Market evolution: Ceramic building bricks (CN 6904) — 2015–2025

Introduction

This report examines the evolution of European Union trade in ceramic building bricks, flooring blocks, and related products classified under Combined Nomenclature code 6904 over the 2015–2025 period. The analysis covers both the EU's trade with non-EU countries and the internal structure of production and specialization. The data reveals a market that has undergone significant transformation: while the EU has remained a strong net exporter throughout the decade, the composition and direction of trade, price dynamics, and production volumes have shifted considerably. Three overarching trends emerge — a dramatic escalation in unit values, a reorientation of trade flows driven by geopolitical disruption, and a steep decline in EU production volumes that raises questions about long-term structural capacity.

The product category CN 6904 bundles two sub-headings: 690410 (building bricks) and 690490 (flooring blocks, support or filler tiles and similar products). Building bricks account for the overwhelming majority of trade volumes and are therefore the dominant driver of aggregate dynamics Scope & Definitions.

1. A Decade of Rising Values and Shrinking Volumes

1.1 EU exports surged in value despite falling tonnage

The most striking macro-level dynamic is the divergence between export values and export quantities. Between 2015 and 2025, the total value of EU extra-EU exports of CN 6904 grew from €177.3 million to €297.5 million (+67.8%), while export volumes actually declined from 1.97 million tonnes to 1.27 million tonnes (−35.7%) General Overview.

This apparent paradox is explained by a sharp rise in average export unit values, which climbed from €90.0 per tonne in 2015 to €234.7 per tonne in 2025 — a cumulative increase of +160.8%. The steepest acceleration occurred between 2020 and 2022, coinciding with post-pandemic supply-chain bottlenecks and surging energy costs across Europe. Export prices peaked at approximately €252/t in 2023 before easing slightly in 2025.

1.2 Imports grew more dramatically from a smaller base

EU imports of CN 6904 grew at an even faster pace in relative terms, rising from €10.1 million in 2015 to €46.3 million in 2025 (+358.5%). Import volumes expanded from 145,000 tonnes to 363,000 tonnes (+150.5%), and import prices nearly doubled from €69.7/t to €127.6/t (+83.2%). The peak import year was 2022, when both value (€51.2 million) and quantity (468,000 tonnes) reached their maximum levels before moderating somewhat in 2023–2025 General Overview.

1.3 The EU's trade surplus widened, powered by unit-value gains

Despite faster import growth in percentage terms, the EU's trade balance in CN 6904 remained strongly positive and actually widened over the period. The surplus grew from €167.2 million in 2015 to €251.1 million in 2025 (+50.2%), reaching a peak of €317.1 million in 2022. The EU's net import reliance deepened from −1.4% in 2015 to −9.6% in 2025, confirming that the bloc has become an even stronger net exporter in value terms relative to its domestic market. Meanwhile, trade intensity and export propensity both roughly quintupled, indicating that the EU brick sector has become substantially more oriented towards external markets.

2. Geopolitical Reorientation of Trade Partners

2.1 The United Kingdom: the dominant and increasingly vital export partner

The United Kingdom absorbed €200.1 million of EU CN 6904 exports in 2025, representing 67% of total extra-EU export value. This figure has roughly doubled since 2015 (from €97.4 million, +105.4%). The UK's importance grew further after Brexit, as EU exporters lost seamless access and must now navigate customs procedures, yet the geographic proximity and sustained construction demand ensured continued flows General Overview — Top Partners.

An anomalous entry in the data is the category "Countries and territories not specified for commercial or military reasons," which surged from near-zero in 2015 to €86.1 million by 2025. This likely reflects re-classification of certain trade flows or transit movements and warrants caution when interpreting aggregate totals.

2.2 Russia's collapse reshaped export geography

Exports to the Russian Federation plummeted from €22.1 million in 2015 to just €1.9 million in 2025 (−91.5%). The data identifies a severe supply shock in 2024, with an abnormality score of 3.8 and a −97.2% year-on-year shift, clearly linked to the progressive tightening of EU sanctions following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine Volatility & Shocks. Russia was once the EU's third-largest extra-EU export market; its near-total disappearance has concentrated export flows more heavily on the UK and a handful of other partners.

2.3 Switzerland and Norway: stable but price-volatile partners

Switzerland and Norway have remained consistent secondary markets, with Swiss exports barely changing (€15.3M → €15.0M, −1.5%) and Norwegian exports growing moderately (€5.3M → €7.3M, +37.3%). However, both partners experienced significant price shocks:

• Norway (2021): A dramatic price spike with an abnormality score of 41.8 and a +109.3% unit-value shift, likely driven by post-COVID construction surges and supply constraints.
• Switzerland (2022): A more moderate price shock (+24.5%, abnormality 2.6), coinciding with the broader European energy-price surge Volatility & Shocks.

2.4 Rising imports from Serbia, the UK, and Ukraine

On the import side, Serbia has emerged as the EU's leading extra-EU supplier, with import values surging from €5.1 million in 2015 to €21.1 million in 2025 (+316.3%). Serbia's competitive position reflects both geographic proximity to several EU member states and lower production costs. Türkiye (+2,111.5%) and Ukraine (+852.5%) also recorded explosive growth, albeit from much smaller bases General Overview — Top Partners.

