While generally regarded as a resource-poor country, it has relatively large deposits of lignite, potash and rock salt as well as aggregate materials and soils for the construction industry. Germany also produces some oil and gas, mainly in North Germany and the North Sea.
Water, air, and soil are three natural resources that we cannot live without. The Forest Service strives to protect, maintain, and restore these valuable assets now and into the future. Water is one of the most important natural resources flowing from forests.
The key natural resources of Germany include timber, natural gas, coal, lignite, uranium, iron ore, arable land, construction materials, potash, nickel, salt, and copper. Globally, the country is: A leading producer of lignite.
Germany, which has relatively few domestic natural resources, imports most of its raw materials. It is a major producer of bituminous coal and brown coal (lignite), the principal fields of the latter being west of Cologne, east of Halle, south and southwest of Leipzig, and in Lower Lusatia in Brandenburg.
Four sectors dominate German industry: the automotive, mechanical engineering, chemical and electrical industry. Global players are Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW (all automotive), BASF, the world's largest chemical company with around 118,000 employees, and Siemens (electrical).
In areas of high natural fertility, wheat, barley, corn (maize), and sugar beets are the principal crops. The poorer soils of the North German Plain and of the Central German Uplands are traditionally used for growing rye, oats, potatoes, and fodder beets.
The main German export product: motor vehicles
Accounting for 15.6% motor vehicles and parts thereof of exports, was Germany's main export product in 2022. Machinery (13.3%) and chemical products (10.4%) ranked second and third, respectively, among the most important export items.
Germany predominantly sources its energy from fossil fuels, followed by wind, solar, biomass (wood and biofuels) and hydro.
Even at a global scale, Germany continues to be an important mining country. In 2016, it was the world largest producer of lignite, the third-largest producer of raw kaolin, the fourth-largest producer of rock salt and the fifth-largest producer of potassium salt.
Germany's major unspoiled habitats are in two main regions. The flat northern coast is home to sea life and wading birds, while the forested hills and mountains in the south are the best place to find wildcats, boar, ibex, and other large mammals.
Imports The top imports of Germany are Cars ($71.1B), Vaccines, blood, antisera, toxins and cultures ($41.6B), Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($41.1B), Packaged Medicaments ($32.3B), and Crude Petroleum ($29.2B), importing mostly from China ($134B), Netherlands ($129B), Poland ($89.4B), Italy ($ ...
Mittelplate - Germany's largest oil field
The Mittelplate field is located in the Wadden Sea. It is Germany's largest oil field and also produces more oil than any other in the country.
The most common categories of natural resources are minerals (such as gold and tin) and energy resources (such as coal and oil). The air, forests and oceans can also be classified as natural resources.
A natural resource is any material in nature that people use and value. Earth's most important natural resources include air, water, soils, forests, and minerals. Understanding how and why people use natural resources is an important part of geography.
Of the 83 billion tonnes of hard coal still in the ground in Germany, 36 million tonnes are considered mineable, but their extremely deep and complicated geological location makes mining too costly to compete on the world market.
Around one fifth of electricity produced in Germany comes from coal, and it's been increasing. The German government says that between July and September last year over a third came from coal, up 13.3% on the same period in 2021. Coal is the most climate-damaging source of energy.
Natural gas is the second most important primary energy source in Germany's energy mix, after petroleum.
Clean Energy Wire
Overall, renewables will have produced 46 percent of German power consumption in 2022 (up from 41% in 2021), UBA forecast. Germany saw the highest renewables share in electricity use to date in 2020 at 45.2 percent. UBA head Dirk Messner said the focus must be on expanding onshore wind power.
Germany and Russia have had a strong energy partnership for decades. Some 34% of Germany's crude oil came from Russia in 2021, BAFA data showed. Some 53% of hard coal received by German power generators and steelmakers came from Russia last year, according to coal group VDKi.
Germany's imports are mainly based on petroleum, cars and vehicle parts. Germany's most imported product is petroleum under different forms: crude, refined or gas and it constitutes almost 14% of the country's total imports. Then Germany's imports focus on vehicles and vehicle parts that together occupy almost 7%.