Sourcing nickel sheet and strip from China

0% duty

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 27 September 2026, heading 7506 covers nickel plates, sheets, strip and foil, of unalloyed nickel and of nickel alloys, with separate lines for two listed alloy strips (alloy C276 and alloy N06030 in coils). All 4 lines carried 0% on goods from China, with no anti-dumping measure and no tariff suspension.

Nickel bars, wire and mesh are covered in our nickel bars and wire guide. Nickel-plated steel strip, widely sold for battery pack welding, is steel of chapter 72 with its own duty position, so confirm the commodity code from a material test, not the product name.

Grades and standards

Commercially pure nickel plate, sheet and strip are commonly specified to ASTM B162 as Nickel 200 or the low-carbon Nickel 201, and nickel alloys to their own ASTM or EN specifications with a UNS number. Name the standard, grade, temper and thickness tolerance on the purchase order and ask for an EN 10204 3.1 mill certificate.

Battery pack makers weld strip to cells, so they specify purity, resistivity, thickness tolerance, width and tensile properties, and test weld pull strength on their own equipment.

Specifying nickel strip

Specify grade, thickness and width with tolerances, temper (annealed or hard), surface finish, flatness and edge condition, coil or sheet form and size, and whether the product must be solid nickel. For foil, specify pinhole limits and interleaving.

Worked duty example

For a made-up shipment of 2 tonnes of pure nickel strip for battery tabs under 7506 10 00 00, add the £1,200 of freight and insurance to the £36,000 free-on-board price and customs sees £37,200. Duty on nickel strip is zero, leaving import VAT of £7,440, 20% of the customs value. For a VAT-registered buyer that is a cash-flow cost rather than a lasting one. The duty and VAT guide walks through the calculation.

Inspection checklist

Material: check nickel content with a handheld XRF analyser on sampled coils, and cut or grind an edge to confirm the strip is solid nickel rather than plated steel, which shows a steel core.

Dimensions and properties: measure thickness and width against tolerance, check hardness or tensile strength against the temper, and check flatness and burrs.

Documents and packing: match the mill certificate to the coil labels and check coils are packed dry with desiccant.

What goes wrong

Nickel orders fail on material, thickness and paperwork. Plated steel strip is supplied as pure nickel, which heats and corrodes in battery packs, thickness varies along the coil, strip arrives oxidised from damp packing, and mill certificates do not match the coils.

Test material on arrival and check a cut edge before accepting. See our quality inspection guide.

Cambridge China Bridge sources nickel strip and sheet for UK battery assemblers and fabricators, checking the rolling mill and its testing first. See factory verification.