The United Kingdom shipped US$484 billion worth of products around the globe in 2018 according to the latest statistics from the International Trade Center. That dollar amount represents a -5.3% decline since 2014 but a 9.5% year-over-year gain from 2017 to 2018.
From a continental perspective, 54.2% of UK exports by value were delivered to other European trade partners (that percentage compares with 46.6% going to European Union members). Another 23.1% was sold to Asian importers while the United Kingdom shipped 15.2% worth to North America.
Smaller percentages went to Africa (2.3%), Oceania (1.5%) led by Australia and New Zealand then Latin America (1.3%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean.
Below is a list showcasing 15 of United Kingdom’s top trading partners in terms of export sales. That is, these are countries that imported the most UK shipments by dollar value during 2018. Also shown is each import country’s percentage of total UK exports.
United States: US$64.4 billion (13.3% of total UK exports)
Germany: $47 billion (9.7%)
Netherlands: $33.3 billion (6.9%)
France: $31.8 billion (6.6%)
Ireland: $28.3 billion (5.9%)
China: $27.5 billion (5.7%)
Switzerland: $25.4 billion (5.2%)
Belgium: $19.1 billion (4%)
Italy: $14.1 billion (2.9%)
Spain: $13.9 billion (2.9%)
Hong Kong: $10.3 billion (2.1%)
United Arab Emirates: $10 billion (2.1%)
Turkey: $9.5 billion (2%)
Japan: $8.3 billion (1.7%)
South Korea: $7.8 billion (1.6%)
Approaching three-quarters (72.5%) of UK exports in 2018 were delivered to the above 15 trade partners.
Turkey was the only top importers that decreased its purchases from United Kingdom from 2017 to 2018, down in value by -0.6%.
Among the other 14 countries, gains ranged from a minimum of 0.6% for Germany up to 28.5% for China.
