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TOP 10
List of Romania’s Top 10 Exports

Romania shipped US$63.5 billion worth of goods around the globe in 2016, up by 56.4% since 2009 when the Great Recession kicked in and up by 4.8% from 2015 to 2016.
Romania’s top 10 exports accounted for over two-thirds (69.2%) of the overall value of its global shipments.
Based on statistics from the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook Database, Romania’s total Gross Domestic Product amounted to $441 billion as of October 2016. Therefore, exports accounted for about 14.4% of total Romanian economic output.
From a continental perspective, $51.7 billion or 81.4% of Romanian exports by value were delivered to other European countries while 10.4% were sold to Asian countries. Romania shipped another 3.8% worth of goods to Africa with 2% going to North American importers.
Given Romania’s population of 21.6 million people, its total $63.5 billion in 2016 exports translates to roughly $2,900 for every resident in that country.
Romania’s unemployment rate was 5.4% as of January 2017 down from 6.4% in April 2016, according to Trading Economics.

TOP 10 

The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Romanian global shipments during 2016. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Romania.

  1. Electrical machinery, equipment: US$11.7 billion (18.4% of total exports)
  2. Vehicles: $9.8 billion (15.4%)
  3. Machinery including computers: $7 billion (11%)
  4. Furniture, bedding, lighting , signs, prefab buildings: $2.6 billion (4.1%)
  5. Mineral fuels including oil: $2.4 billion (3.8%)
  6. Cereals: $2.3 billion (3.7%)
  7. Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): $2.3 billion (3.6%)
  8. Rubber, rubber articles: $2.2 billion (3.5%)
  9. Wood: $1.8 billion (2.9%)
  10. Articles of iron or steel: $1.8 billion (2.8%)

Cereals were the fastest-growing among the top 10 export categories, up 170.2% for the 7-year period starting in 2009 led by corn, wheat and barley.

In second place for improving export sales were Romanian vehicles which improved by 97.6%. Romania’s exported machinery including computers gained 94.9% followed by rubber and rubber articles sold to global clients up 88.9%.

Oil posted the slowest increase up 1.5% caused by a tepid increase in the value of crude oil sales.

Advantages

The following types of Romanian product shipments represent positive net exports or a trade balance surplus. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports.

In a nutshell, net exports is the amount by which foreign spending on a home country’s goods or services exceeds or lags the home country’s spending on foreign goods or services.

  1. Vehicles : US$2.7 billion (Up by 79% since 2009)
  2. Cereals: $1.8 billion (Up by 241.6%)
  3. Furniture, bedding, lighting , signs, prefab buildings: $1.7 billion (Up by 88.2%)
  4. Clothing, accessories (not knit or crochet): $1.5 billion (Down by -6.2%)
  5. Wood: $1.1 billion (Up by 54.4%)
  6. Ships, boats: $928.4 million (Down by -33.3%)
  7. Oil seeds: $913 million (Up by 183.6%)
  8. Rubber, rubber articles: $887.6 million (Up by 252%)
  9. Footwear: $608.1 million (Down by -23.6%)
  10. Tobacco, manufactured substitutes: $495.2 million (Up by 97.4%)

Romania has highly positive net exports in the international trade of vehicles, notably cars and motorcycles. In turn, these cashflows indicate Romania’s strong competitive advantages under the vehicles product category.

Opportunities

Romania incurred an overall -$11 billion trade deficit during 2016 down -19.2% from a deficit equal to -$13.6 billion for 2009.

Below are exports from Romania that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Romania’s goods trail Romanian importer spending on foreign products.

  1. Plastics, plastic articles: -US$2.7 billion (Up by 54.1% since 2009)
  2. Machinery including computers: -$2.3 billion (Down by -17.1%)
  3. Pharmaceuticals: -$2.3 billion (Up by 10.6%)
  4. Mineral fuels including oil: -$1.8 billion (Down by -34.2%)
  5. Other chemical goods: -$859.3 million (Up by 37.3%)
  6. Iron, steel: -$844.3 million (Down by -742.4%)
  7. Paper, paper items: -$726.6 million (Down by -11.5%)
  8. Manmade filaments: -$565.6 million (Up by 39.5%)
  9. Fruits, nuts: -$561.7 million (Up by 214.8%)
  10. Articles of iron or steel: -$495.5 million (Down by -33.2%)

Romania has highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits for plastics.

Companies

Romanian Export Companies

Not one Romanian corporation ranks among Forbes Global 2000 for 2015.

Wikipedia also lists Romanian companies engaged in international trade. Selected examples are shown below:

  • Antibiotice Iași (pharmaceuticals)
  • Arctic S.A. (household appliances)
  • Automobile Dacia (cars)
  • Daewoo-Mangalia Heavy Industries DMHI (ships)
  • European Drinks & Foods (food, beverages)
  • Farmec (cosmetics, personal hygiene)
  • Jolidon (lingerie, swimsuits)
  • Roman (trucks, buses)
  • Romstal (sanitary wear)
  • Tehnoton (home electronics, machinery)