Import/export HS code 78: Lead and products made from lead

Includes all types of lead products, such as raw lead, refined lead, and lead mixed with other elements

Why this is important if you are looking for potential customers in the UK:

  • It helps you understand the market size for your product in the UK.
  • It provides you with a list of potential leads who have bought similar products.

* UK only, last 24 months analysed

Imports by country

What this shows: Import market volume by exporter country into the UK.

Top 5 values

Country £
Australia 558,928,034
Ireland 38,082,186
Germany 9,948,860
Sweden 9,130,573
Egypt 7,902,857

Countries rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Countries are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month volume, right side by second 12-month volume, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Country First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
Australia 270,007,735 288,920,299 +18,912,564
Ireland 20,993,940 17,088,246 -3,905,694
Germany 6,560,934 3,387,926 -3,173,008
Sweden 7,819,316 1,311,257 -6,508,059
Egypt 3,452,833 4,450,024 +997,191
Mexico 2,124,385 5,363,001 +3,238,616
Netherlands 2,428,282 4,484,256 +2,055,974
France 839,307 4,335,846 +3,496,539
Belgium 1,364,408 1,644,595 +280,187
China 1,442,545 1,555,749 +113,204

Imports by country of origin

What this shows: Import volume by production origin country. Differences from exporter-country data can indicate re-export routes.

Top 5 values

Origin £
Australia 558,936,354
Ireland 31,646,481
Sweden 9,501,060
Germany 9,099,484
Egypt 7,902,857

Country of origin rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Origin countries are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month import value, right side by second 12-month import value, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Origin First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
Australia 270,016,055 288,920,299 +18,904,244
Ireland 17,731,389 13,915,092 -3,816,297
Sweden 8,219,803 1,281,257 -6,938,546
Germany 5,724,949 3,374,535 -2,350,414
Egypt 3,452,833 4,450,024 +997,191
Mexico 2,124,385 5,363,001 +3,238,616
Netherlands 2,426,439 3,254,920 +828,481
Belgium 890,488 3,781,555 +2,891,067
China 1,458,764 1,582,818 +124,054
United Kingdom 1,199,187 1,702,502 +503,315

Importers across UK regions

What this shows: Number of importing companies by UK ITL2 region.

Top 5 values

UK region Companies
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire 17
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 12
Merseyside 11
Inner London - West 9
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire 8

UK regions rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: UK regions are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month importer count, right side by second 12-month importer count, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

UK region First 12m Second 12m Delta
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire 13 11 -2
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 9 10 +1
Merseyside 7 8 +1
Inner London - West 8 5 -3
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire 5 6 +1
Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire 6 6 +0
Outer London - West and North West 4 5 +1
Essex 5 6 +1
Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire 4 4 +0
Shropshire and Staffordshire 4 4 +0

Import volume by transport

What this shows: Import value by transport mode used to bring goods into the UK.

Top 5 values

Transport £
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 622,255,313
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 31,084,001
Other 6,417,608
Air transport 4,384,461
Road transport 115,256

Transport rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Transport modes are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month import value, right side by second 12-month import value, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Transport First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 303,814,853 318,440,460 +14,625,607
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 15,339,924 15,744,077 +404,153
Other 3,265,651 3,151,957 -113,694
Air transport 1,679,241 2,705,220 +1,025,979
Road transport 75,206 40,050 -35,156

Import volume by port

What this shows: Import value handled by each UK port.

Top 5 values

Port £
London 568,757,756
Liverpool Docks 26,249,930
Dover 11,119,673
London Gateway Port 10,328,487
Felixstowe 10,086,791

Port rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Ports are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month import value, right side by second 12-month import value, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Port First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
London 278,083,883 290,673,873 +12,589,990
Liverpool Docks 13,633,986 12,615,944 -1,018,042
Dover 6,011,216 5,108,457 -902,759
London Gateway Port 4,286,899 6,041,588 +1,754,689
Felixstowe 4,940,488 5,146,303 +205,815
Immingham Docks 2,725,868 4,356,769 +1,630,901
000 3,264,523 3,081,657 -182,866
Southampton 1,058,095 3,445,650 +2,387,555
Eurotunnel 1,224,624 2,924,821 +1,700,197
Holyhead 2,518,099 1,470,287 -1,047,812

Importer companies by SIC division

What this shows: Industry breakdown (SIC divisions) of importing companies.

