Austria Import Trade Data: $219.1B in 2023, Down 3.3%

Austria's Top Import Sources in 2023

Austria imported $219.10 billion worth of goods in 2023, the latest year with verified trade data in this dataset. That total marks a decline of 3.3% from the $226.48 billion recorded in 2022, the first annual pullback after two consecutive years of growth. Germany was overwhelmingly the largest source of Austria's imports, supplying 31.4% of the total, worth $68.90 billion.

China ranked second at 7.5% ($16.34 billion), ahead of Italy at 6.4% ($13.95 billion) and Switzerland at 5.7% ($12.52 billion). Czechia took fifth place at 4.1% ($9.08 billion), followed by the United States at 3.9% ($8.55 billion) and Poland at 3.2% ($7.07 billion). The Netherlands supplied 2.7% ($5.90 billion), France added 2.6% ($5.71 billion), and a grouping the dataset records as Special Categories, covering transactions not attributed to an individual country, rounded out the top ten at 2.5% ($5.49 billion). Together, the top three sources made up 45.3% of total import value.

Germany's import share is unusually dominant even within this dataset: its 31.4% alone exceeds the combined total of the next four partners on the list, China, Italy, Switzerland, and Czechia together. That level of reliance on a single supplier points to Austria functioning almost as an extension of the German industrial economy, sourcing everything from machinery components to consumer goods from its northern neighbor at a scale far beyond any other trading relationship.

Beyond Germany, the remaining nine partners in the top ten form a much more gradual taper, each holding between roughly 2.5% and 7.5% of the total. China's second-place ranking points to substantial imports of manufactured consumer and industrial goods, while Italy, Switzerland, and Czechia reflect continued Central and Southern European supply chain integration. The USA, Poland, the Netherlands, and France round out a supplier base that spans well beyond Austria's immediate borders, even though none of these secondary partners individually approaches Germany's scale. The presence of a Special Categories grouping in tenth place, covering transactions the data does not attribute to a single country, is a reminder that a small slice of Austria's recorded trade sits outside the standard country-by-country breakdown, though at 2.5% of the total it does not meaningfully change the overall picture of Germany's outsized role.

Leading Import Categories

Machinery and mechanical appliances led all import categories in 2023, worth $26.79 billion and accounting for 12.2% of total import value. Vehicles and related parts and accessories followed closely at 10.8%, worth $23.73 billion, and electrical machinery and equipment ranked third at 10.6% ($23.24 billion).

Mineral fuels added 9.0% ($19.72 billion), while pharmaceutical products contributed 5.1% ($11.28 billion). Plastics and related articles brought in 3.8% ($8.30 billion), and iron or steel articles added 3.0% ($6.47 billion). Organic chemicals contributed 3.0% ($6.46 billion), optical and medical instruments added 2.7% ($5.95 billion), and iron and steel closed out the top ten at 2.3% ($5.13 billion).

The top three import categories, machinery, vehicles, and electrical equipment, are worth noting for how closely bunched they are, within about a percentage and a half of each other, a pattern that points to substantial two-way trade in components and semi-finished goods with neighboring manufacturing economies rather than a single category dominating the list. That kind of overlap between major import and export sectors is common among closely integrated manufacturing economies, where parts and partially finished products move back and forth across borders multiple times during production before a finished good is sold.

Mineral fuels ranking fourth, worth $19.72 billion, points to Austria's reliance on imported energy, since the country has limited domestic oil and gas reserves of its own. That energy import bill is large enough to rank ahead of pharmaceuticals, plastics, and every category of finished consumer or industrial goods below it, underscoring how much of Austria's import spending goes toward energy security even within an import base otherwise dominated by machinery and manufactured equipment. The remaining categories past the top four are fairly tightly clustered, each holding between roughly 2.3% and 5.1% of the total, without any sharp drop-off toward the bottom of the ranking. That gradual taper across the full top ten categories contrasts with the sharper concentration seen in the partner rankings above, where a single country supplies close to a third of the total, suggesting Austria's import base is far more diversified by product than it is by country of origin.

A Decline After Two Years of Import Growth

The five-year trend shows imports dipping in 2020 before recovering and climbing for two years, then easing back in 2023. Imports moved from $176.60 billion in 2019 to $164.64 billion in 2020, then recovered to $210.91 billion in 2021 and climbed further to $226.48 billion in 2022, before falling 3.3% to $219.10 billion in 2023. Even with that decline, the 2023 total remains well above every year prior to 2021, leaving the broader five-year trajectory pointed upward despite the pullback in the most recent year.

This pattern is consistent with the World Bank's WITS trade summary for Austria, which confirms Germany's dominant role as the country's leading import source alongside the broader import totals recorded for 2023. For a closer look at how individual partner countries or product categories break down year over year, the data panels above provide the full detail behind these figures.