Industry Focus
by Gang Hao Chang, Vice Editor-in-Chief ofFastener World

Fastener Trade
Statistics ofthein 2021

According to the most recent fastener (HS code: 7318) trade statistics of 27 EU member states for 2021
officially released by the EU, both import and export of the EU revealed a downward trend within thetimeframe of 2018-2020 and showed a rebound again in 2021 (both import and export in 2021 exceeded therecords in 2018), a sign that the fastener market was in a period of strong growth again. Now let’s review
together how the EU’s fastener import and export were changing during 2018-2021.

Import >>The fastener import of 27 EU member states shrankfrom around 1.77 million tons in 2018 to around 1.56
million tons in 2020. However, in 2021 there appeareda dramatic change, i.e., its import volume suddenly
climbed to around 1.86 million tons, which was higher
than the record in 2018. According to the import
volumes in 2021, top 10 fastener import sources ofthe EU were China, Taiwan, India, Turkey, Vietnam,India, Thailand, S. Korea, UK, and Malaysia. Amongst
these major sources, China represented the highest
import volume at around 0.78 million tons andChina was also the only one showing consecutive
years of growth amongst the top 20. The EU had
more than 40% of its fasteners imported from China.
Taiwan ranked the 2nd place represented over 20%(0.43 million tons) of the EU’s total fastener import.
As for Turkey, it took the 3rd place originally taken by
Vietnam in 2020 and demonstrated a supply momentumof around 0.12 million tons to the EU. Top 5 importsources represented over 80% of the EU’s total importvolume, fully showing that in addition to partial reliance
upon supply from Turkey due to its proximity to the EU,
most of the EU’s fastener demand was supported by
Asia’s huge supply chain. Table 1 shows that Ukraine,
Belarus, and Russia were also major fastener importsources of the EU in 2021. However, with all thosemanufacturing stoppages caused by the Russia-Ukraine

140Fastener World no.195/2022

Table 1. Top 20 Fastener Import Partners of the EU(Excl. UK) in 2018-2021 (Kg)
Partners

Years

Total non-EU
China
TaiwanTurkey
Vietnam
India
ThailandSouth Korea
U. K.
Malaysia
Switzerland
Japan
Bosnia andHerzegovina
U.S.A.
Liechtenstein
SerbiaIndonesia
NorwayUkraineBelarus
Russia

2018

2019

2020

2021

1,770,318,825
593,939,072
488,307,131
90,337,283
127,801,115
86,513,845
64,836,014
41,722,245
56,439,435
44,950,338
31,879,531
24,132,011

1,696,085,746
627,259,520
432,616,376
89,081,136
109,260,953
83,458,740
51,105,019
38,775,122
61,742,835
39,877,271
28,110,894
23,780,507

1,560,878,862
643,167,531
373,179,745
78,892,084
99,433,493
67,732,375
42,867,152
30,802,081
54,459,219
32,364,141
25,686,911
18,677,863

1,857,604,906
784,476,250
432,256,373
116,343,491
98,592,164
97,898,558
46,639,823
37,167,945
36,061,217
33,581,217
29,621,645
26,308,972

14,361,715

15,746,964

12,814,087

17,666,089

24,877,982
12,301,033
12,159,746
8,834,496
12,365,937
5,303,328
5,839,301
3,807,751

22,045,753
12,056,289
10,121,012
7,810,349
12,090,596
4,303,617
3,617,822
6,524,496

14,798,371
12,641,672
8,006,345
8,435,855
8,909,692
6,696,528
4,591,202
4,172,095

17,400,587
13,568,324
11,044,115
9,756,818
8,841,036
8,593,395
7,033,184
6,650,687

