Moving freight between the UK & Belgium?
Transport and customs service between the UK & Belgium?
Did you know that Belgium is the 7th largest trading partner with the UK in the 4 quarters upto Q1 2022, accounting for 3.6% of total UK trade? We regularly trade with many clients who use Belgium for their exit point for their goods leaving the EU. We recently read the HMRC’s trade & investment factsheet for Belgium. So please find some interesting facts below.
Belgium is fast becoming a preferred exit location from Europe for UK imports, with the port of Zeebrugge being very popular with European construction material manufacturers & the car industry.
We deal with many industries that are choosing to use Belgium to transport their goods out of Europe to the UK including construction, raw materials including plastics & steel among others. As with all business in a post pandemic and Brexit Britain, it is always useful within the transport industry to take an overview of the import and export landscape, in order to assist emerging industries and areas.
Refined Oil takes the top spot for UK exports to Belgium, however interestingly metal ores & scrap come in 5th.
During the same period the 2nd highest service type import from Belgium to the UK is transportation.
The South East of England conducts the most trade with Belgium with the HMRC’s recent trade report stating an export figure of £2.4bn or 16.8% of the total trade from UK to Belgium. In reverse, the UK imports £6.3bn to the South East which is 28.1% of the national total for Belgian imports.
With the data above in mind, this makes the South East of England ideally situated for the movement and transport of volume goods. Thankfully Salvatori logistics operates just outside Dover in Kent and is linked to fast motorway connections for routes all over the UK. We not only operate our own fleet of haulage trucks and flatbed trailers, we also work with many UK and Belgian logistics partners including the experienced and trusted UK owned business Lister International.
Although the data is from 2020, the HMRC report also quoted some very interesting statistics regarding UK VAT registered businesses trading with Belgium:
- In 2020, around 9800 UK VAT registered businesses exported goods to Belgium.
- In 2020, around 4800 UK VAT registered business imported goods from Belgium.
We will be interested to see the next report that is due to be released on the 19th Aug 2022 to see any updated information regards VAT registered businesses as per above. If you would like to read our source for statistics mentioned, you can via the full UK HMRC trade & investment factsheet for Belgium which was released on the 1st August 2022, we would highly recommend taking a look. We provide no statistical advice via our content, always undertake your own research when making business decisions.
We can however give full assistance for your freight & customs clearance processing. We know sourcing is hard for many businesses but your transport and customs doesn’t have to be. It is one thing sourcing or manufacturing the goods for import or export but transporting them and clearing them through customs in the UK or in the EU is an entirely different matter, you will need experts to guide you and make it easier. If you are looking to increase your EU & UK business interests and would like to discuss any freight handling requirements, our team is at your service. Please contact our team via email at customs@salvatori.co.uk. Our friendly transport team will be happy to help with any questions you may have.
Want to learn more about our customs clearance for freight, follow the link to read on.