Import/export HS code 42: Leather goods, travel bags, and animal harnesses

Products made of leather, including travel bags, handbags, animal saddles, harnesses, and similar items

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 £
China 1,595,845,495
France 884,743,043
Italy 711,417,039
India 307,426,782
Netherlands 183,591,135

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 £
China 832,324,316 763,521,179 -68,803,137
France 463,956,262 420,786,781 -43,169,481
Italy 393,981,326 317,435,713 -76,545,613
India 155,699,210 151,727,572 -3,971,638
Netherlands 92,887,862 90,703,273 -2,184,589
Viet Nam 80,595,933 79,558,614 -1,037,319
Belgium 75,245,948 70,316,871 -4,929,077
Germany 63,137,238 67,062,489 +3,925,251
Spain 52,752,470 52,972,407 +219,937
United States 41,753,389 38,374,123 -3,379,266

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 £
China 1,998,672,954
Italy 872,228,114
France 533,830,892
India 370,094,224
Viet Nam 257,418,288

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 £
China 1,049,992,452 948,680,502 -101,311,950
Italy 479,661,243 392,566,871 -87,094,372
France 275,083,780 258,747,112 -16,336,668
India 188,476,806 181,617,418 -6,859,388
Viet Nam 129,816,353 127,601,935 -2,214,418
Spain 57,353,812 58,215,174 +861,362
Indonesia 42,104,743 46,655,226 +4,550,483
Germany 31,424,465 35,659,452 +4,234,987
Cambodia 29,847,153 31,366,484 +1,519,331
Turkey 27,592,020 31,981,482 +4,389,462

Importers across UK regions

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

Top 5 values

UK region Companies
Inner London - West 1012
Inner London - East 467
Greater Manchester 459
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire 430
Outer London - West and North West 421

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 786 765 -21
Inner London - East 335 339 +4
Greater Manchester 349 308 -41
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire 319 311 -8
Outer London - West and North West 292 314 +22
Surrey, East and West Sussex 274 258 -16
West Midlands 222 226 +4
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 204 201 -3
Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire 194 186 -8
West Yorkshire 156 151 -5

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) 1,913,257,379
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 1,760,745,828
Air transport 924,623,026
Other 200,799,215
Road transport 37,597,298

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) 981,360,446 931,896,933 -49,463,513
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 937,886,891 822,858,937 -115,027,954
Air transport 477,249,580 447,373,446 -29,876,134
Other 111,170,588 89,628,627 -21,541,961
Road transport 25,235,628 12,361,670 -12,873,958
Rail transport 4,483 20,543 +16,060

Import volume by port

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

Top 5 values

Port £
Felixstowe 949,403,824
Eurotunnel 551,950,858
Dover / Eurotunnel 536,536,536
Southampton 506,074,406
London Heathrow Airport 486,045,635

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 £
Felixstowe 555,543,009 393,860,815 -161,682,194
Eurotunnel 270,106,878 281,843,980 +11,737,102
Dover / Eurotunnel 282,249,154 254,287,382 -27,961,772
Southampton 292,717,835 213,356,571 -79,361,264
London Heathrow Airport 255,501,458 230,544,177 -24,957,281
Dover 212,868,492 153,334,086 -59,534,406
London Gateway Port 66,702,513 209,640,693 +142,938,180
000 111,169,359 89,620,085 -21,549,274
East Midlands Airport 97,782,074 77,417,948 -20,364,126
London 93,348,793 60,653,002 -32,695,791

Importer companies by SIC division

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

Top 5 values

SIC Companies
Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles 2636
Wholesale trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles 2336
Office administrative, office support and other business support activities 441
Other manufacturing 348
Activities of head offices; management consultancy activities 198

Importer companies over time

What this shows: Monthly count of unique importing companies.

Latest 5

Month Companies
2025-11 1706
2025-10 1802
2025-09 1653
2025-08 1663
2025-07 1702

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 3073
0-1m 1632
54m+ 1570
15m-54m 674
Other 523

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 £
China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 185,476,233
United States 129,854,130
France 128,679,183
China, Macao Special Administrative Region 112,149,735
Italy 93,342,433

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 £
China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 106,539,887 78,936,346 -27,603,541
United States 75,103,865 54,750,265 -20,353,600
France 67,085,626 61,593,557 -5,492,069
China, Macao Special Administrative Region 57,346,410 54,803,325 -2,543,085
Italy 50,170,100 43,172,333 -6,997,767
Netherlands 44,251,699 35,502,391 -8,749,308
Ireland 39,979,379 33,109,386 -6,869,993
Germany 33,058,836 33,011,877 -46,959
China 38,690,511 6,351,459 -32,339,052
Japan 23,496,575 17,931,135 -5,565,440

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 9,208,653
China 4,670,521
India 1,351,249
Netherlands 843,348
XI 510,595

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 5,467,947 3,740,706 -1,727,241
China 2,595,127 2,075,394 -519,733
India 624,483 726,766 +102,283
Netherlands 835,020 8,328 -826,692
XI 369,385 141,210 -228,175
Pakistan 417,268 66,775 -350,493
Ireland 286,106 166,583 -119,523
Italy 240,543 163,090 -77,453
Czechia 91,770 168,830 +77,060
Viet Nam 101,252 81,763 -19,489

Export volume by transport

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

Top 5 values

Transport £
Air transport 869,677,143
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 424,390,898
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 58,140,870
Other 20,120,653
Road transport 2,892,537

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 £
Air transport 492,661,723 377,015,420 -115,646,303
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 210,623,550 213,767,348 +3,143,798
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 31,390,469 26,750,401 -4,640,068
Other 11,934,715 8,185,938 -3,748,777
Road transport 2,871,334 21,203 -2,850,131

Export volume by port

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

Top 5 values

Port £
London Heathrow Airport 397,462,685
East Midlands Airport 354,943,348
Dover / Eurotunnel 267,065,781
Dover 69,624,042
London Stansted Airport 59,329,882

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 £
London Heathrow Airport 218,008,444 179,454,241 -38,554,203
East Midlands Airport 209,398,819 145,544,529 -63,854,290
Dover / Eurotunnel 141,359,299 125,706,482 -15,652,817
Dover 34,542,225 35,081,817 +539,592
London Stansted Airport 32,649,411 26,680,471 -5,968,940
ZLC 29,004,339 19,123,910 -9,880,429
Holyhead 17,693,214 15,967,718 -1,725,496
000 11,926,568 8,016,513 -3,910,055
Harwich 3,637,330 15,789,026 +12,151,696
Immingham Docks 9,093,943 9,283,543 +189,600

Related HS codes

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

Quick facts

HS code: 42

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

Description: Products made of leather, including travel bags, handbags, animal saddles, harnesses, and similar items