Import/export HS code 4820: Paper and cardboard stationery items

Includes registers, notebooks, diaries, exercise books, binders, folders, business forms, and albums for samples or collections

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 190,798,942
India 44,597,338
France 32,704,830
Estonia 25,147,356
Germany 17,442,695

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 102,507,686 88,291,256 -14,216,430
India 23,111,455 21,485,883 -1,625,572
France 18,313,440 14,391,390 -3,922,050
Estonia 13,749,186 11,398,170 -2,351,016
Germany 10,529,283 6,913,412 -3,615,871
Netherlands 6,931,145 8,512,113 +1,580,968
Italy 7,818,516 7,136,314 -682,202
Poland 6,287,290 5,529,247 -758,043
Malaysia 6,181,239 5,531,351 -649,888
United States 3,124,459 2,338,323 -786,136

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 210,022,948
India 45,091,567
Estonia 25,218,507
Poland 24,037,254
France 15,616,376

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 112,627,240 97,395,708 -15,231,532
India 23,514,686 21,576,881 -1,937,805
Estonia 13,753,695 11,464,812 -2,288,883
Poland 12,536,159 11,501,095 -1,035,064
France 8,631,275 6,985,101 -1,646,174
Italy 6,202,186 5,854,770 -347,416
Malaysia 5,752,012 5,693,949 -58,063
United States 6,752,425 2,466,336 -4,286,089
Germany 4,133,081 3,276,578 -856,503
Turkey 2,584,666 2,694,491 +109,825

Importers across UK regions

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

Top 5 values

UK region Companies
Inner London - West 294
Greater Manchester 114
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire 113
Inner London - East 112
Surrey, East and West Sussex 92

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 210 196 -14
Greater Manchester 84 65 -19
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire 84 68 -16
Inner London - East 74 77 +3
Surrey, East and West Sussex 61 61 +0
Outer London - West and North West 69 59 -10
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 49 51 +2
Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire 46 40 -6
West Midlands 33 29 -4
West Yorkshire 36 33 -3

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) 239,192,274
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 114,507,353
Air transport 39,268,995
Other 7,541,847
Road transport 648,373

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) 127,607,736 111,584,538 -16,023,198
Roll on Roll off (RORO) 62,209,217 52,298,136 -9,911,081
Air transport 17,568,588 21,700,407 +4,131,819
Other 4,895,161 2,646,686 -2,248,475
Road transport 219,916 428,457 +208,541

Import volume by port

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

Top 5 values

Port £
Felixstowe 118,928,265
Southampton 77,003,782
Dover 38,391,872
Harwich 30,461,821
London Gateway Port 21,691,217

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 71,917,653 47,010,612 -24,907,041
Southampton 40,827,833 36,175,949 -4,651,884
Dover 19,786,835 18,605,037 -1,181,798
Harwich 19,808,886 10,652,935 -9,155,951
London Gateway Port 4,202,311 17,488,906 +13,286,595
London 5,596,914 11,718,471 +6,121,557
Eurotunnel 6,820,329 5,986,678 -833,651
Birmingham Airport 5,703,148 5,532,543 -170,605
London Heathrow Airport 4,493,719 4,373,577 -120,142
Dover / Eurotunnel 5,456,391 2,160,040 -3,296,351

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 530
Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles 507
Office administrative, office support and other business support activities 131
Other manufacturing 73
Activities of head offices; management consultancy activities 58

Importer companies over time

What this shows: Monthly count of unique importing companies.

Latest 5

Month Companies
2025-11 290
2025-10 328
2025-09 297
2025-08 283
2025-07 282

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 606
54m+ 515
0-1m 292
15m-54m 175
Other 161

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 41,361,229
Netherlands 7,375,821
United States 7,308,835
France 6,062,708
Germany 5,884,574

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 21,114,024 20,247,205 -866,819
Netherlands 4,341,071 3,034,750 -1,306,321
United States 4,125,387 3,183,448 -941,939
France 3,408,784 2,653,924 -754,860
Germany 3,017,584 2,866,990 -150,594
Italy 1,434,735 1,365,888 -68,847
United Arab Emirates 1,098,547 1,029,677 -68,870
Poland 1,073,550 571,155 -502,395
Spain 900,099 617,705 -282,394
Canada 601,349 716,623 +115,274

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 3,622,381
China 104,571
XU 65,462
Ireland 16,576
China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 16,425

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 2,045,233 1,577,148 -468,085
China 75,387 29,184 -46,203
XU 44,265 21,197 -23,068
Ireland 11,290 5,286 -6,004
China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 10,662 5,763 -4,899
Switzerland 14 14,919 +14,905
India 47 2,385 +2,338
Malaysia 1,295 915 -380
Spain 0 1,045 +1,045
France 246 0 -246

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) 62,597,050
Air transport 19,498,178
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 11,999,866
Other 3,846,431
Road transport 180,118

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) 32,288,005 30,309,045 -1,978,960
Air transport 11,407,942 8,090,236 -3,317,706
Sea transport (not vehicle on ferry) 6,746,774 5,253,092 -1,493,682
Other 2,188,543 1,657,888 -530,655
Road transport 180,118 0 -180,118

Export volume by port

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

Top 5 values

Port £
Holyhead 27,258,256
Dover / Eurotunnel 20,818,815
East Midlands Airport 10,048,227
Liverpool Docks 6,798,153
London Heathrow Airport 5,404,383

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 £
Holyhead 13,709,748 13,548,508 -161,240
Dover / Eurotunnel 11,287,466 9,531,349 -1,756,117
East Midlands Airport 6,284,929 3,763,298 -2,521,631
Liverpool Docks 3,376,305 3,421,848 +45,543
London Heathrow Airport 3,191,046 2,213,337 -977,709
London Gateway Port 2,255,537 1,693,491 -562,046
000 2,188,543 1,657,888 -530,655
Southampton 1,423,620 1,263,206 -160,414
Immingham Docks 1,443,849 1,036,548 -407,301
ZLC 890,386 1,431,078 +540,692

Related HS codes

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

Quick facts

HS code: 4820

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

Description: Includes registers, notebooks, diaries, exercise books, binders, folders, business forms, and albums for samples or collections