Lithuania Import Data: $48.42B in 2023, Down 12.14%

Fuel Imports Reflect a Rapid Break From Russian Energy

Lithuania imported $48.42 billion worth of goods in 2023, down 12.14% from $55.11 billion in 2022. Mineral fuels topped every import category at 19.84% of the total, worth $9.61 billion. Lithuania's Orlen-owned refinery once processed roughly two-thirds Russian crude, but announced in March 2022 that it would move to refining only Saudi Arabian oil, and by 2023 Saudi Arabia supplied about 40% of the country's crude imports, followed by Norway and the United States. The Klaipėda LNG terminal, in operation since 2015, has broken Lithuania's dependence on Russian gas and saved consumers an average of €160 million a year, drawing most of its cargoes from the US and Norway. Vehicles ranked second at 11.74% ($5.68 billion), a mix of new cars for the domestic market and used vehicles that feed the same re-export trade visible on Lithuania's export list. That combination of a new refined-fuel supply chain and an established vehicle logistics business helps explain why these two categories together make up close to a third of everything Lithuania buys from abroad, even though neither reflects goods Lithuania consumes entirely on its own.

Electrical machinery contributed 8.64% ($4.18 billion), and machinery added 8.56% ($4.14 billion). Plastics supplied 4.06% ($1.97 billion), and pharmaceutical products contributed 3.67% ($1.78 billion). Optical and measuring instruments, the same broad category that includes Lithuania's own laser exports, appeared on the import side too at 2.18% ($1.06 billion), reflecting components and equipment the photonics industry sources from abroad. Iron or steel articles added 2.10% ($1.01 billion), and iron and steel itself contributed 2.01% ($973.22 million). Beverages, spirits and vinegar closed out the top ten at 1.89% ($914.54 million). Aside from fuel and vehicles, this list looks like the ordinary industrial and consumer basket of a mid-sized European economy, machinery inputs, packaging materials, medicine and metal goods that feed both domestic consumption and the country's own manufacturing and re-export industries.

Germany and Poland Together Supply More Than a Quarter of Imports

Germany supplied 13.77% of Lithuania's imports in 2023, worth $6.67 billion, more than any other source. Poland ranked a close second at 13.25% ($6.41 billion), and Latvia took third at 8.15% ($3.94 billion), reflecting the same tight Baltic regional trade integration already visible on the export side of Lithuania's trade. Together, these top three sources made up 35.17% of total import value, a spread that mirrors the diversified pattern already visible on the export side of Lithuania's trade rather than concentrating around any single dominant supplier.

United States supplied 6.41% ($3.11 billion), and Netherlands added 5.40% ($2.61 billion). Norway contributed 5.05% ($2.44 billion), largely LNG and crude oil feeding Lithuania's energy infrastructure, and Saudi Arabia supplied 4.49% ($2.17 billion), almost entirely crude oil for the Mažeikiai refinery. Sweden added 4.02% ($1.94 billion), Italy contributed 3.93% ($1.90 billion), and Estonia closed out the top ten at 3.87% ($1.87 billion).

A 2022 Peak Has Given Way to a Sharp Pullback

Lithuania's import total has followed roughly the same path as its exports over the past five years. It stood at $35.76 billion in 2019, eased to $33.31 billion in 2020 as the pandemic disrupted trade, then jumped to $44.48 billion in 2021 and further to $55.11 billion in 2022, the high point of the five-year window. It fell to $48.42 billion in 2023, down 12.14% from that peak.

The 2022 surge reflected the same European energy price spike that shaped the export side of Lithuania's trade, magnified further by the cost of urgently replacing Russian crude and gas with supplies shipped in from Saudi Arabia, Norway and the United States. As global energy prices eased through 2023, Lithuania's import bill eased with them, even though the underlying volume of fuel, food and industrial goods flowing into the country kept growing. Having completed the harder work of building new supply relationships, Lithuania's import total now looks more likely to track ordinary price and demand cycles than the kind of emergency realignment that defined 2022. That shift also carries a cost dimension worth noting. Saudi crude and shipped-in LNG generally arrive at a premium over what Russian pipeline supply once cost. Even as headline import values ease, the underlying price Lithuania pays for energy security has structurally moved higher than it stood before 2022, and that higher baseline cost is likely to persist regardless of where broader commodity prices head next.