Chapter 73
Articles of iron or steel
Section XV — Base metals and articles of base metal · 26 headings · 124 subheadings
Duty in chapter 73 at a glance
Counted across the 677 US national lines beneath this chapter's subheadings. It says what kind of chapter this is before you read ninety headings to find out.
- Duty-free lines
- 521 of 677 stating a rate
- Ad valorem range
- 1.5% – 12.5%
Preference programmes appearing in this chapter
Named from General Note 3(c)(i). A programme appearing here does not mean it applies to your goods — that depends on the line, the origin and the agreement's rules of origin.
Legal notes
Reproduced from the published tariff schedule. Section and chapter notes are binding and part of the nomenclature; statistical notes are US reporting rules and are not classification law.
Section XV notes BASE METALS AND ARTICLES OF BASE METAL
1. This section does not cover:
(a) Prepared paints, inks or other products with a basis of metallic flakes or powder (headings 3207 to 3210, 3212, 3213 or 3215);
(b) Ferrocerium or other pyrophoric alloys (heading 3606);
(c) Headgear or parts thereof of heading 6506 or 6507;
(d) Umbrella frames or other articles of heading 6603;
(e) Goods of chapter 71 (for example, precious metal alloys, base metal clad with precious metal, imitation jewelry);
(f) Articles of section XVI (machinery, mechanical appliances and electrical goods);
(g) Assembled railway or tramway track (heading 8608) or other articles of section XVII (vehicles, ships and boats, aircraft);
(h) Instruments or apparatus of section XVIII, including clock or watch springs;
(ij) Lead shot prepared for ammunition (heading 9306) or other articles of section XIX (arms and ammunition);
(k) Articles of chapter 94 (for example, furniture, mattress supports, luminaires and lighting fittings, illuminated signs, prefabricated buildings);
(l) Articles of chapter 95 (for example, toys, games, sports equipment);
(m) Hand sieves, buttons, pens, pencil-holders, pen nibs, monopods, bipods, tripods and similar articles or other articles of chapter 96 (miscellaneous manufactured articles); or
(n) Articles of chapter 97 (for example, works of art).
2. Throughout the tariff schedule, the expression "parts of general use" means:
(a) Articles of heading 7307, 7312, 7315, 7317 or 7318 and similar articles of other base metal, other than articles specially designed for use exclusively in implants in medical, surgical, dental or veterinary sciences (heading 9021);
(b) Springs and leaves for springs, of base metal, other than clock or watch springs (heading 9114); and
(c) Articles of heading 8301, 8302, 8308 or 8310 and frames and mirrors, of base metal, of heading 8306.
In chapters 73 to 76 and 78 to 82 (but not in heading 7315) references to parts of goods do not include references to parts of general use as defined above.
Subject to the preceding paragraph and to note 1 to chapter 83, the articles of chapter 82 or 83 are excluded from chapters 72 to 76 and 78 to 81.
3. Throughout the schedule, the expression "base metals" means: iron and steel, copper, nickel, aluminum, lead, zinc, tin, tungsten (wolfram), molybdenum, tantalum, magnesium, cobalt, bismuth, cadmium, titanium, zirconium, antimony, manganese, beryllium, chromium, germanium, vanadium, gallium, hafnium, indium, niobium (columbium), rhenium and thallium.
4. Throughout the schedule, the term "cermets" means products containing a microscopic heterogeneous combination of a metallic component and a ceramic component. The term "cermets" includes sintered metal carbides (metal carbides sintered with a metal).
5. Classification of alloys (other than ferroalloys and master alloys as defined in chapters 72 and 74):
(a) An alloy of base metals is to be classified as an alloy of the metal which predominates by weight over each of the other metals.
Notes (con.)
(b) An alloy composed of base metals of this section and of elements not falling within this section is to be treated as an alloy of base metals of this section if the total weight of such metals equals or exceeds the total weight of the other elements present.
(c) In this section the term "alloys" includes sintered mixtures of metal powders, heterogeneous intimate mixtures obtained by melting (other than cermets) and intermetallic compounds.
6. Unless the context otherwise requires, any reference in the tariff schedule to a base metal includes a reference to alloys which, by virtue of note 5 above, are to be classified as alloys of that metal.
7. Classification of composite articles:
Except where the headings otherwise require, articles of base metal (including articles of mixed materials treated as articles of base metal under the General Rules of Interpretation) containing two or more base metals are to be treated as articles of the base metal predominating by weight over each of the other metals. For this purpose:
(a) Iron and steel, or different kinds of iron or steel, are regarded as one and the same metal;
(b) An alloy is regarded as being entirely composed of that metal as an alloy of which, by virtue of note 5, it is classified; and
(c) A cermet of heading 8113 is regarded as a single base metal.
