Sourcing plastic moulding machines from China

Zero duty

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 25 September 2026, injection moulding machines, extruders, blow moulding machines, vacuum moulding and thermoforming machines, presses and other moulding machinery, machines for foam products, size reduction equipment, mixers and kneaders, cutting machines and parts of heading 8477 carried 0% duty on goods from China, with no anti-dumping measure. For laser cutting equipment, see our laser cutters and plasma machines sourcing guide. For extrusion equipment, see our guide to sourcing plastic extrusion lines. For bottle production projects, see our bottle filling machine sourcing guide.

Moulds and dies are in heading 8480 and are entered separately when shipped on their own, which matters when a machine and its tools arrive together; confirm the commodity code. For mould-making equipment, see our drilling and milling machines sourcing guide.

High-risk machinery and standards

The Annex IV list in Schedule 2 to the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 includes injection or compression plastics moulding machinery with manual loading or unloading, so those machines need a stricter conformity route, either full application of the designated standards or third-party assessment. The safety standard for injection moulding machines is EN ISO 20430, for extruders the EN 1114 series and for blade granulators EN 12012-1. Ask which route and standards the maker used, for the declaration of conformity and the UKCA or CE marking.

Worked duty example

An invented example rather than a quote: two 250-tonne injection moulding machines, commodity code 8477 10 00 00, bought for £64,000 free on board, with £5,000 of freight and insurance, so £69,000 is the value customs works from. No duty is due on injection moulding machines; import VAT at 20% of £69,000 is £13,800. If you are VAT-registered, that VAT is normally reclaimable. See calculating UK import duty and VAT for the method.

Inspection checklist

Factory acceptance test: the machine run at the maker's plant with the buyer's own mould or a representative one, for an agreed number of cycles at production settings, with clamp force, shot size, cycle time and part weight recorded against the quotation and the test parts shipped back for checking.

Safety: guards and interlocks checked against the safety standard the maker declared, such as EN ISO 20430 for injection moulding machines or the EN 1114 series for extruders, interlocking devices checked to BS EN ISO 14119 so they cannot be easily defeated, electrical equipment checked against BS EN 60204-1, and hydraulic systems against BS EN ISO 4413.

Documents and supply: the technical file summary, declaration of conformity, conformity route used for Annex IV machines, English controller screens and manuals, wiring diagrams and a spare parts list checked before shipment, with the UK supply voltage and plug arrangement confirmed on the nameplate.

What goes wrong

Plastics machines fail on guarding, controls and the process. Safety gates with interlocks that can be defeated, or no hydraulic safety on the mould area, stop a machine at the customer's safety inspection. Controllers arrive with Chinese-only screens or locked software, heater bands and thermocouples are cheap and fail early, and a machine whose clamp force or shot size is quoted optimistically cannot run the part it was bought for.

Agree a factory acceptance test running your own mould or a representative part, check the gate interlocks and emergency stops, the English controller language and software access, the electrical supply and the energy use at your cycle time, and ask for the spare parts list and hydraulic and electrical diagrams. Crate machines with the platens and screws protected against rust.

Cambridge China Bridge sources injection moulding machines, extruders, blow moulders and granulators, with conformity, acceptance tests and spare parts agreed before the order. Find out how we source production machinery.