Sourcing bottle caps and closures from China

0% duty

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 26 September 2026, crown corks, capsules of lead or of aluminium for bottles, and other stoppers, caps, lids, bungs, seals and packing accessories of base metal carried 0% duty on goods from China, with no anti-dumping measure. Plastic closures are classified with plastic articles in chapter 39, so a closure's shell material decides the commodity code.

Food contact, liners and child resistance

Closures for food and drink are food contact materials under Regulation 1935/2004, and the sealing liner or gasket, often PVC or a polyolefin compound, must meet the plastics regulation 10/2011, including migration limits for plasticisers such as epoxidised soybean oil, which can migrate into oily foods. Ask for a declaration of compliance and migration tests for the liner and the internal lacquer, matched to the foods and fill temperatures you use.

Closures for household chemicals classified as hazardous under GB CLP may need to be child-resistant, tested to EN ISO 8317 for reclosable packs, and some need a tactile warning. See the metal cans guide and the packaging guide.

Worked duty example

An invented example rather than a quote: 5 million aluminium ROPP closures, commodity code 8309 90 90 90, bought for £60,000 free on board, with £2,500 of freight and insurance, so £62,500 is the value customs works from. No duty is due on metal closures; import VAT at 20% of £62,500 is £12,500. If you are VAT-registered, that VAT is normally reclaimable. Plastic screw caps would be classified with plastic articles instead, at a different rate. See calculating UK import duty and VAT for the method.

What goes wrong

Closures fail on the seal, the dimensions and the liner. Caps do not match the bottle or jar finish so they leak or will not apply on the capping line, application and removal torque are out of range, tamper bands fail to break or break on capping, and lug caps lose vacuum after pasteurisation. Liners migrate plasticiser into oily foods, lacquer scratches and rusts on tinplate, and print or colour varies between batches.

Check closure dimensions against the container finish drawing, run samples on your own capping line, measure application and removal torque and vacuum after processing, test tamper band function, ask for liner migration tests for your foods, check lacquer adhesion and corrosion resistance, and compare print and colour with the approved standard for each batch.

Cambridge China Bridge sources crown corks, aluminium screw caps, lug caps and other metal closures for drinks, food and chemical packers, with line trials and migration evidence agreed before production. See our closure sourcing service.