8. In this section, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them:
(a) Waste and scrap
(i) All metal waste and scrap;
(ii) Metal goods definitely not usable as such because of breakage, cutting-up, wear or other reasons.
(b) Powders
Products of which 90 percent or more by weight passes through a sieve having a mesh aperture of 1 mm.
9. For the purposes of chapters 74 to 76 and 78 to 81, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them:
(a) Bars and rods
Rolled, extruded, drawn or forged products, not in coils, which have a uniform solid cross section along their whole length in the shape of circles, ovals, rectangles (including squares), equilateral triangles or regular convex polygons (including “flattened circles” and “modified rectangles”, of which two opposite sides are convex arcs, the other two sides being straight, of equal length and parallel). Products with a rectangular (including square), triangular or polygonal cross section may have corners rounded along their whole length. The thickness of such products which have a rectangular (including “modified rectangular”) cross section exceeds one-tenth of the width. The expression also covers cast or sintered products, of the same forms and dimensions, which have been subsequently worked after production (otherwise than by simple trimming or de-scaling), provided that they have not thereby assumed the character of articles or products of other headings.
Wire bars and billets of chapter 74 with their ends tapered or otherwise worked simply to facilitate their entry into machines for converting them into, for example, drawing stock (wire rod) or tubes, are however to be taken to be unwrought copper of heading 7403. This provision applies mutatis mutandis to the products of chapter 81.
(b) Profiles
Rolled, extruded, drawn, forged or formed products, coiled or not, of a uniform cross section along their whole length, which do not conform to any of the definitions of bars, rods, wire, plates, sheets, strip, foil, tubes or pipes. The expression also covers cast or sintered products, of the same forms, which have been subsequently worked after production (otherwise than by simple trimming or de-scaling), provided that they have not thereby assumed the character of articles or products of other headings.
(c) Wire
Rolled, extruded or drawn products, in coils, which have a uniform solid cross section along their whole length in the shape of circles, ovals, rectangles (including squares), equilateral triangles or regular convex polygons (including “flattened circles” and “modified rectangles”, of which two opposite sides are convex arcs, the other two sides being straight, of equal length and parallel). Products with a rectangular (including square), triangular or polygonal cross section may have corners rounded along their whole
Notes (con.)
length. The thickness of such products which have a rectangular (including “modified rectangular”) cross section exceeds one-tenth of the width.
(d) Plates, sheets, strip and foil
Flat-surfaced products (other than the unwrought products), coiled or not, of solid rectangular (other than square) cross section with or without rounded corners (including “modified rectangles” of which two opposite sides are convex arcs, the other two sides being straight, of equal length and parallel) of a uniform thickness, which are:
-of rectangular (including square) shape with a thickness not exceeding one-tenth of the width;
-of a shape other than rectangular or square, of any size, provided that they do not assume the character of articles or products of other headings.
Headings for plates, sheets, strip, and foil apply, inter alia, to plates, sheets, strip, and foil with patterns (for example, grooves, ribs, checkers, tears, buttons, lozenges) and to such products which have been perforated, corrugated, polished or coated, provided that they do not thereby assume the character of articles or products of other headings.
(e) Tubes and pipes
Hollow products, coiled or not, which have a uniform cross section with only one enclosed void along their whole length in the shape of circles, ovals, rectangles (including squares), equilateral triangles or regular convex polygons, and which have a uniform wall thickness. Products with a rectangular (including square), equilateral triangular or regular convex polygonal cross section, which may have corners rounded along their whole length, are also to be considered as tubes and pipes provided the inner and outer cross sections are concentric and have the same form and orientation. Tubes and pipes of the foregoing cross sections may be polished, coated, bent, threaded, drilled, waisted, expanded, cone-shaped or fitted with flanges, collars or rings.
Additional U.S. Note
1. For the purposes of this section, the term "unwrought" refers to metal, whether or not refined, in the form of ingots, blocks, lumps, billets, cakes, slabs, pigs, cathodes, anodes, briquettes, cubes, sticks, grains, sponge, pellets, flattened pellets, rounds, rondelles, shot and similar manufactured primary forms, but does not cover rolled, forged, drawn or extruded products, tubular products or cast or sintered forms which have been machined or processed otherwise than by simple trimming, scalping or descaling.
Chapter 73 — Notes
Legal Notes of the Harmonized System. Binding, and part of the international nomenclature.
1. In this chapter the expression "cast iron" applies to products obtained by casting in which iron predominates by weight over each of the other elements and which do not comply with the chemical composition of steel as defined in Note 1(d) to chapter 72.
2. In this chapter the word "wire" means hot- or cold-formed products of any cross-sectional shape, of which no cross-sectional dimension exceeds 16 mm.
