German Exports Rise 3.9% in First Half as U.S. Shipments Fall 6.1%

Germany’s merchandise exports rose 3.9% in the first half of 2026 from a year earlier, reaching €817.8 billion, even as sales to the United States weakened. Imports increased faster, rising 4.7% to €712.1 billion, according to Germany’s Federal Statistical Office, Destatis.

The mixed picture leaves Germany with stronger overall trade than a year ago but a slightly smaller surplus. The country’s foreign trade surplus was €105.7 billion in the January-to-June period, down 0.7% from €106.4 billion a year earlier. The change reflects the fact that imports added €31.7 billion from the first half of 2025, slightly more than the €31.0 billion increase in exports.

The headline gain also masks a marked shift in where German goods are going. Destatis reported that exports to the United States, still Germany’s biggest individual export market, fell 6.1% to €73.1 billion. The decline was sharper for motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts, where exports to the U.S. dropped 17.2% from the same period last year.

U.S. remains Germany’s top export market despite the decline

The United States retained its position as the leading destination for German exports even after the first-half drop. Destatis noted that the comparison with the first half of 2025 is complicated by the timing of higher U.S. import tariffs on goods from the European Union, which began affecting the prior-year period only from April. The agency did not attribute the full decline in German exports to tariffs, and the trade data alone do not establish a single cause for the change.

Other major European markets moved in the opposite direction. German exports to France rose 7.6% to €63.2 billion, while shipments to the Netherlands increased 9.0% to €60.5 billion. Those gains helped offset weaker trade with the United States and China and show that the 3.9% overall increase was not broad-based across all of Germany’s largest foreign markets.

Exports to China fell 12.2% to €36.4 billion in the first half, leaving China ninth among the largest destination markets for German goods. That is a different position from China’s role in Germany’s total trade, which counts both exports and imports. On that broader measure, China remained Germany’s biggest trading partner in the first six months of the year.

The divergence matters because Germany’s export performance has traditionally depended heavily on manufactured goods sold into large overseas markets. A weaker U.S. result, particularly in autos, can therefore coexist with rising national exports when demand from other destinations is strong enough to compensate. The first-half figures show that this is what happened at the aggregate level, but they also point to a less balanced composition of growth than the top-line number alone suggests.

Faster import growth narrows the trade surplus

China generated €125.5 billion in total goods trade with Germany during the first half of 2026, making it the country’s largest trading partner. The United States followed at €123.7 billion, with the Netherlands third at €109.3 billion.

The import side helps explain China’s lead. Germany imported €89.1 billion of goods from China, up 8.8% from the same period in 2025. Imports from the United States rose 7.0% to €50.6 billion, while imports from the Netherlands edged up 0.7% to €48.9 billion.

Those flows changed the geography of Germany’s trade surpluses as well. The largest bilateral surplus in the first half was with France at €25.7 billion. The United States ranked second at €22.5 billion, followed by the United Kingdom at €22.3 billion. A year earlier, the U.S. had been clearly in first place with a surplus of €30.5 billion.

That reduction in the U.S. surplus is consistent with both sides of the bilateral trade data moving against Germany’s net position. German exports to the U.S. declined, while imports from the U.S. increased. The result does not mean the American market became less important to German exporters. At €73.1 billion, it remained the largest individual destination for German goods. It does mean that the bilateral trade cushion was smaller than a year earlier.

The national surplus also narrowed even though total exports increased. This is possible because the value of imports rose more quickly. For an export-oriented economy, the distinction is important: stronger gross trade can occur at the same time as a smaller net export balance. In the first half, Germany sold more goods abroad overall, but it also bought enough additional goods from overseas to reduce the surplus slightly.

June sets an export record, but major markets remain uneven

The half-year figures follow a strong June for German goods trade. In a separate monthly release, Destatis said calendar- and seasonally adjusted exports rose 0.9% from May to €139.3 billion, the highest monthly level in that adjusted series. Exports were 6.6% above June 2025. Imports climbed 4.4% from May to €123.9 billion, which reduced the adjusted monthly trade surplus to €15.4 billion from €19.3 billion in May.

The June destination data were again uneven. Exports to the United States fell 14.2% from May to €12.1 billion on a calendar- and seasonally adjusted basis. Exports to the United Kingdom rose 7.7% to €7.3 billion, while shipments to China slipped 0.3% to €6.2 billion. The monthly figures are not directly interchangeable with the unadjusted first-half totals, but together they reinforce the same broad point: aggregate German exports have been growing even as demand across major trading partners has moved in different directions.

Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy said in its August economic assessment that exports were a major contributor to second-quarter growth and that goods and services exports were 4.4% higher year over year since the start of 2026. The ministry also cautioned that trade-related and geopolitical uncertainty continued to cloud the sales outlook for German exporters.

For the first half, the official trade data leave Germany with a clear positive result in total exports but a less favorable mix in two of its most closely watched markets. The United States remains the country’s largest buyer of goods, but German sales there fell, and shipments to China declined even more sharply. Growth in France, the Netherlands and other markets was strong enough to lift the national export total, while faster import growth kept the trade surplus from expanding with it.