Industry Focus
War and the after effects resulted from the EU’s sanctions
against Russia, certain EU buyers originally purchasingfrom these three countries may need to look for othersources in the next few years.
In terms of import value (euro) (Table 2), the EU
imported around EUR 5.5 bn worth of fasteners from theworld in 2018, which later dropped to around EUR 4.7bn in 2020, and then significantly grew to around EUR
6 bn in 2021. Such a development trend was in sync with
the EU’s import volume. In 2021, the EU’s top 10 importsources were China, Taiwan, USA, Switzerland, Turkey,UK, India, Vietnam, Japan, and S. Korea. The importvalues from China and Taiwan showed quite similar scalein the past 4 years and both reached the level of over
EUR 1 bn. However, if compared with import volumes
from China and Taiwan, we could observe that although
the export values of China and Taiwan to the EU werequite close to each other during the years, the export
volume of China was almost twice the scale of Taiwan’s
export in 2020-2021, fully revealing that Taiwan enroute to the development of high value-added fasteners
gradually left its competitors in China further behindover the past two years. As for the U.S. and Switzerland
respectively ranked the 3rd and 4th places, both countries
have dedicated themselves to the development of morehigh value-added fasteners for years. Although theentire supply of these two countries was much less thanthose of other sources, they both played very criticalroles in European advanced industries (e.g., aerospace,automotive, motorbikes, 3C, and many other applications).

Export >>Next, let’s talk about the EU’s export volume. In 2018,
the EU exported around 0.65 million tons of fasteners
to the world. After then, it saw consecutive two yearsof decline and reached 0.57 million tons of fasteners in2020. Although the scale returned to around 0.63 million
tons in 2021 and exceeded the record in 2019, it was still
lower than the record achieved in 2018. According to
the data statistics in 2021, EU’s top 10 fastener export
partners were China, the U.S., UK, Switzerland,
Russia, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, India, and Norway.
EU’s fastener export volumes to China and the U.S.
were very close to each other (both countries reached
the scale of nearly 0.1 million tons). China and the U.S.
altogether represented more than 30% of the EU’s total
fastener export to the world. Different from the import,
the EU’s fastener export relied heavily upon the tradewith two manufacturing giants- China and the U.S. In thepast two years (2020-2021), EU’s fastener exports to its
top 20 trade partners all showed a growing trend, except
for Liechtenstein. Its export performance continued
to head toward a promising future. On the other hand,manufacturing industries of Mexico, Turkey, Brazil
and India also showed significant demand for fasteners
exported from the EU, which is a trend that should bepaid more attention to.
If we compare the EU’s fastener export values with
its export volumes, import volumes, and import values
in 2018-2021, we can see that there appeared many142

Fastener World no.195/2022Table 2. Top 20 Fastener Import Partners of the EU(Excl. UK) in 2018-2021 (EURO)
Partners

Years

2018

Total non-EU 5,493,456,488
China
1,088,660,871

2019

2020

2021

5,422,381,868
1,167,648,479

4,703,454,100
1,124,834,946

5,980,365,768
1,683,493,747

Taiwan1,251,356,825

1,174,902,180

1,012,236,960

1,304,072,703

U.S.A.

594,032,755

636,441,679

475,962,336

487,427,278

Switzerland

443,751,589

405,720,448

362,346,187

414,576,178

Turkey290,545,586

284,024,200

250,113,448

363,788,088

U. K.

423,477,240

411,171,446

346,297,368

304,910,363

India

235,943,767

238,514,535

187,415,500

277,689,303

Vietnam

238,751,136

218,214,796

193,789,714

220,150,171

Japan

181,201,865

184,622,969

150,612,320

188,062,010

South Korea

171,713,746

168,691,182

145,460,929

178,788,095

Liechtenstein

85,939,275

86,521,652

89,922,253

92,731,145

Thailand

109,266,345

88,192,649

69,203,790

83,364,241

Malaysia
Bosnia andHerzegovina
Indonesia

89,862,629

82,316,026

64,884,590

74,273,850

36,531,684

39,473,824

32,678,741

49,280,909

34,419,703

30,486,852

32,465,625

41,557,088

Norway35,802,661

37,905,995

29,749,396

29,220,836

Canada26,473,591

24,128,067

19,695,125

26,988,742

Serbia22,596,266

16,998,766

13,281,848

19,341,772

Philippines

26,638,426

18,583,719

13,157,133

15,799,698

Russia12,760,280

15,739,566

11,419,547

15,622,122

Table 3. Top 20 Fastener Export Partners of the EU(Excl. UK) in 2018-2021 (Kg)
Years

2018

2019

2020

2021

Total non-EU
China

651,283,816
103,014,480

625,249,028
88,409,792

569,568,536
96,394,081

632,645,796
98,281,817

U.S.A.

