Netherlands Import Data: $647.03B in 2023, Down 8.97%

Rotterdam's Refining Business Runs in Both Directions

The Netherlands imported $647.03 billion worth of goods in 2023, down 8.97% from $710.77 billion in 2022. Mineral fuels led every import category at 22.04% of the total, worth $142.60 billion, more than any other classification. This is the mirror image of the story covered in the companion export data for this country, where Rotterdam's refineries turn imported crude into refined products that get shipped back out across Europe. Norway currently supplies natural gas to the Netherlands through existing North Sea pipeline infrastructure, and a new direct pipeline expected to become operational in 2029 will add more than 4 billion cubic meters a year of capacity, roughly 15% of Dutch gas demand. Norway ranked seventh among the Netherlands' import partners overall at 3.28% ($21.24 billion), a relationship built substantially on this energy trade. The two flows work together rather than against each other. Crude oil and natural gas from Norway and other producers arrive at Dutch terminals. Rotterdam's refineries process it alongside crude shipped in from further afield. The resulting fuel products then leave the country again, some staying within the Netherlands and much of the rest crossing back into Germany, Belgium and beyond. That two-way flow is a big part of why both the import and export sides of this dataset look so heavily weighted toward the same mineral fuels category.

ASML's Global Supply Chain Shows Up in the Import Numbers Too

Electrical machinery supplied 11.54% of imports, worth $74.65 billion, and machinery added a further 10.85% ($70.18 billion). Optical, photographic and measuring instruments contributed 5.55% ($35.90 billion). ASML manages a supply chain of more than 5,000 companies worldwide, and a single lithography machine contains over 100,000 components before it ships out as roughly 40 freight containers, three cargo planes and 20 trucks, all destined for reassembly at a customer's cleanroom. That supply chain runs in both directions. The specialized parts and subsystems that make up a lithography machine largely arrive as imports before the finished machine ships back out as one of the country's signature exports. Vehicles supplied a further 5.33% of imports ($34.47 billion), serving a country where cars are still mostly bought rather than built domestically. Plastics added 2.74% ($17.76 billion), and organic chemicals contributed 2.39% ($15.47 billion). Chemical products not elsewhere classified supplied 2.19% ($14.20 billion), and iron and steel closed out the top ten at 1.58% ($10.23 billion), inputs for the same construction and manufacturing base that also drives Dutch machinery output. None of these categories comes close to matching the scale of electrical machinery or machinery itself. Together they show a diversified industrial import base layered on top of the concentrated, ASML-driven technology trade at the very top of the list.

Germany, the USA and Belgium Supply Half of Everything

Germany supplied 16.90% of Dutch imports in 2023, worth $109.37 billion, more than any other country. The Netherlands is the European Union's second-largest goods importer and exporter after Germany, importing 780 billion euros' worth of goods in 2023, and Germany is the Netherlands' primary trading partner, while the Netherlands is in turn the leading trade partner for both Germany and Belgium. The USA followed at 10.48% ($67.80 billion), and Belgium added 9.63% ($62.29 billion). That Belgian share reflects the same tight Benelux economic integration and shared Antwerp-Rotterdam port corridor that shows up throughout Dutch trade statistics. China supplied 8.29% ($53.66 billion), likely spanning everything from consumer electronics to industrial components. The United Kingdom contributed 5.20% ($33.63 billion), a relationship that has continued to matter for Dutch trade even after the UK's departure from the European Union.

France added 3.59% ($23.22 billion). Italy supplied 2.50% ($16.17 billion), and Poland contributed 2.29% ($14.79 billion). Ireland rounded out the top ten at 1.88% ($12.14 billion). Ireland ranks among the top five global exporters of pharmaceuticals, employing roughly 50,000 people across more than 90 pharmaceutical companies drawn by tax incentives, grants and a skilled workforce. That pharmaceutical manufacturing base helps explain Ireland's position on this list, since pharmaceutical products made up 3.23% of Dutch imports overall ($20.92 billion). Together, Germany, the USA and Belgium made up 37.01% of total import value. Import totals swung sharply over the past five years, falling from $514.86 billion in 2019 to $484.09 billion in 2020, then climbing to $623.37 billion in 2021 and $710.77 billion in 2022, before easing back to $647.03 billion in 2023.