Chapter 73 — Additional U.S. Notes
Additional U.S. Notes. Binding in the United States; not part of the international HS.
1. For the purposes of heading 7304 or 7306, the rate of duty "Free (C)" appearing in the "Special" subcolumn applies only to tubes and pipes with attached fittings, suitable for conducting gases or liquids.
2. For the purposes of subheading 7307.19.30, the expression "ductile fittings" refers to fittings which contain over 2.5 percent carbon and over 0.02 percent of magnesium or of magnesium and cerium, by weight.
Chapter 73 — Statistical Notes
US statistical reporting only. NOT classification law.
1. For the purposes of statistical reporting numbers 7310.10.0005, 7310.29.0020 and 7310.29.0055, “refillable stainless steel kegs, whether or not pressurized” refers to cylindrical kegs for liquid beverages, each keg with a domed top and bottom and a single neck piece, designed for a coupler (valve) system and an extractor tube (spear) by which the keg can be cleaned, filled and dispense the liquid contents.
Notes are reproduced from the published tariff schedule. They govern classification, but reading them is not the same as applying them to your goods — that is what a broker or a binding ruling is for.
Headings in chapter 73
7301 Sheet piling of iron or steel, whether or not drilled, punched or made from assembled elements; welded angles, shapes and sections, of iron or steel
7302 Railway or tramway track construction material of iron or steel, the following: rails, check-rails and rack rails, switch blades, crossing frogs, point rods and other crossing pieces, sleepers (cross-ties), fish-plates, chairs, chair wedges, sole plates (base plates), rail clips, bedplates, ties and other material specialized for jointing or fixing rails
7304 Tubes, pipes and hollow profiles, seamless, of iron (other than cast iron) or steel
7305 Other tubes and pipes (for example, welded, riveted or similarly closed), having circular cross sections, the external diameter of which exceeds 406.4 mm, of iron or steel
7306 Other tubes, pipes and hollow profiles (for example, open seamed or welded, riveted or similarly closed), of iron or steel
7307 Tube or pipe fittings (for example, couplings, elbows, sleeves), of iron or steel
7308 Structures (excluding prefabricated buildings of heading 9406) and parts of structures (for example, bridges and bridge sections, lock gates, towers, lattice masts, roofs, roofing frameworks, doors and windows and their frames and thresholds for doors, shutters, balustrades, pillars and columns) of iron or steel; plates, rods, angles, shapes, sections, tubes and the like, prepared for use in structures, of iron or steel
7310 Tanks, casks, drums, cans, boxes and similar containers, for any material (other than compressed or liquefied gas), of iron or steel, of a capacity not exceeding 300 liters, whether or not lined or heat insulated, but not fitted with mechanical or thermal equipment
7312 Stranded wire, ropes, cables, plaited bands, slings and the like, of iron or steel, not electrically insulated
7314 Cloth (including endless bands), grill, netting and fencing, of iron or steel wire; expanded metal of iron or steel
7315 Chain and parts thereof, of iron or steel
7318 Screws, bolts, nuts, coach screws, screw hooks, rivets, cotters, cotter pins, washers (including spring washers) and similar articles, of iron or steel
7319 Sewing needles, knitting needles, bodkins, crochet hooks, embroidery stilettos and similar articles for use in the hand, of iron or steel; safety pins and other pins of iron or steel, not elsewhere specified or included
7320 Springs and leaves for springs, of iron or steel
7321 Stoves, ranges, grates, cookers (including those with subsidiary boilers for central heating), barbecues, braziers, gas rings, plate warmers and similar nonelectric domestic appliances, and parts thereof, of iron or steel
7322 Radiators for central heating, not electrically heated, and parts thereof, of iron or steel; air heaters and hot air distributors (including distributors which can also distribute fresh or conditioned air), not electrically heated, incorporating a motor-driven fan or blower, and parts thereof, of iron or steel
7323 Table, kitchen or other household articles and parts thereof, of iron or steel; iron or steel wool; pot scourers and scouring or polishing pads, gloves and the like, of iron or steel
7324 Sanitary ware and parts thereof, of iron or steel
7325 Other cast articles of iron or steel
7326 Other articles of iron or steel
Other chapters
Common questions
What does HS chapter 73 cover?
Articles of iron or steel. It contains 26 headings and 124 six-digit subheadings, and sits in Section XV (base metals and articles of base metal).
Are chapter 73's notes legally binding?
This chapter carries 4 binding note paragraph(s) — legal notes of the Harmonized System, plus any US-specific Additional U.S. Notes. They decide classification, and they outrank the wording of an individual subheading. A further 1 statistical note paragraph(s) govern US reporting only and are not classification law.