4. Imports of critical raw materials

Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) are vital imports due to their strategic importance for sectors undergoing green and digital transitions, as well as for defense. Finland and Norway show the greatest reliance on CRMs relative to their total intermediate imports, a much higher degree than Denmark and Iceland.

Analysis of CRM sourcing reveals distinct concentration patterns: Iceland sources most of its CRMs from China, while Norway overwhelmingly relies on the Rest of the World. For Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the majority of CRMs are secured through combined European supply chains, emphasizing strong regional preference. Finland’s sourcing of CRMs is the most geographically scattered, with its largest single share coming from the Rest of the World. The composition of CRM imports is specialized by country; for example, Nickel mattes represents over half of Norway's CRM imports. In contrast, Copper is the primary imported CRM for both Finland and Sweden.

Recently, there has been an active debate on so-called Critical Raw Materials (CRM) which are critical raw materials of strategic importance for technologies for the green and digital transition, as well as for defense and space industries. Examples of critical raw materials and their use are: Rare earth metals are key components of permanent magnets used in wind turbines motors, lithium, cobalt and nickel are used in battery manufacturing and silicon is used for semiconductors.

In order to secure Europe to meet its 2030 climate and digital objectives, EU has approved the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRM Act) in 2024. The legal act identifies 34 raw materials as being critical. The criteria for being classified as critical are due to their high economic importance and their exposure to high supply risk, often caused by a high concentration of supply from a few countries outside the EU.

In 2024, CRM imports constituted, on average, 6.2% of the imports of intermediate goods to the Nordics (Figure 4.1). The share of CRM imports is the highest in Finland (12.6%) and Norway (8.6%), and the lowest in Iceland (1.2%) and Denmark (2.8%).

Figure 4.1 Share of CRM of the total intermediate goods imports, % (2024)

From the resilience perspective, it is important to consider from which regions critical raw materials are imported from (Figure 4.2).

The analysis reveals two distinct patterns of high single-source dependency: Iceland sources over half of its critical raw materials from China, at 51.9%, while Norway relies overwhelmingly on the rest of the world (RoW) category, which accounts for a dominant 55.4% of its total imports (Figure 4.2).

For the three largest Nordic economies, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the "Other Nordic" and "Other European" regions combined represent a significant majority of their sourcing, emphasizing a strong intra-European supply chain preference.

Specifically, Denmark's regional focus is the strongest, with 68.1% of its CRM imports coming from Europe, underpinned by the highest reliance on its immediate neighbors, the other Nordic countries, which supply 53.4% of its materials. Denmark also shows the highest percentage sourced from the other BRIC+ category at 24.1%.

Figure 4.2 Import of Critical Raw Materials broken down by region/country 2024 (%)

Sweden follows a similar pattern of regional focus, with its combined Nordic and Other European sourcing reaching 63.3%. In contrast, Finland displays the most geographically dispersed import profile among the group. While its European reliance is moderate at 31.3% combined, the largest single share is from the rest of the world (36.2%), closely followed by the other BRIC+ (22.6%) group, indicating a broad global search strategy for these essential materials.

However, it should be noted that instead of raw materials, the Nordic countries are likely to import CRMs in a more refined form as part of components. These are missed in the previous analysis.

4.1 Denmark

Denmark's imports of critical raw materials were valued at €1.161 million in 2024, which accounted for 2.8% of the country's total intermediate imports. The share has decreased significantly, falling from 6.4% in 2022 to 3.5% in 2023.

Denmark imports more than 50% of CRMs from other Nordic countries, followed by BRICS+ (27.9%) and the other European countries (14,7%). Since 2022, the role of Nordic countries as a source of CRMs has increased substantially.

The most important imported critical raw material in 2024 (and also in 2022 and 2023) was hydrogen (Table 4.1).

Critical raw material	Imports, million EUR	Share of total CRM imports, %
Hydrogen	491	42.3%
Iron ore	419	36.0%
Pebbles and gravel	70	6.1%
Broken or crushed stone	53	4.5%
Zinc	15	1.2%
Top 5 in total	1,046.9	90.2%
Total CRM import	1,161

Table 4.1 Top 5 CRMs imported by Denmark (2024)

4.2 Finland

In 2024, Finland imported critical raw materials worth EUR 5.0 billion accounting for 12.6% of the total imports of intermediate goods. The share is substantially higher than in other Nordic countries. Compared to 2022, the share of CRMs has slightly declined from 15.2%.

Of the CRMs imported by Finland, 16.7% originated from other Nordic countries. Sweden dominates this regional trade, supplying 88% of Finland's total CRM imports from the Nordic region.

Five the most important CRM (based on the value of imports) accounted for 78% of Finland’s total imports of CRMs (Table 4.2). Within the top five list, the imports are relatively diversified in terms of materials.

Critical raw material	Imports, million EUR	Share of total CRM imports, %
Copper	1,771.9	35.1%
Nickel mattes	775.4	15.3%
Zinc	571.0	11.3%
Nickel	448.9	8.9%
Coking coal	367.1	7.3%
Top5 in total	3,934.4	77.9%
Total CRM import	5,039

Table 4.2 Top 5 CRMs imported by Finland (2024)

4.3 Iceland

Iceland imports only a small volume of CRMs, with a total value of just €45 million in 2024. Consequently, their share of total intermediate goods imports was low (1.2%). This figure has declined since 2022, when the corresponding share was 2.2%.

A distinguishing characteristic of Iceland’s CRM imports is the significant share held by silicon, which comprises more than 40% of the total (Table 4.3).

Critical raw material	Imports, million EUR	Share of total CRM imports, %
Silicon containing < 99,99% by weight of silicon	20	44.3%
Coke and semi-coke of coal, lignite or of peat	5	10.7%
Unwrought magnesium, containing >= 99,8% by weight of magnesium	4	10.0%
Petroleum coke, non-calcined	3	6.5%
Gravel for concrete and for road metaling and the like	2	5.1%
Top5 in total	34	76.6%
Total CRM import	45

Table 4.3 Top 5 CRMs imported by Iceland (2024)

4.4 Norway

Norway has the second-highest share of CRMs in its total intermediate goods imports across the Nordic region. In 2024, CRMs constituted 8.6% of intermediate goods imported by Norway, a decrease from 11.5% recorded in 2022.

The uniqueness of Norway's CRM imports lies in the major contribution of Nickel mattes, which accounts for over half of the total CRM imports (Table 4.4).

Critical raw material	Imports, million EUR	Share of total CRM imports, %
Nickel mattes	1,858.7	51.3%
Aluminum	453.3	12.5%
Zinc	279.8	7.8%
Manganese	260.8	7.2%
Phosphate Rock	..	..
Top 5 in total	..	..
Total CRM import	3,620

Table 4.4 Top 5 CRMs imported by Norway (2024)

4.5 Sweden

In 2022, CRMs accounted for 2.7% of the total intermediate goods’ imports of Sweden. Since then, the CRM import only increased marginally to 2.9% in 2024.

Much like Denmark, Finland, and Norway, Sweden exhibits a high concentration of CRMs in its imports. The top five critical raw materials comprised almost 70% of the country's total CRM imports (Table 4.5).

Critical raw material	Imports, million EUR	Share of total CRM imports, %
Copper	1,752.5	37.0%
Iron ore	402.8	8.5%
Nickel	383.4	8.0%
Coking coal	378.2	8.0%
Zinc	365.9	7.7%
Top 5 in total	3,282.8	69.4%
Total CRM import	4,731

Table 4.5 Top 5 CRMs imported by Sweden (2024)