China–Italy Trade Pulse
Imports into Italy from China were €15.77bn in Q2 2026, up 1.8% on the same quarter of 2025. A quarterly read of Eurostat's official trade statistics for imports into Italy 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
- €15.77bn
- Change on a year earlier
- +1.8%
- Product chapters traded
- 96
Data brief: Q2 2026
Imports into Italy from China were €15.77bn in Q2 2026, up 1.8% (€281m) on Q2 2025.
Top 3 rising headings
- Motor cars and other motor vehicles principally designed for the… (HS 8703): €1.06bn, up 185.3% from €373m
- Medicaments consisting of mixed or unmixed products for therapeutic… (HS 3004): €680m, up 152.3% from €270m
- Electric accumulators (HS 8507): €232m, up 136.5% from €98m
Top 3 falling headings
- Hormones, prostaglandins, thromboxanes and leukotrienes, natural or… (HS 2937): €149m, down 93.3% from €2.21bn
- Flat-rolled products of stainless steel, of a width of >= 600 mm,… (HS 7219): €19m, down 57.4% from €43m
- Semi-finished products of iron or non-alloy steel (HS 7207): €64m, down 52.4% from €134m
Headings (HS4) worth at least €10m in both quarters.
Among these six headings, value per kg runs from €0.49 for Semi-finished products of iron or non-alloy steel to €2,944 for Hormones, prostaglandins, thromboxanes and leukotrienes, natural or… Why € per kg matters →
Cite as: Cambridge China Bridge, "China–Italy Trade Pulse", Q2 2026, https://camchinabridge.co.uk/china-eu-trade-pulse/italy/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 Italy from China were €15.77bn in Q2 2026, up 1.8% 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 €2.82bn.
- The fastest-rising large heading was Motor cars and other motor vehicles principally designed for the…, up 185.3% to €1.06bn.
- The steepest fall was Hormones, prostaglandins, thromboxanes and leukotrienes, natural or…, down 93.3% to €149m.
- Among the largest chapters, value per kg runs from €0.78 for Iron and steel to €258.26 for Pharmaceutical products.
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 Italy from China were €60.57bn, up 16.4% on 2024 and up 91.3% on 2019.
| Year | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Full year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | €7.92bn | €7.70bn | €8.59bn | €7.45bn | €31.66bn |
| 2020 | €7.43bn | €8.45bn | €8.48bn | €7.90bn | €32.25bn |
| 2021 | €9.10bn | €8.61bn | €10.44bn | €10.42bn | €38.58bn |
| 2022 | €14.20bn | €14.14bn | €16.43bn | €12.61bn | €57.38bn |
| 2023 | €12.25bn | €12.54bn | €11.77bn | €12.06bn | €48.62bn |
| 2024 | €11.77bn | €12.97bn | €14.18bn | €13.12bn | €52.03bn |
| 2025 | €15.51bn | €15.49bn | €15.74bn | €13.84bn | €60.57bn |
| 2026 | €16.06bn | €15.77bn | – | – | – |
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 | €2.82bn | +24.7% | €11.32 |
| 84 | Nuclear reactors, boilers, machinery and mechanical appliances | €2.75bn | +17.4% | €7.23 |
| 29 | Organic chemicals | €1.73bn | −60.5% | €11.40 |
| 87 | Vehicles other than railway or tramway rolling stock, and parts and… | €1.51bn | +84.4% | €7.69 |
| 30 | Pharmaceutical products | €717m | +132.7% | €258.26 |
| 39 | Plastics and articles thereof | €619m | +27.8% | €3.00 |
| 90 | Optical, photographic, cinematographic, measuring, checking,… | €464m | +5.4% | €40.57 |
| 73 | Articles of iron or steel | €397m | +17.3% | €1.99 |
| 94 | Furniture | €363m | +10.1% | €3.73 |
| 72 | Iron and steel | €355m | −8.7% | €0.78 |
| 61 | Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, knitted or crocheted | €349m | +62.0% | €26.47 |
| 62 | Articles of apparel and clothing accessories, not knitted or crocheted | €333m | +46.7% | €34.01 |
Fastest-rising headings
| Code | Product | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8703 | Motor cars and other motor vehicles principally designed for the… | €1.06bn | +185.3% |
| 3004 | Medicaments consisting of mixed or unmixed products for therapeutic… | €680m | +152.3% |
| 8507 | Electric accumulators | €232m | +136.5% |
| 7210 | Flat-rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel, of a width >= 600… | €82m | +118.8% |
| 8541 | Diodes, transistors and similar semiconductor devices | €159m | +91.4% |
| 8471 | Automatic data-processing machines and units thereof | €605m | +85.1% |
| 8607 | Parts of railway or tramway locomotives or rolling stock, n.e.s. | €19m | +71.8% |
| 8429 | Self-propelled bulldozers, angledozers, graders, levellers, scrapers,… | €55m | +70.7% |
Steepest falls
| Code | Product | Value | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2937 | Hormones, prostaglandins, thromboxanes and leukotrienes, natural or… | €149m | −93.3% |
| 7219 | Flat-rolled products of stainless steel, of a width of >= 600 mm,… | €19m | −57.4% |
| 7207 | Semi-finished products of iron or non-alloy steel | €64m | −52.4% |
| 2905 | Acyclic alcohols and their halogenated, sulphonated, nitrated or… | €14m | −45.5% |
| 7214 | Bars and rods, of iron or non-alloy steel, not further worked than… | €12m | −43.1% |
| 7228 | Other bars and rods of alloy steel other than stainless, angles,… | €24m | −43.0% |
| 7606 | Plates, sheets and strip, of aluminium, of a thickness of > 0,2 mm | €10m | −41.6% |
| 8704 | Motor vehicles for the transport of goods | €10m | −36.4% |
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 Italy 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%
- France €12.34bn, +6.4%
- Germany €27.66bn, +10.4%
- Greece €1.66bn, +0.6%
- Hungary €3.93bn, +39.2%
- 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 Italy, 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 Italy figures (CSV)· Download the open dataset (GitHub)
Cite as: Cambridge China Bridge, "China–Italy Trade Pulse", Q2 2026, https://camchinabridge.co.uk/china-eu-trade-pulse/italy/. 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 Italy?
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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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