The Spanish Aluminium Window & Door Market: 2026 Report
If PVC is the material Spain imports, aluminium is the one it makes. Spain has one of Europe’s strongest aluminium-extrusion industries, and that single fact explains most of this market: aluminium has been the default Spanish window for decades because the country builds it at home and sells it to the world. This report traces the aluminium value chain through customs data — primary metal, profiles, finished windows — alongside the domestic industry. Trade values are customs values in US dollars (the international standard); domestic figures are in euros. Trade data covers 2021–2025; industry figures are the latest available.
It’s a companion to our Spanish PVC window market report — and the contrast between the two is the whole story.
1. Foreign trade — the aluminium value chain
As with PVC, three customs (HS) codes follow the product down the chain: primary metal, extruded profiles, and finished windows and doors.
1.1 Primary aluminium (HS 7601) — the raw metal
Spain is a heavy net importer of primary aluminium — it imported roughly $1.8 billion worth in 2024 against ~$0.8 billion of exports — because domestic smelting capacity has shrunk while demand from all sectors (transport, packaging, construction) stays high. Note this code covers all aluminium uses, not just windows; it matters here mainly as a cost input, exposing the whole chain to the London Metal Exchange price.
| Year | Imports (USD m) | Exports (USD m) | Net imports (USD m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2,000 | 1,078 | +922 |
| 2022 | 2,429 | 977 | +1,452 |
| 2023 | 1,746 | 734 | +1,012 |
| 2024 | 1,782 | 791 | +992 |
| 2025 | 1,987 | 697 | +1,290 |
Source: UN Comtrade, reporter Spain, HS 7601 (covers all aluminium uses).
1.2 Aluminium profiles (HS 7604.21) — the export engine
Here is where Spain flips PVC’s story on its head. In PVC, Spain imports its profiles from Germany and Belgium. In aluminium, Spain exports profiles by the boatload: hollow extrusions (the window and curtain-wall systems) shipped out at $500–580 million a year against under $100 million imported.
| Year | Imports (USD m) | Exports (USD m) | Net imports (USD m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 75.3 | 535.0 | −459.7 |
| 2022 | 98.4 | 713.3 | −614.9 |
| 2023 | 99.0 | 538.2 | −439.2 |
| 2024 | 88.8 | 502.0 | −413.3 |
| 2025 | 93.0 | 582.6 | −489.6 |
Source: UN Comtrade, reporter Spain, HS 760421 (hollow profiles). Negative net imports = net exporter.
Add the other extrusions (HS 7604.29 — bars, rods and solid profiles, ~$930 m exported in 2024) and Spain’s total aluminium-extrusion exports run to roughly $1.4 billion a year. The small import side it does have is concentrated in premium German and Swiss systems:
Where Spain's (limited) aluminium-profile imports come from (2025)
Share of hollow-profile imports by origin — note Spain imports little, exporting ~6× as much
Source: UN Comtrade, reporter Spain, HS 760421 imports by partner, 2025.
| Share of hollow-profile imports by origin — note Spain imports little, exporting ~6× as much | Value |
|---|---|
| Germany | 34% |
| Switz. | 22% |
| Israel | 10% |
| France | 6% |
| China | 5% |
1.3 Finished aluminium windows & doors (HS 7610.10)
The finished product follows the same pattern: Spain is a clear net exporter, shipping out roughly $80–93 million a year while importing $30–37 million. In 2025 exports outpaced imports by about 2.9 to 1.
| Year | Imports (USD m) | Exports (USD m) | Net imports (USD m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 39.8 | 89.5 | −49.7 |
| 2022 | 37.7 | 81.8 | −44.1 |
| 2023 | 29.2 | 80.1 | −50.9 |
| 2024 | 31.7 | 81.5 | −49.8 |
| 2025 | 37.5 | 93.2 | −55.7 |
Source: UN Comtrade, reporter Spain, HS 761010. Negative net imports = net exporter.
Finished aluminium windows: Spain exports far more than it imports
Customs value, 2025 (USD million)
Source: UN Comtrade, reporter Spain, HS 761010.
| Customs value, 2025 (USD million) | Value |
|---|---|
| Imports | $37.5m |
| Exports | $93.2m |
The export map reaches well beyond the neighbours. France alone takes over a third; then Portugal, the UK, Andorra, and a real long tail into Latin America (Dominican Republic, Chile, Mexico) and the USA — markets that buy Spanish aluminium for its design and large-format glazing.
