Sourcing razor-blade strip from China

Duty on unfinished razor-blade strip

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 1 October 2026, heading 7220 covers flat-rolled stainless steel less than 600 mm wide. The supplied lines carry 0% duty for goods from China, with no listed anti-dumping or countervailing duty, steel measure, suspension or import control. This guide concerns strip supplied for blade manufacture.

Cold-rolled strip not further worked is divided by thickness and nickel content. Perforated and otherwise worked strip have separate branches. Ask your customs broker to review heat treatment, punching and other processing before selecting a line. Treat finished razor blades as a separate classification question. See the wider stainless steel strip guide.

The commodity code must appear on the import declaration. Give your broker the chemistry certificate, dimensions and processing history, and confirm the commodity code before dispatch. Recheck the tariff for the actual shipment. Zero customs duty does not remove import VAT; see UK import duty and VAT.

Specify strip for your blade-making process

Agree the steel chemistry with the blade manufacturer, including carbon and chromium, and specify whether the strip arrives annealed or hardened. Set thickness, width, flatness, camber, edge condition and surface finish against your drawing. Include coil winding direction, core dimensions, permitted welds and protective packing so the material feeds through your equipment.

Approve a sample through your intended punching, hardening and sharpening process. Record the resulting hardness, edge condition and corrosion performance as purchase acceptance criteria. Request heat-linked chemistry and mechanical test results, rather than accepting a general stainless steel description.

UK REACH generally covers substances on their own, in mixtures and in articles. Ask for the alloy composition and details of any coating or protective treatment so your adviser can assess the relevant obligations before import and supply.

Worked duty example

Illustrative example, not a quote: Illustrative trial consignment of stainless steel razor-blade strip coils under 7220 20 89 90, invoiced at £1,800 free on board, with £600 of freight and insurance to the UK. The customs value is £2,400. Duty at 0% is £0. Import VAT at 20% is charged on the customs value plus duty, £2,400, so it is £480. With no duty, the only import tax is the VAT, which a VAT-registered importer can usually reclaim. The import duty and VAT guide explains each step.

Inspection checklist

Identity: match coil labels and heat numbers to the mill certificate and purchase specification; verify chemistry where substitution would affect hardening.

Dimensions: measure thickness across and along sampled strip, check slit width, camber and flatness, and compare with the agreed tolerances.

Edges and surface: inspect slit burrs, edge cracks, scratches, pits and rust; check that packing has kept the coils dry and protected.

Processing trial: run sampled material through the intended blade-making process and compare hardness, sharpening behaviour and corrosion results with the approved sample. Arrange quality inspection around these checks.

What goes wrong

A supplier substitutes general-purpose stainless strip for the chemistry approved for blade manufacture. Incoming dimensions may pass while the material fails to achieve the required hardness or produces a fragile sharpened edge. Keep chemistry approval and a processing trial tied to the supplied heat.

Slitting burrs and camber disrupt feeding, surface pits remain after sharpening, and damp packing leaves corrosion marks. Mixed heats or unrecorded coil welds make inconsistent results harder to trace. Agree how affected coils will be identified, isolated and assessed before production.

Cambridge China Bridge sources these products for UK businesses, checking the factory and the documents before shipment. See factory verification. For repeat volumes, see container programmes.