81,836,122

87,191,515

79,211,110

98,096,707

Partners

U. K.

96,230,254

89,841,466

71,529,905

77,803,342

Switzerland

42,983,393

38,954,356

36,737,160

42,576,594

Russia37,177,758

36,778,531

35,048,339

37,031,041

Mexico30,714,333

31,815,507

27,688,203

33,635,395

Turkey35,500,476

32,724,722

29,857,420

31,314,906

Brazil31,082,268

28,190,483

22,576,028

30,011,858

India

23,111,148

17,858,655

13,304,946

19,806,453

Norway22,836,135

24,662,528

21,431,091

19,250,468

Morocco9,580,676

10,037,929

9,863,875

14,512,807

Ukraine7,450,637

9,625,894

11,966,401

11,730,087

Liechtenstein

12,599,326

12,050,310

11,431,710

10,988,668

South Africa

12,472,206

13,401,391

8,631,463

10,121,672

Serbia6,482,611

6,242,090

6,439,015

7,953,383

Argentina

5,562,914

4,256,271

3,031,967

5,323,966

Australia

5,587,132

4,879,722

4,880,197

5,050,401

U.A.E.

4,268,103

4,439,593

4,750,769

4,819,167

Thailand5,428,534

4,713,769

3,641,611

4,685,865

South Korea

3,402,943

3,277,962

4,440,134

4,628,225

Table 4. Top 20 Fastener Export Partners of the EU(Excl. UK) in 2018-2021 (EURO)
Years
Partners

20182019

2020

Industry Focus

2021

Total non-EU 4,754,558,194 4,806,783,233 4,318,420,585 4,891,900,919
China
852,490,859 789,437,458 855,893,468 889,820,742
U.S.A.
751,919,105 868,351,201 734,819,951 849,800,135
U. K.
606,388,253 578,579,988 464,291,734 531,174,210
Switzerland 318,581,920 303,738,687 276,058,689 328,637,353
Russia207,258,946 212,652,099 201,906,449 232,009,099
Mexico219,684,638 231,938,423 192,133,841 230,638,839
Turkey218,943,617 206,124,750 190,304,726 211,962,532
Brazil174,535,897 171,592,789 146,512,499 182,899,660
India
151,626,170 129,333,696
99,645,707 146,116,282
Norway122,231,581
137,559,116 122,528,698 125,074,306
Morocco74,721,538
92,138,197
78,485,181
96,228,257
South Africa
73,746,755
76,058,384
54,261,741
67,721,995
South Korea
50,483,26750,743,869
59,601,811
61,725,771
Liechtenstein
68,200,481
65,124,488
63,211,337
60,388,166
Australia
50,744,535
48,409,165
50,595,224
53,512,668
Japan
51,691,773
50,188,295
46,984,252
53,126,957
Canada53,300,731
61,978,226
45,911,464
49,617,084
Ukraine30,028,755
38,152,226
41,226,609
48,056,500
Serbia34,083,559
32,936,662
33,949,277
44,676,324
Singapore
44,523,408
44,956,142
40,901,902
41,959,647

fluctuations in fastener export values. The EU’s fastener export
slightly grew from around EUR 4.75 bn in 2018 to around EUR 4.8bn in 2019, and then dropped to around EUR 4.3 bn in 2020, andbounced back to around EUR 4.9 bn in 2021. In terms of the export
value in 2021, China and the U.S. were also respectively ranked the1st (around EUR 0.89 bn) and 2nd places (around EUR 0.85 bn) inEU’s top 10 fastener export partners. China and the U.S. altogether
represented 35% of the EU’s total export value of the year, which isa high percentage. The same as the export volume, in the past twoyears, fastener export values of the EU’s top 20 trade partners(except for Liechtenstein) all appeared a positively growing
trend.

Summary >>To sum up the trends previously referred to in theparagraphs for the EU’s import volume, import value,export volume and export value, we realize that theEU is also one of the world’s most important fastener
manufacturing, purchasing, and applications heartlands.
And, with more European countries starting to graduallyloosen up their border control policies and travel
restrictions, consumption in various industries will beboosted and the demand for product assemblies will bealso greatly increased, thus beefing up relevant fastener
applications. The bull market for fasteners which has
lasted for months also explains why fastener orders
continue to be placed to major fastener manufacturing
countries in Asia, America, and Southeast Asia. With
the existence of multiple positive external factors that
may stimulate market demand, it is expected that in
2022 the EU’s fastener import and export will continue
to develop along a significantly growing curve.
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