Malta’s imports from China hit record €374M as trade ties double

Malta doubled its imports from China over the past decade, new EU data shows, highlighting the island’s growing reliance on the Asian superpower as a key trade partner.

Figures published by the EU’s statistics office last week show that Malta imported almost €374 million worth of goods from China in 2025, its highest ever tally. In 2015, Malta had imported €212 million in goods from China, with that figure dropping below the €200 million mark over the next two years, News.Az reports, citing Times of Malta.

Chinese imports surged in 2020, increasing in value by almost €100 million from one year to the next. Malta’s value of imports from China hovered around the €350 million mark ever since, peaking last year at €373.7 million, the data shows. These imports were largely driven by mechanical equipment (almost €76 million) and electronics (€67 million), with vehicles, furniture and clothing also being increasingly imported from China. The value of car imports, in particular, rose to more than €25 million in 2025, with motorcycles and larger vans each adding a further €2 million in the value of imports.

Meanwhile, Malta imported €20 million worth of air conditioners last year, the figures suggest. Over €20 million worth of electrical motors and generators were also imported from China throughout last year, according to Eurostat’s figures.

Although imports from China have continued to grow, things are different when it comes to exports. 

The value of Maltese exports to China have dipped in recent years, dropping from a high of €61 million in 2021 to just under €28 million last year.

Malta’s growing trade links with China echo those of the EU as a whole. In recent years, China has overtaken the US to become the European bloc’s most important trading partner.

Eurostat’s data shows that, though imports from China were on par with the US and the rest of the world until 2019, things changed at the time of the pandemic, with China moving well ahead.

Imports from the US picked up once again with the advent of the war in Ukraine, as the EU turned to the US for its energy needs as part of its strategy to minimise its dependence on Russian oil. In total, the EU imported €559.4 billion worth of goods from China, with €199.6 billion worth of items going the opposite way in 2025. This was an increase of 89% and 37% respectively compared to 2015.

A Central Bank of Malta report published in 2023 noted that although Malta’s imports from China had steadily increased over the previous decade, the country’s dependence on China was “relatively weaker” than that of the rest of the EU. At the time, China accounted for 11.4% of Malta’s non-EU imports, far lower than the EU’s 22.5% average, the report found.

Nevertheless, links between China and Malta appear to be stretching beyond trade. Earlier this year, figures presented in parliament showed that Chinese nationals accounted for almost half of all property purchases by people from outside the EU in 2025.

Meanwhile, the authorities and business leaders moved to strengthen ties between the two countries last year in a landmark visit to Shanghai by what was dubbed Malta’s largest-ever business delegation.

News.Az 

By Leyla Şirinova