Sourcing compactors and piling rigs from China

0% duty

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 26 September 2026, piledrivers and pile extractors, snowploughs and snowblowers, coal or rock cutters and tunnelling machinery, boring and sinking machinery, other self-propelled machinery, and tamping or compacting machinery carried 0% duty on goods from China, with no anti-dumping measure. Excavators and loaders are in heading 8429, where some excavators carry anti-dumping duty, so confirm the commodity code; see the excavators guide.

Machinery, noise and vibration

All of these machines fall under the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008, with a technical file, declaration and UKCA or CE marking. Drilling and foundation equipment such as piling and rotary drilling rigs is covered by the safety standard BS EN 16228, which addresses stability, masts, winches and guarding. Vibratory plates and rammers are compaction machines listed for noise limits in the Noise Emission in the Environment by Equipment for use Outdoors Regulations 2001, so the guaranteed sound power must be tested and marked.

Hand-guided compactors transmit hand-arm vibration, and the declared vibration value in the instructions lets employers meet their duties under the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005, so ask for the measured figure and the standard behind it. Engines need a non-road emission stage. See the crushers and concrete mixers guide and the generators guide.

Worked duty example

Suppose, purely for illustration, you import 300 petrol plate compactors under 8430 61 00 00. At £60,000 free on board and £4,000 to ship and insure, the customs value is £64,000. With 0% duty on compaction machinery, the only charge is import VAT: 20% of £64,000, or £12,800. VAT-registered businesses usually recover that in their next return. Compactors are heavy and ship crated, so freight is about a sixteenth of the customs value. The method is set out in how UK import duty and VAT work.

What goes wrong

Compaction and piling machines fail on documents, vibration and wear. Noise labels and declared vibration values are copied from another model or missing, handles transmit far more vibration than declared because the anti-vibration mounts are poor, and plates crack at welds. Exciter bearings run hot and fail, engines lack the emission stage, and piling rigs arrive without mast stability calculations or winch certificates that site managers ask for.

Ask for noise test reports and vibration measurements for the exact model and check them against the label and manual, check anti-vibration mounts and handle design, inspect base plate welds, run each machine for a set period to check exciter bearing temperature, check the engine emission plate, and for rigs require BS EN 16228 compliance evidence, stability data and winch certificates before shipment.

Cambridge China Bridge sources plate compactors, rammers, piling and drilling rigs, trenchers and snow equipment for hire fleets and contractors, with noise, vibration and machinery documents checked before shipment. See our construction equipment sourcing.