Top 5 values

SIC Companies
Wholesale trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles
45
Other manufacturing
23
Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles
21
Manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment
18
Office administrative, office support and other business support activities
12

Importer companies over time

What this shows: Monthly count of unique importing companies.

Latest 5

Month Companies
2026-05 36
2026-04 39
2026-03 48
2026-02 42
2026-01 33

Top importers

What this shows: Companies with the highest number of months traded for this HS code.

Importer company size by revenue band

What this shows: Distribution of importers across company revenue bands.

Top 5 values

Revenue Companies
1m-15m 81
54m+ 73
0-1m 21
15m-54m 21
Other 13

Import seasonality

What this shows: Average monthly import pattern from historical data.

Exports by country

What this shows: Export market volume by destination country from the UK.

Top 5 values

Country £
Germany 118,378,384
Italy 70,292,605
India 65,866,133
United States 65,012,369
France 55,510,492

Export countries rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Destination countries are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month export volume, right side by second 12-month export volume, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Country First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
Germany 67,132,483 51,245,901 -15,886,582
Italy 40,003,544 30,289,061 -9,714,483
India 30,182,297 35,683,836 +5,501,539
United States 25,937,697 39,074,672 +13,136,975
France 32,525,561 22,984,931 -9,540,630
Ireland 25,489,916 19,837,576 -5,652,340
Finland 19,552,332 20,284,361 +732,029
Sweden 18,983,349 19,147,478 +164,129
Norway 23,166,220 14,032,239 -9,133,981
Spain 19,581,925 10,704,860 -8,877,065

Exports by country of origin

What this shows: Export volume by production origin country. For re-exports, indicates where goods originated before UK export.

Top 5 values

Origin £
XI 2,024,506
Ireland 153,463
China 28,420
France 1,388
India 634

Export origin countries rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Origin countries are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month export value, right side by second 12-month export value, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Origin First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
XI 1,069,430 955,076 -114,354
Ireland 87,561 65,902 -21,659
China 3,844 24,576 +20,732
France 376 1,012 +636
India 485 149 -336
Turkey 40 186 +146
Nicaragua 0 142 +142
Belgium 104 0 -104
Poland 63 0 -63
Taiwan 0 23 +23

Export volume by transport

What this shows: Export value by transport mode used to ship goods from the UK.

Top 5 values

Transport £
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 483,678,645
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 262,816,186
Air transport 10,163,535
Other 3,149,357
Road transport 74,658

Export transport rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Transport modes are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month export value, right side by second 12-month export value, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Transport First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 260,249,527 223,429,118 -36,820,409
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 143,053,720 119,762,466 -23,291,254
Air transport 6,476,275 3,687,260 -2,789,015
Other 1,445,433 1,703,924 +258,491
Road transport 38,138 36,520 -1,618

Export volume by port

What this shows: Export value handled by each UK port.

Top 5 values

Port £
Immingham Docks 178,916,829
Dover / Eurotunnel 124,526,997
London 121,899,679
London Gateway Port 87,486,228
Felixstowe 76,228,486

Export port rank shift: first 12 months vs second 12 months

What this shows: Ports are on both sides of the Sankey. Left side is sorted by first 12-month export value, right side by second 12-month export value, so rank changes are visible from line crossings.

Top 10 values

Port First 12m £ Second 12m £ Delta £
Immingham Docks 91,092,871 87,823,958 -3,268,913
Dover / Eurotunnel 59,790,668 64,736,329 +4,945,661
London 69,940,570 51,959,109 -17,981,461
London Gateway Port 48,625,345 38,860,883 -9,764,462
Felixstowe 51,091,244 25,137,242 -25,954,002
Liverpool Docks 24,128,649 17,170,912 -6,957,737
Southampton 10,452,162 20,228,980 +9,776,818
Dover 14,093,305 1,937,810 -12,155,495
Poole 9,698,119 3,388,231 -6,309,888
London Heathrow Airport 5,655,967 2,744,800 -2,911,167

Related HS codes

What this shows: Sibling or child HS codes in the same classification branch.

Quick facts

HS code: 78

Coverage: United Kingdom, most metrics for the last 24 months

Description: Includes all types of lead products, such as raw lead, refined lead, and lead mixed with other elements