Import/export HS code 3401: Soap and skin cleaning products

Bars, liquids, or creams for washing skin, including medicated soaps and products for retail sale

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 £
Germany 162,535,963
China 128,501,674
Poland 107,576,121
Italy 103,087,736
France 83,080,055

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 £
Germany 88,257,422 74,278,541 -13,978,881
China 51,958,782 76,542,892 +24,584,110
Poland 51,448,798 56,127,323 +4,678,525
Italy 52,541,970 50,545,766 -1,996,204
France 42,904,496 40,175,559 -2,728,937
United States 26,905,540 24,231,006 -2,674,534
Spain 22,665,485 24,956,893 +2,291,408
Netherlands 22,597,005 24,906,105 +2,309,100
Israel 26,946,544 14,361,896 -12,584,648
Turkey 18,151,696 20,932,421 +2,780,725

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 £
Germany 167,108,479
China 134,131,102
Poland 113,789,337
Italy 104,213,979
France 88,282,410

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 £
Germany 96,503,159 70,605,320 -25,897,839
China 54,682,593 79,448,509 +24,765,916
Poland 55,466,926 58,322,411 +2,855,485
Italy 53,301,705 50,912,274 -2,389,431
France 47,465,616 40,816,794 -6,648,822
Israel 33,325,645 26,655,216 -6,670,429
United States 29,759,397 28,607,219 -1,152,178
Turkey 18,339,513 21,271,693 +2,932,180
Spain 11,783,923 26,465,984 +14,682,061
Canada 8,720,980 9,385,745 +664,765

Importers across UK regions

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

Top 5 values

UK region Companies
Inner London - West 195
Inner London - East 104
Outer London - West and North West 99
Greater Manchester 89
Surrey, East and West Sussex 76

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
Inner London - West 148 143 -5
Inner London - East 78 72 -6
Outer London - West and North West 70 71 +1
Greater Manchester 63 66 +3
Surrey, East and West Sussex 60 61 +1
Outer London - East and North East 54 52 -2
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 47 50 +3
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire 44 41 -3
Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire 37 36 -1
West Midlands 28 30 +2

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) 611,694,077
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 334,199,925
Air transport 23,921,430
Other 19,771,801
Road transport 1,404,171

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) 294,764,186 316,929,891 +22,165,705
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 169,154,519 165,045,406 -4,109,113
Air transport 13,342,057 10,579,373 -2,762,684
Other 11,474,204 8,297,597 -3,176,607
Road transport 533,258 870,913 +337,655

Import volume by port

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

Top 5 values

Port £
Immingham Docks 250,673,725
Felixstowe 173,020,627
Dover 98,452,730
London Gateway Port 69,536,446
London 65,972,532

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 £
Immingham Docks 133,348,000 117,325,725 -16,022,275
Felixstowe 76,662,265 96,358,362 +19,696,097
Dover 47,321,638 51,131,092 +3,809,454
London Gateway Port 36,933,397 32,603,049 -4,330,348
London 28,603,407 37,369,125 +8,765,718
Southampton 29,000,422 33,996,612 +4,996,190
Hull 25,228,749 17,620,356 -7,608,393
Liverpool Docks 15,972,760 18,712,295 +2,739,535
Dover / Eurotunnel 14,080,379 19,587,262 +5,506,883
Eurotunnel 16,327,974 17,120,671 +792,697

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 617
Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles 465
Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products 71
Office administrative, office support and other business support activities 70
Activities of head offices; management consultancy activities 45

Importer companies over time

What this shows: Monthly count of unique importing companies.

Latest 5

Month Companies
2025-11 350
2025-10 376
2025-09 357
2025-08 370
2025-07 352

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 479
0-1m 338
54m+ 277
15m-54m 143
Other 124

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 £
Ireland 132,042,746
Germany 88,750,680
United States 56,188,689
France 53,060,961
Belgium 42,071,816

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 £
Ireland 67,158,597 64,884,149 -2,274,448
Germany 43,713,636 45,037,044 +1,323,408
United States 29,559,941 26,628,748 -2,931,193
France 28,960,277 24,100,684 -4,859,593
Belgium 22,212,371 19,859,445 -2,352,926
Netherlands 21,445,525 19,008,303 -2,437,222
Poland 9,520,757 10,515,472 +994,715
United Arab Emirates 8,523,523 7,746,184 -777,339
Australia 7,511,440 7,451,632 -59,808
Spain 7,389,264 6,285,275 -1,103,989

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 £
XU 2,800,762
XI 2,518,484
China 736,754
Germany 318,493
United States 269,909

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 £
XU 1,227,144 1,573,618 +346,474
XI 1,459,715 1,058,769 -400,946
China 402,540 334,214 -68,326
Germany 154,697 163,796 +9,099
United States 249,660 20,249 -229,411
Netherlands 171,707 93,021 -78,686
Italy 187,159 42,228 -144,931
Belgium 166,809 2,958 -163,851
France 89,433 63,903 -25,530
Poland 51,439 75,666 +24,227

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) 441,366,028
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 203,532,081
Air transport 27,613,742
Other 8,154,983
Road transport 360,220

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) 215,828,476 225,537,552 +9,709,076
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 110,025,779 93,506,302 -16,519,477
Air transport 17,840,094 9,773,648 -8,066,446
Other 4,493,673 3,661,310 -832,363
Road transport 360,220 0 -360,220
Rail transport 0 20,326 +20,326

Export volume by port

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

Top 5 values

Port £
Dover / Eurotunnel 222,942,623
Immingham Docks 76,589,277
Liverpool Docks 73,967,334
London Gateway Port 68,105,648
Holyhead 59,606,865

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 £
Dover / Eurotunnel 111,980,141 110,962,482 -1,017,659
Immingham Docks 38,696,844 37,892,433 -804,411
Liverpool Docks 38,315,456 35,651,878 -2,663,578
London Gateway Port 32,488,527 35,617,121 +3,128,594
Holyhead 28,473,482 31,133,383 +2,659,901
Southampton 25,318,638 26,636,920 +1,318,282
Felixstowe 23,481,557 14,925,500 -8,556,057
London Heathrow Airport 14,990,503 8,372,040 -6,618,463
Dover 9,562,535 11,196,396 +1,633,861
000 4,493,673 3,661,310 -832,363

Related HS codes

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

Quick facts

HS code: 3401

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

Description: Bars, liquids, or creams for washing skin, including medicated soaps and products for retail sale