Where Spain ships its finished aluminium windows (2025)
Share of finished window/door exports by destination
Source: UN Comtrade, reporter Spain, HS 761010 exports by partner, 2025.
| Share of finished window/door exports by destination | Value |
|---|---|
| France | 36% |
| Portugal | 13% |
| Dom. Rep. | 6% |
| UK | 5% |
| Andorra | 5% |
On the (smaller) import side, Portugal, Germany and Italy lead, with China climbing — a reminder that even in its home material, Spain faces low-cost competition on standard units:
| # | Origin | 2024 share | 2025 share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Portugal | 24.4% | 27.6% |
| 2 | Germany | 21.0% | 15.9% |
| 3 | Italy | 12.9% | 13.7% |
| 4 | China | 5.4% | 7.9% |
| 5 | Finland | 8.8% | 6.4% |
| 6 | Poland | 4.0% | 5.7% |
Source: UN Comtrade, reporter Spain, HS 761010 imports by partner.
1.4 The aluminium fabrication trade balance
Strip out the all-uses primary metal and look only at the fenestration chain (profiles + finished windows): Spain is one of Europe’s great aluminium-fabrication net exporters, running a surplus of roughly $1.2 billion a year — the mirror image of its near-balanced PVC chain.
| Indicator (USD m) | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Imports — hollow profiles (760421) | 88.8 | 93.0 |
| Imports — other profiles/bars (760429) | 213.5 | 255.9 |
| Imports — windows/doors (761010) | 31.7 | 37.5 |
| Total imports | 334.0 | 386.4 |
| Exports — hollow profiles (760421) | 502.0 | 582.6 |
| Exports — other profiles/bars (760429) | 930.1 | 912.3 |
| Exports — windows/doors (761010) | 81.5 | 93.2 |
| Total exports | 1,513.6 | 1,588.1 |
| Net imports (fabrication chain) | −1,179.6 | −1,201.7 |
Source: UN Comtrade, reporter Spain, HS 760421 + 760429 + 761010. Excludes primary metal (HS 7601).
2. Why aluminium owns the Spanish market
The trade numbers are a symptom; the cause is industrial. Spain — and Galicia in particular — is home to some of Europe’s largest aluminium-systems companies, and that domestic supply made aluminium the natural default for Spanish builders long before energy codes mattered.
The flagship is Cortizo: a record turnover above €700 million in 2024 (up ~20%), with 76% of sales exported across 81 countries and a workforce of around 3,900 — its top foreign markets being France, the UK and Germany, exactly as the export data shows. Nearby, Exlabesa clears €500 million. Add international systems sold widely in Spain — Technal (Hydro group), Schüco, K·LINE — and the country has both the manufacturing muscle and the brand depth that PVC simply can’t match domestically.
Aluminium’s product strengths reinforce the habit: slim sightlines and large glazing for Spain’s abundant light, durability against coastal salt, and the big sliding and panoramic systems that define modern Mediterranean homes.
3. The thermal-break problem — and where PVC eats in
Aluminium’s weakness is heat. Bare aluminium conducts, so to meet Spain’s building code (CTE) in anything but the warmest zones it needs a rotura de puente térmico (RPT) — a thermal break — which adds cost. The price ladder makes the squeeze visible:
- Non-thermal-break aluminium: ~€150–200/m² — only compliant in the mild CTE climate zones A and B.
- Thermal-break aluminium (32–36 mm) with triple glazing + argon: ~€300–450/m² — what colder zones require.
That upper band is where PVC — cheaper for the same thermal performance — quietly wins mid-market renovations. It’s the central tension of the Spanish market: aluminium dominates by industrial heritage and design, but every tightening of the energy code nudges cost-driven retrofit buyers toward PVC.
4. Demand — the same engines
Aluminium rides the same demand wave as the rest of the sector: Spain’s window and light-façade industry turned over an estimated €4.16 billion in 2024 (ASEFAVE, all materials), powered by new-build (+16.7%, 127,000+ homes started) and renovation (+7.3% in permits). But aluminium skews toward the segments where it’s hardest to displace — commercial and curtain-wall, premium residential, and large sliding/panoramic systems — while soaking up less of the cost-sensitive retrofit volume that’s driving PVC’s unit growth.
5. Outlook
Aluminium isn’t going anywhere — it’s Spain’s industrial strength and its premium-design and commercial default, and its export business is robust and globally diversified. The pressures are two: input cost, since Spain net-imports its primary metal and rides the LME price; and the energy transition, which favours thermal-break systems and increasingly steers cost-driven retrofit demand to PVC.
The likely shape of the decade: aluminium holds the high end and keeps winning abroad, while PVC takes share in mid-market replacement at home. Two materials, two very different trade stories — one Spain sells to the world, one it buys from Germany.
See the other side of this market in our Spanish PVC window market report, or our buyer-focused PVC vs aluminium guide.
Sources: UN Comtrade (trade flows, HS 7601/760421/760429/761010, reporter Spain, accessed June 2026); ASEFAVE (sector turnover, construction data); company reports via trade press (Cortizo, Exlabesa); CTE/market price ranges from Spanish construction-price references.