Notably, the United Kingdom also became a significant source of imports into the EU, with values rising from €2.3 million to €16.6 million (+631.9%), reflecting bidirectional trade flows across the Channel in the post-Brexit environment.

2.5 Growing import concentration contrasts with more diversified export markets

The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) for imports by value rose moderately from 3,150 to 3,434 (+9.0%), remaining in the "moderately concentrated" range. For exports, concentration increased more sharply from 3,320 to 4,627 (+39.4%), reflecting the growing dominance of the UK as a single destination. By volume, both import and export concentration actually decreased slightly, suggesting a divergence between value and quantity-based market structures.

3. Declining Production Capacity and Divergent Sub-Segment Dynamics

3.1 EU production volumes have contracted sharply

The production data reveals a striking decline in EU manufacturing output of CN 6904 products. Measured in cubic metres, production fell from 5.76 billion m³ in 2015 to just 699.8 million m³ in 2025 (−87.9%). In value terms, the decline was less severe — from €4.95 billion to €3.09 billion (−37.5%) — indicating that higher-value products have partially offset the volume decline. The minimum value was recorded in 2020 (€2.33 billion), suggesting that the pandemic year marked the trough, with partial recovery thereafter.

This contraction in production likely reflects a combination of:

• Long-term secular decline in traditional brick construction in several EU member states.
• Energy cost pressures making domestic production less competitive.
• Consolidation and closure of smaller, less efficient plants.
• Competition from alternative building materials.

3.2 Building bricks (690410) dominate both import and export volumes

The sub-heading 690410 (building bricks) accounts for the vast majority of both import and export tonnages. In 2025, building-brick imports stood at 346,184 tonnes out of a total of 363,209 tonnes (95.3%), while exports reached 1,205,428 tonnes out of 1,267,742 tonnes (95.1%) Product Segment Breakdown.

3.3 Price trajectories diverged sharply between sub-segments

The two sub-headings exhibit markedly different price dynamics:

• Building bricks (690410): Export prices rose from €74.3/t in 2015 to €229.1/t in 2025 (+208%), while import prices climbed from €68.7/t to €122.1/t (+78%). The widening export-import price premium suggests that EU building bricks command a significant quality or branding premium in external markets.
• Flooring blocks and similar (690490): This smaller segment saw even more dramatic price inflation. Import prices tripled from €71.3/t to €239.2/t (+235%), while export prices remained broadly stable at around €353/t to €342/t. This implies that the niche 690490 products are high-value items that face limited price competition on the export side but have seen significant cost inflation for imports Product Segment Breakdown.

3.4 Specialisation patterns reveal a fragmented EU production landscape

The revealed comparative advantage (RCA) analysis for 2025 shows that several smaller EU member states are highly specialised in CN 6904 exports:

Belgium stands out as both the largest producer (31.4% of EU production) and a top exporter, while Denmark punches well above its weight in specialisation terms. Conversely, Ireland, Bulgaria, and Sweden show near-zero specialisation scores, indicating that their trade in CN 6904 is almost entirely import-driven Market Structure.

3.5 Belgian and Dutch exporters consolidated their dominance

Among EU member-state exporters, Belgium (€55.7M → €105.6M, +89.4%) and the Netherlands (€35.1M → €75.7M, +115.6%) have consolidated their positions as the two largest extra-EU exporters, together accounting for over 60% of total EU CN 6904 exports by value in 2025. Spain recorded the fastest growth among major exporters (+335.7%), rising from €6.8M to €29.6M, while Germany — once the third-largest exporter — saw its exports halve from €42.9M to €21.4M (−50.1%). On the import side, Bulgaria (€1.9M → €16.6M, +787.7%) and Ireland (€1.6M → €16.1M, +918.3%) became the largest recipients of extra-EU imports, reflecting construction booms and insufficient domestic capacity General Overview — Top Reporters.

Conclusion

The EU's market for ceramic building bricks (CN 6904) between 2015 and 2025 has been shaped by three converging forces: persistent price inflation, geopolitical disruption, and structural production decline. Unit values more than doubled across the board, driven by energy costs, pandemic-era supply shocks, and a broader inflationary environment. The near-total loss of the Russian export market — once worth over €22 million annually — redirected flows towards the UK and Western Balkans, while simultaneously increasing the EU's dependence on a single dominant export partner. The steep contraction in EU production volumes (−87.9% in cubic metres) stands in contrast to the stability of trade surpluses, suggesting that the EU has compensated for falling output through higher pricing and a shift towards higher-value product segments.

Looking ahead, the key vulnerabilities include the heavy concentration of exports on the UK market (HHI trending upward), rising import dependence from Balkan and Turkish suppliers, and the ongoing energy-cost pressures on EU manufacturers. However, the strong and widening trade surplus, the high specialisation of several member states, and the quality-premium pricing in export markets suggest that the EU brick industry retains significant competitive advantages — even as its physical footprint shrinks.