Italy-China trade: the 2024 figures

Understanding the real scale of trade between Italy and China helps frame the context in which every company that buys or sells on both markets operates. The numbers tell of a deep, growing relationship, but also a heavily unbalanced one.

How much the trade is worth

In 2024, trade between Italy and China reached around 70 billion euros. The flow, however, is asymmetric:

Imports from China into Italy: around 52 billion euros
Italian exports to China: around 18 billion euros

The result is a trade deficit of around 34.1 billion euros in 2024, almost double the 18.7 billion of 2019.

Rapid growth

Italian imports from China have grown by 62% in six years (2019-2025), with a further acceleration of 29.3% in the first seven months of 2025. China remains one of Italy’s main trading partners, especially on the supply side.

What Italy imports

Most of the Chinese surplus is concentrated in a few industrial sectors:

Chemicals: around 8.1 billion euros
Computers, electronics and optics: around 7.5 billion euros
Electrical equipment: around 6 billion euros
Machinery: around 6 billion euros

Some Italian sectors are particularly dependent on Chinese supplies: furniture (26.9%), textiles (24.1%) and electrical equipment (21.7%).

What it means for companies

Numbers of this scale point to a mature market rich in opportunity, but also to terrain where the difference lies in how you buy. More trade means more suppliers, more intermediaries and more risk of wrong choices.

Trade is growing; the ability to select the right supplier and verify its reliability becomes the real competitive advantage.

This is exactly where Liwola steps in: turning a vast, complex market into an overseen path, from supplier selection to product conformity.

Sources

Unimpresa, “The Italy-China deficit has doubled since 2019” (analysis based on ISTAT data)
ICE, Country Note China 2024

Want to operate on this market with a reliable point of reference? Contact Liwola.