Romania's Exports by Industry: 2024–2026 Data for International Buyers

Key facts (data as of September 2026). Romania exported about €93.6 billion of goods in 2024 (INS), roughly 72% of it to other EU countries, with Germany, Italy and France as the three largest markets. Machinery, electrical equipment and vehicles make up close to half of the total. Romanian Supplier lists 11,113 approved Romanian companies across 18 industries; the largest groups are machinery & electrical equipment (3,987 companies), metals (3,300) and plastics & rubber (3,216). Sources: Romanian National Institute of Statistics (INS), Eurostat Comext, Romanian Supplier database.

Why does Romania's export structure matter to a buyer?

Export statistics tell you where a country has already proven itself to foreign customers: which industries ship abroad at scale, which markets they serve, and therefore which categories of suppliers are used to foreign compliance, customs paperwork and cross-border logistics. For a procurement team evaluating Romania as a nearshoring destination, the numbers below are the fastest way to see where supply depth exists and where you will be sourcing from a thinner base.

Romania is often skipped in favour of Poland, Turkey or Hungary. That is changing. Goods exports have more than tripled since EU accession in 2007 and now represent roughly a third of GDP, and the country sits inside the EU customs union, so an EU buyer pays no duties, no customs formalities and no import VAT at the border.

What are Romania's top export categories?

The table shows the approximate share of each product group in Romania's goods exports, using the Harmonized System (HS) chapters that customs statistics are reported in. Shares are rounded and based on INS and Eurostat data for 2024.

Read together, machinery and transport equipment account for close to half of everything Romania sells abroad. That is the profile of an economy embedded in European manufacturing supply chains, not of a commodity exporter: most of these goods are made to a foreign OEM's drawing, under EU technical regulations and an audited quality system.

Which countries buy Romanian goods?

About 72% of exports go to EU member states. The largest single markets, in order, are Germany (roughly one fifth of all exports), Italy, France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, the Netherlands and Spain; the United Kingdom and Turkey are the largest non-EU customers. For a buyer this has two practical consequences: a Romanian supplier that already ships to Germany or Italy works to the same documentation and quality expectations you will have, and transit times inside the EU are short (1–2 days by road to Hungary and Austria, 2–3 days to Germany and northern Italy, 3–4 days to the Benelux and France).

Romania runs a trade deficit — imports were about €126 billion in 2024 against €94 billion of exports — because its factories import components and raw materials that come back out as finished goods. That is normal for an economy integrated into European production chains, and it is a reason to check, for any given supplier, how much of the value is added locally.

How many Romanian suppliers are there in each industry?

National statistics measure value; a buyer also needs to know how many companies exist in a category. The following counts come from the Romanian Supplier database on 26 September 2026 and cover approved company profiles only. A company can belong to more than one industry.

The ranking mirrors the export statistics: the three deepest supplier pools are machinery and electrical equipment, metalworking and plastics. Textiles, furniture and wood follow — the sectors where Romania has decades of contract-manufacturing experience for Italian, German and Scandinavian brands.

Where are Romanian manufacturers located?

Supply is concentrated in a handful of regions. Bucharest and the surrounding Ilfov county host about 3,300 of the listed companies, but they are mostly trading, services and light manufacturing. Heavy manufacturing clusters are in the west and centre of the country — Timiș (558 companies), Arad (375), Bihor (526), Cluj (603), Brașov (464), Sibiu (340) and Mureș (345) — which are also the counties closest to the Hungarian border and to the EU road network. Furniture and wood cluster in the north (Maramureș, Satu Mare, Suceava, Bistrița-Năsăud, Harghita), textiles in the north-east (Iași, Bacău, Neamț, Vaslui) and the west (Timiș, Arad).

Every county has its own directory page, for example manufacturers in Cluj or manufacturers in Timiș, and every industry can be filtered by county, for example machinery suppliers in Timiș.

What should buyers check before choosing a Romanian supplier?

The statistics show capacity; they do not vouch for an individual company. Before you shortlist a supplier, confirm four things: its registration and financial standing (any Romanian company can be checked by its CUI tax number in the public registries), the validity of the certificates it claims (ISO 9001 and IATF 16949 certificates can be verified with the issuing body or in the IAF CertSearch database), its real export experience in your market (ask for references or shipping documents), and whether it manufactures in-house or subcontracts. Our guide to how to source manufacturers in Romania walks through each step.

Methodology and sources

National figures are from the Romanian National Institute of Statistics (INS) and Eurostat's Comext database for calendar year 2024; product-group shares are rounded to whole percentage points and grouped by HS chapter. Company counts are taken from the Romanian Supplier database on 26 September 2026 and include approved profiles only; industries follow the platform's 18-category taxonomy derived from HS sections, so a company active in several sectors is counted in each. Counts change daily as profiles are added and reviewed.

Frequently asked questions

What are Romania's main exports?

Electrical machinery and equipment (about 18% of goods exports), vehicles and automotive parts (about 17%) and industrial machinery (about 10%) are Romania's largest export categories, followed by refined fuels, rubber products, cereals, iron and steel articles, furniture, wood, plastics and instruments.

How much does Romania export per year?

Romania exported about €93.6 billion of goods in 2024, according to INS, roughly a third of its GDP. Around 72% of that went to other EU countries.

Which countries are Romania's biggest export markets?

Germany is by far the largest market, taking roughly one fifth of Romanian exports, followed by Italy, France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, the Netherlands and Spain. The United Kingdom and Turkey are the main non-EU destinations.

Which industries have the most suppliers in Romania?

On Romanian Supplier, machinery and electrical equipment (3,987 companies), metals and metal products (3,300) and plastics and rubber (3,216) are the largest industries, followed by chemicals, textiles and apparel, furniture and wood products.

Is Romania a good country to source from?

For EU buyers, yes in the categories above: suppliers work under EU regulations, there are no duties or customs formalities inside the single market, road transit to Germany takes two to three days, and labour costs remain well below Western Europe. The main caveats are a supplier base concentrated in a few regions and a wide spread in company size and export maturity, which is why supplier verification matters more than the country-level statistics.

Topics