medicaments consisting of mixed or unmixed products for therapeutic… | €42m | −93.2% |
| 8479 | Machines and mechanical appliances having individual functions, not… | €53m | −59.1% |
| 8802 | Powered aircraft | €135m | −39.3% |
| 8484 | Gaskets and similar joints of metal sheeting combined with other… | €21m | −38.3% |
| 2924 | Carboxyamide-function compounds | €14m | −33.5% |
| 7321 | Stoves, ranges, grates, cookers | €15m | −29.5% |
| 8409 | Parts suitable for use solely or principally with internal combustion… | €22m | −29.2% |
| 9504 | Video game consoles and machines, articles for funfair, table or… | €29m | −25.9% |
Headings (HS4) worth at least €10m in both quarters.
Why € per kg matters
Freight is charged on space, so low-value, bulky goods are hard to bring in by part-container load without the landed cost rising sharply, while high-value, dense goods absorb freight easily. Value per kilogram is a quick way to see which of the goods France imports from China suit small trial orders and which reward full containers.
Other member states
- Ireland €2.79bn, +12.9%
- Austria €2.07bn, +34.1%
- Belgium €10.46bn, +10.1%
- Bulgaria €1.29bn, +49.1%
- Croatia €453m, +14.7%
- Cyprus €406m, +59.0%
- Czechia €5.31bn, −7.5%
- Denmark €2.16bn, +7.9%
- Estonia €361m, +30.5%
- Finland €1.00bn, +13.2%
- Germany €27.66bn, +10.4%
- Greece €1.66bn, +0.6%
- Hungary €3.93bn, +39.2%
- Italy €15.77bn, +1.8%
- Latvia €287m, +16.0%
- Lithuania €602m, +7.3%
- Malta €118m, +4.8%
- Netherlands €28.86bn, +7.5%
- Poland €10.63bn, +22.0%
- Portugal €1.67bn, +22.4%
- Romania €2.32bn, +6.1%
- Slovakia €1.17bn, +14.9%
- Slovenia €3.43bn, +13.2%
- Spain €12.46bn, +15.4%
- Sweden €2.72bn, +1.6%
Method and sources
- Source: Eurostat, Comext database, dataset DS-045409 (EU trade since 1988 by HS2-4-6 and CN8): reporter France, partner China, imports, through Eurostat's free dissemination API.
- Values are in euros as Eurostat publishes them. Quarterly totals, changes on a year earlier, rankings and value per kg are calculated by Cambridge China Bridge from the monthly figures. Chapters 99 (other products) and 00 (confidential totals) are excluded.
- Eurostat revises recent months; the page is rebuilt monthly and always shows the latest figures Eurostat has published.
- Weight-based € per kg ranks categories; it does not measure freight cost directly, which depends on volume.
Source: Eurostat. Re-use of Eurostat data is authorised provided the source is acknowledged (Eurostat copyright notice). The figures on this page are aggregated and calculated from Eurostat's monthly data by Cambridge China Bridge. Journalists and researchers may quote them with a link to this page.
Download the France figures (CSV)· Download the open dataset (GitHub)
Cite as: Cambridge China Bridge, "China–France Trade Pulse", Q2 2026, https://camchinabridge.co.uk/china-eu-trade-pulse/france/. Source: Eurostat (Comext, DS-045409); quarterly totals, changes and value per kg calculated by Cambridge China Bridge.
See also
Buying from China for a business in France?
These pages report trade figures only. For a product you want to source from China, tell us what you buy and we will reply with how we would approach it.
Monthly email
What changed for UK buyers from China, and when to act
One email at the start of each month. Every figure has an official source.
- Next month's HMRC customs exchange rates: USD, EUR, CNY
- Duty, anti-dumping and UK rule changes, with the date they apply
- Chinese New Year order deadlines, before they pass
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