01Key Takeaways
- Romania imported $131.96 billion worth of goods in 2023, down 0.6% from $132.70 billion in 2022, essentially flat after a five-year run of growth.
- Electrical machinery led import categories at 15.2% ($20.10 billion), the same category that also tops Romania's export list.
- Germany supplied 19.4% of imports ($25.59 billion), the largest single partner and the same country that dominates the export side too.
- The same four categories, electrical machinery, machinery, vehicles and mineral fuels, lead both Romania's imports and its exports, in nearly identical order.
025-Year Trend
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | $96.6B | $92.1B | $116.4B | $132.7B | $132.0B |
03Top Import Markets (2023)
| Rank | Partner | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | $25.6B | 19.4% |
| 2 | Italy | $11.4B | 8.7% |
| 3 | Hungary | $8.5B | 6.5% |
| 4 | Poland | $8.2B | 6.2% |
| 5 | China | $7.3B | 5.5% |
| 6 | Turkey | $6.9B | 5.2% |
| 7 | Bulgaria | $6.1B | 4.7% |
| 8 | Netherlands | $5.7B | 4.3% |
| 9 | France | $5.6B | 4.3% |
| 10 | Austria | $4.6B | 3.5% |
04Top Import Categories (2023)
| Rank | Category | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Electrical Machinery and Equipment and parts thereof; Sound Recorders and Reproducers, Television Image and Sound Recorders and Reproducers, and Parts and Accessories of such Articles | $20.1B | 15.2% |
| 2 | Nuclear Reactors, Boilers, Machinery and Mechanical Appliances; Parts thereof | $14.6B | 11.1% |
| 3 | Vehicles other than Railway or Tramway Rolling-Stock, and parts and accessories thereof | $13.2B | 10.0% |
| 4 | Mineral Fuels, Mineral Oils and Products of their Distillation; Bituminous Substances; Mineral Waxes | $11.3B | 8.5% |
| 5 | Plastics and Articles thereof | $6.2B | 4.7% |
| 6 | Pharmaceutical Products | $5.5B | 4.1% |
| 7 | Iron and Steel | $4.4B | 3.3% |
| 8 | Articles of Iron or Steel | $4.0B | 3.0% |
| 9 | Optical, Photographic, Cinematographic, Measuring, Checking, Precision, Medical or Surgical Instruments and Apparatus; Parts and Accessories thereof | $3.1B | 2.4% |
| 10 | Rubber and Articles thereof | $2.3B | 1.8% |
05Trade Partner Map
06Analysis
Imports Held Essentially Flat After a 2022 Peak
Romania imported $131.96 billion worth of goods in 2023, down 0.6% from $132.70 billion in 2022. That 2022 total was the high point of the past five years, and the tiny pullback that followed left the total essentially unchanged rather than genuinely declining.
Imports stood at $96.64 billion in 2019, then fell to $92.06 billion in 2020 as the pandemic disrupted global trade. Recovery followed quickly. The total climbed to $116.40 billion in 2021 and jumped further to $132.70 billion in 2022, before holding almost exactly steady at $131.96 billion in 2023. That plateau, following four years of strong and often rapid growth, looks like an economy settling into a new, larger trading range rather than one losing momentum. Romania's imports and exports moved in almost the same direction across this five-year window. Both fell in 2020, both climbed sharply through 2021 and 2022, and both roughly held their ground in 2023, covered from the other side in the companion export data for this country. That parallel movement is itself informative. When a country's import and export totals track each other this closely year after year, it usually means the same underlying industries drive both sides of the trade ledger.
The Same Automotive Categories Dominate Both Sides of Romanian Trade
Electrical machinery led every import category in 2023, worth $20.10 billion, or 15.2% of the total. Machinery and mechanical appliances followed at 11.1% ($14.59 billion), and vehicles added 10.0% ($13.21 billion). Mineral fuels contributed 8.5% ($11.25 billion). Those are the same four categories that also lead Romania's export list, covered in the companion export data for this country, and they appear in nearly the same order on both sides of the ledger. That kind of alignment between a country's leading import categories and its leading export categories is uncommon in this dataset. It shows up most clearly in economies built around assembly and component manufacturing, where the same broad product classifications capture both the raw inputs arriving and the finished goods leaving.
Plastics added 4.7% ($6.24 billion), and pharmaceutical products contributed 4.1% ($5.47 billion). Iron and steel added 3.3% ($4.35 billion), and iron and steel articles contributed 3.0% ($3.99 billion). Optical and measuring instruments added 2.4% ($3.10 billion), and rubber, tires prominent among them, closed out the top ten at 1.8% ($2.32 billion), the same category that appears near the top of Romania's export list as well.
That overlap is not a coincidence. Dacia-Renault and Ford, the two automakers anchoring Romania's export economy, source a large share of their components, electronics and raw materials from abroad before assembling finished vehicles domestically. Electrical wiring, mechanical parts, tires and even some finished vehicles flow into the country to support an industry that then ships a much larger volume of finished cars and components back out.
Germany Supplies Nearly a Fifth of Romania's Imports
Germany supplied 19.4% of Romania's imports in 2023, worth $25.59 billion, the largest single partner by a wide margin. Italy ranked second at 8.7% ($11.42 billion), and Hungary followed at 6.5% ($8.54 billion). Together, those three suppliers made up 34.5% of total import value.
Poland added 6.2% ($8.24 billion), and China contributed 5.5% ($7.31 billion). Turkey added 5.2% ($6.89 billion), and Bulgaria contributed 4.7% ($6.15 billion). The Netherlands added 4.3% ($5.66 billion), and France contributed a nearly identical 4.3% ($5.64 billion). Austria closed out the top ten at 3.5% ($4.62 billion).
Germany's position as both Romania's largest supplier and its largest customer, covered in the companion export data for this country, reflects just how tightly the two economies are linked through the same automotive supply chain. Parts and components move from German suppliers into Romanian assembly plants, and finished vehicles and components move back the other way. That two-way relationship is not unique to Germany here, either. Several other countries near the top of both partner lists, Italy, Hungary and Poland among them, show the same pattern of buying from Romania while also supplying it, a signature of deep regional supply-chain integration rather than a simple one-directional trade relationship.
Taken together, Romania's 2023 import data mirrors its export profile almost category for category, describing an economy positioned firmly in the middle of an integrated European automotive supply chain, buying inputs from largely the same countries it sells finished products to.