Sourcing injection moulds and tooling from China

Zero duty on moulds

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 25 September 2026, every line of heading 8480 carried 0% duty on goods from China, with no anti-dumping measure: moulding boxes for metal foundry, mould bases, moulding patterns, moulds for metal or metal carbides, glass and mineral materials, and moulds for rubber or plastics. For mould bases, see our mould base sourcing guide. For concrete tooling, see our concrete paving block mould sourcing guide.

Confirm the commodity code by the material the mould forms and whether it is injection or compression type. For rubber tooling, see our rubber compression mould sourcing guide.

The assist rule for moulds left in China

Most buyers never import the mould. HMRC's Method 1 valuation guidance says that if you provide tools, dies, moulds and similar items used to produce the imported goods, any part of their cost not included in the price charged by the seller must be included in the customs value. So a tooling charge paid to the factory is added to the value of the parts it makes, apportioned across shipments.

Keep the tooling invoice and your apportionment method with your customs records; the customs value guide explains the other additions.

Ownership and the tooling agreement

Put ownership in writing: the mould number, the price, that it belongs to you, that it will be used only for your parts, and how and when you can move it. Add a mould photo and a tag on the tool. The IP guide explains how to make that enforceable.

Specify steel grade, cavities, hot or cold runner, cycle time and guaranteed shot life, and who pays for maintenance.

Worked duty example

A hypothetical case, not a quote: you pay a factory £20,000 for an injection mould that stays in China and expect it to make 100,000 plastic housings. The first shipment of 25,000 housings under 3926 90 97 90 is invoiced at £30,000, with £2,000 of freight and insurance. Apportioning a quarter of the tooling cost, £5,000, gives a customs value of £37,000 instead of £32,000. Duty at 6% is £2,220 rather than £1,920, and import VAT is 20% of £39,220, or £7,844. The mould itself would pay 0% under 8480 71 00 00 if it were imported. The customs value guide covers the method.

Inspection checklist

Steel and hardness: ask for the steel maker's certificate for the cavity and core grade named in the tooling agreement, and measure hardness of the inserts by Rockwell to ISO 6508-1 against the specified range before the mould is assembled.

Trial parts: measure first trial samples on a coordinate measuring machine against the part drawing, using the tolerance grades of ISO 20457 where the drawing refers to it, and record the cycle time and process settings of the approved trial.

Tool condition: pressure-test every cooling circuit for leaks, check ejection, slides and hot runner zones over a run of the agreed number of shots, and confirm the mould nameplate, drawings, spare parts list and your ownership tag before sign-off.

What goes wrong

Moulds fail on steel, cooling and ownership. Soft or unspecified steel wears quickly and flashes long before the promised shot life, poor cooling channels stretch the cycle time and warp parts, and gates and ejector marks land on visible faces. Cavities are sometimes copied or the mould is used for other customers' orders, and moulds are held back as leverage when a buyer wants to move production.

Specify the steel grade and hardness, cavity count, runner type, cycle time and guaranteed shot life in the tooling agreement, review the mould flow analysis and design before steel is cut, approve first trial samples with a dimensional report, photograph and tag the mould, and record shot counts at each production visit.

Trials and approval

Approve the mould on first trial samples with a dimensional report, and sign off a golden sample before production. Ask for mould trial videos and the process sheet.

Cambridge China Bridge sources moulds and tooling, with ownership, customs value and trials settled before the order. See how our sourcing service works.

Related guides: Die-casting and foundry equipment from China.

For the duty on custom plastic parts and when they are classed elsewhere, see Custom plastic parts and articles from China.