Who Shipped the PTFE Germany Stopped Sending?

Germany shipped the United States 67 tonnes of PTFE in the first seven months of this year.

In the same seven months of 2025 it shipped 397.

An 83 percent fall over a seven-month window is a supply line coming off the book, and Germany is not the only origin doing it. The whole American PTFE import book is smaller this year, the kilos that remain are dearer, and the middle of the origin list has rotated inside a single trade cycle.

"If a fifth of the imported tonnes stopped arriving, who is actually covering your next requalification?"

Twenty-Three Percent Less, Nine Percent Dearer

Through July, the last month reported, the US brought in 5,204 tonnes of polytetrafluoroethylene under HS 3904.61 against 6,723 tonnes in the same seven months of 2025. That is 1,518 tonnes gone, or -22.6%.

The dollars fell by less. Declared value went $80.6m to $68.0m, -15.6%.

Work the two against each other and the landed average per kilo went $11.99 to $13.07, up 9.0% while the volume fell by nearly a quarter.

July on its own is the sharpest print in the series: 685 tonnes against 1,343 tonnes in July 2025, a 49.0% drop in a single month.

Who Stopped Shipping

Belgium is the cleanest exit. It sent 399 tonnes in the 2025 window and 18 in the 2026 one, a 95.4% fall.

That was the cheapest line in the book, under $3 a kilo, and it is gone. Germany's 83.0% fall is the other collapse (chart below).

Two origins grew into that space.

The Netherlands doubled, from 406 tonnes to 834, and is now the third-largest source of American PTFE at 16.0% of the book, behind India and China only. Italy added 110 tonnes, up 16.1%, and holds 15.3%.

So Europe as a whole barely moved. The five European origins on the chart shipped 1,960 tonnes last year and 1,845 this year, down only 5.9% in a book that fell 22.6%, which lifted Europe's share from 29.2% to 35.4%.

The rotation happened inside Europe, between plants, with the American buyer's total European tonnage roughly intact.