Paper bag and box-making machines from China

0% duty

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 26 September 2026, other machinery for making up paper pulp, paper or paperboard, including cutting machines of all kinds, heading 8441, carried 0% on goods from China on all ten lines, including parts, with no anti-dumping measure.

Machines that make paper itself are in heading 8439 (see our paper-making machines guide), and bookbinding machines in 8440 (see our bookbinding machines guide). The paper and board you run on them are covered in our corrugated board and kraft paper guide.

Machinery rules

Each machine placed on the UK market must meet the essential health and safety requirements of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008, with a declaration of conformity, marking and instructions in English. The BS EN 1010 series covers printing and paper converting machinery, with part 3 for cutting machines such as guillotines and part 4 for converting and finishing machines.

Guillotines are among the most dangerous machines in a print or packaging works, so two-hand controls, light curtains and the knife guard are the first things to check.

Specifying a machine

Specify the product (bag type and sizes, box styles, tube diameters, moulded trays), paper and board grades and weights, output per minute, glue and handle systems for bags, printing or inline units, cutting width and clamp for guillotines, reel sizes for slitters, voltage and supply, and the tooling or moulds for your products.

Worked duty example

An invented example rather than a quote: one automatic paper bag machine with handle unit, commodity code 8441 20 00 00, bought for £165,000 free on board, with £8,000 of freight and insurance, so £173,000 is the value customs works from. No duty is due on paper bag machines; import VAT at 20% of £173,000 is £34,600. If you are VAT-registered, that VAT is normally reclaimable. See calculating UK import duty and VAT for the method.

Inspection checklist

Production trial: run your own paper or board at the factory and check product dimensions, glue lines, handle pull strength or box squareness, and output rate over an agreed run.

Safety: check guillotine two-hand controls and light curtains against BS EN 1010-3, check guards around nips and knives on converting machines against BS EN 1010-4, test every emergency stop, and check the panel against BS EN 60204-1.

Tooling and documents: check moulds, dies and formers for your products are supplied and match the drawings, and check the declaration of conformity, English manuals and spares list before crating.

What goes wrong

Paper converting machines fail on output, tooling and guarding. Bag machines cannot reach the quoted speed on recycled or lighter paper, glue lines or handles fail, moulds and formers for extra sizes cost more than expected, guillotine safety systems are not to the standard, and support is slow once installed.

Trial on your own paper, price tooling for every size up front, and check safety systems before shipment. See our quality inspection guide.

Cambridge China Bridge sources paper bag, box and moulded pulp machinery for UK packaging makers, checking the builder's references and test capability before an order. See factory verification.