España, cada vez más dependiente de China: ya es su primer proveedor mundial

Spain, increasingly dependent on China, now ranks as the country's top global supplier, according to wire material. During the EU's struggle to address and adapt its economic and trade relations with China, Spain's government under Pedro Sánchez has actively pursued a strategy of maximum closeness to the regime in Beijing, evidenced by its four visits to China in just four years, with the last one in April.

The objective is to strengthen Spain's trade relations with China, the world's second-largest economy, and indirectly contribute to the consolidation of ties between China and the EU, a view not shared by most European countries. These countries view China as a significant threat to the EU bloc and need to address it, as demonstrated at the last European Council summit in June.

The EU's daily deficit in goods with China has reached around 1,000 million euros, and for the first time in history, all EU countries registered a deficit with Beijing in 2025. There is a consensus within the EU that this situation is unsustainable and needs to be worked on and reversed. With this background, it is clear that Spain-China relations have tightened in recent times, but clearly to the benefit of the Asian country, which is selling more products to Spain while Spanish exports grow at a smaller proportion, driving up the national commercial deficit with China.

As shown, two buttons illustrate this. In 2025, Spanish sales to the Chinese market grew by 6.8%, while imports from China increased by 11.2%, catapulting the national deficit to 42,278 million euros, an increase of 12%. Between January and June of this year, the imbalance was even higher, with Spanish exports to the giant in Asia only growing by 1.3%, while purchases there surged by 10.1%.

The result is a 22,599 million euro commercial deficit for Spain in six months, 11.8% more. A significant imbalance has been present for a long time and has worsened. In 2019, Spain imported from China goods worth 29,154 million euros; in 2025, this figure skyrocketed to 50,249 million, a 72% increase, while Spanish exports to China barely went from 6,800 million to 7,971 million, a 17.2% increase.

With these numbers, it is no wonder that China has become Spain's main supplier of goods, relegating Germany, traditionally the country's main foreign purchases origin, to second place. This recent report by the Economic Team (Ee) warns of a fundamental change in Spain's commercial structure, in which China has assumed a prominent role.

According to this analysis, the shift in Spain's commercial structure has already taken place, and even expanded, in the first half of 2026. Between January and June, Spain imported from Germany goods worth 26,017 million euros, compared to 26,600 million acquired from China, a difference of almost 600 million euros. China had already surpassed Germany as Spain's primary supplier in some semesters, such as January to June 2022, but now the trend appears to consolidate and point to the gradual consolidation of this shift.

The relationship is clearly asymmetrical. Regardless, the data shows that Spain is seeing its commercial dependence on China increase in a context where, additionally, the relationship between both countries remains clearly asymmetrical. In 2025, China represented only 2% of Spain's total foreign sales, while the Asian country accounted for 11.3% of its imports, driving the bilateral commercial deficit above 42,000 million euros, the highest Spain has with any commercial partner.

As to the causes of this growing commercial dependence, experts attribute the evolution of the bilateral relationship to the strengthening of the Chinese industrial model, the growing weight of its technological sectors, and the reorientation of some of its exports towards Europe due to trade tensions with the United States and the increase in tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

However, this maneuver involves risks for a country that, as is logical, puts its own interests first. And for Spain, the data show that its commercial dependence on China is increasing in a context where, additionally, the relationship between both countries remains clearly asymmetrical.