What is the EU polyethylene import price?

MatQuo shows the EU's polyethylene import customs unit value in euros per tonne — the declared trade value divided by net mass — updated monthly from official Eurostat COMEXT data. It is a trade average, not a spot or contract market price.

What is the EU import tariff on polyethylene?

The EU's standard most-favoured-nation import duty on polyethylene (HS heading 3901) is 6.5%. Origins with a free-trade agreement — such as South Korea — often enter at 0%, and a 2025 EU–US arrangement removes the duty on US polyethylene. Confirm the exact rate in the EU's TARIC system.

Where does the EU import polyethylene from?

The EU imports polyethylene from a range of non-EU producers including Saudi Arabia, the United States, South Korea and others. MatQuo lists the top origin countries by volume and value each month, from Eurostat COMEXT data.

Polyethylene (PE)

What the EU actually pays for imported polyethylene: the latest customs unit value in € per tonne, the tonnes moving in and out, the top non-EU origins and the duty that applies to each.

Live · Eurostat COMEXT + ECBHS 3901Updated monthly, about a two-month lagUnit values are declared trade averages, not spot prices

Material decision brief · reviewed 4 Sep 2026Evidence confidence: medium

Polyethylene: import values firmed while the EU remained a net importer

In the June 2026 Eurostat snapshot, the Extra-EU PE import unit value was €1,351/t, 25.7% above June 2025. Imports were 256,606 t and exceeded exports by 93,403 t. The broad EU plastics producer-price index was also higher year on year, but it is not a PE transaction price.

What changed

The customs average and broad plastics PPI both moved higher year on year. The United States represented 35.8% of recorded import value, ahead of Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

What did not

The metric remains a customs unit value for HS 3901, not a spot or contract quote. The data does not identify grade, Incoterm or supplier negotiation.

What buyers should monitor

Supplier-grade quote, origin eligibility, freight, EUR/USD, tonnes and origin mix. Run each real option through the Cost Impact Workspace.

Evidence for this brief

Source: Eurostat Comext, EU27 extra-EU trade, HS 3901, June 2026; ECB reference FX; broad plastics PPI as contextual evidence. Figures were retrieved from the same live MatQuo source pipeline on 4 September 2026. Revisions can change detailed monthly trade. These observations cannot establish the cause of the year-on-year move or today’s PE market price.

Polyethylene is the world's most-used plastic — the resin behind films, bags, bottles, pipes and packaging — so its cost feeds straight into the price of countless finished goods.

This page tracks the European Union's trade in polyethylene with the rest of the world, live from official data: the import and export unit values in euros per tonne (declared trade averages, not spot prices), the tonnes and value moving in and out, the trade balance, the euro–dollar rate, and — crucially — which non-EU countries the EU actually buys its polyethylene from. Below that you'll find the applicable EU import tariff on polyethylene and the customs HS/CN codes.

How this page is built. Every number above is fetched live in your browser from Eurostat COMEXT (EU international trade in goods, HS 3901) and the European Central Bank (euro reference rates). The unit value is the declared customs value divided by the net mass — a trade average across every shipment in the month, not a spot or contract quote; see how customs unit values differ from market prices. COMEXT publishes with roughly a two-month lag and revises earlier months, so the latest point can move. Duty rates are indicative and come from the European Commission's TARIC / Access2Markets; confirm the legal rate before you trade on it.

Worked example — illustrative FOB quote to landed cost

Assume an illustrative supplier FOB quote of €1,280/t, excluding international freight and insurance. This is not the customs unit value above or a current supplier offer.
Eurostat import values are already CIF: do not add international freight and insurance again.
Add sea freight and insurance to a north-European port, say €90/t → CIF €1,370/t.
Apply the duty for the origin you are buying from — 6.5% MFN for origins with no EU trade agreement → €1,459/t. An FTA origin at 0% skips this step entirely, which is why the duty table by country matters as much as the price.
Add local handling and inland haulage, say €20/t.

Landed cost ≈ €1,479/t — run your own numbers in the landed cost calculator.

Work with this figure Film weight calculator — turn a €/tonne price into a cost per m² of film.
Masterbatch cost — what an additive at a given let-down ratio adds per tonne.
Month-by-month polyethylene import statistics — the same series over time, by country.
Plastics production journey — feedstock, cracking, polymerisation and conversion.
Film weight from thickness and density — the background behind these numbers.

Polyethylene imports by origin country

Where the EU sources its polyethylene matters, because the applicable import tariff depends on the country of origin. Explore individual suppliers:

From Saudi Arabia → From the United States → From Qatar → From the United Arab Emirates → From South Korea →

For the month-by-month figures, see the EU polyethylene import statistics, or the full polyethylene import tariff by country.

What the numbers mean

The "unit value" is the declared trade value divided by the net mass — a customs-derived average price, not a live market or contract quote. "Extra-EU" trade is trade with countries outside the EU. All figures come from Eurostat's COMEXT database (EU international trade in goods) and the European Central Bank, reused under their free-reuse terms with attribution, and update monthly with roughly a two-month lag. MatQuo is an analytical tool, not investment advice.

Polyethylene import prices: reading EU unit values

The figures already displayed above are customs trade averages. Compare the same period, product scope and origin mix; do not interpret a change as a quote for an individual grade.