How we build Trade and Transport

The data come from Comext, Eurostat’s database of detailed international trade in goods statistics (dataset DS-059334: extra-EU trade by mode of transport since 2002). Published monthly with a lag of about two and a half months (latest available period: July 2026). We keep a copy in our data warehouse and the website never queries Eurostat live. Reuse is permitted with attribution to the source.

The mode of transport must be declared in trade with countries outside the EU; in intra-EU trade it has been optional since 2001 and its coverage is not comparable. That is why this section measures only extra-EU trade. Spain’s complete foreign trade — including the EU, which accounts for most of it — is in our Foreign Trade section, with DataComex customs data: they are different universes and should not be added up or compared lightly. One visible consequence: rail carries almost no weight in this section because Spain has no rail link with non-EU countries — its rail trade is intra-EU and falls outside this universe.

• Value (€): exports are valued approximately FOB (excluding freight and insurance) and imports CIF (including them). A euro imported and a euro exported are not exactly the same measure.
• Weight: net mass of the goods. The gap between a mode’s share in value and in weight is editorial information: air moves little weight at high value; sea carries almost all the weight.

A confidential or missing cell is stored as empty, never as zero. Trade statistics are revised: every run reimports the latest months and, if an already published value changes, the previous one is archived — we never overwrite silently. Goods chapters are shown at HS2 level (the 99 chapters of the Harmonized System), the stable level for long series.

Comext does not identify ports, terminals, shipping lines or routes: it knows that goods came in by sea, not where. It cannot be claimed that Spain–China seaborne trade goes through any particular port. The day-to-day physical activity of ports is in the Maritime Radar; domestic rail transport, in the rail observatory (in Spanish). Attribution: “Source: Eurostat Comext (DS-059334). Compiled by EED Data”.