Classifying iron and steel for import and export
Get help to classify various items of iron and steel, primarily those classified under chapter 72.
Primary materials: products in granular or powder forms
Heading 7201
Pig iron, which can be made of alloy or non-alloy pig iron, is included under heading 7201. This can be:
- in the form of pigs, blocks or lumps (broken or unbroken)
- in the molten state
- brittle and unworkable (spiegeleisen is generally obtained directly from ores, despite often being described as a ferro-alloy)
Heading 7202
Ferro-alloys are included under heading 7202. They can be:
- in the form of pigs, blocks, lumps or similar primary forms
- in granules, powder or other forms obtained by continuous casting (such as billets)
- previously reduced to granules or powders and made into briquettes, cylinders, thin slabs or other forms (using cement, other binders or exothermic additives)
The following products are excluded:
- ferro-uranium
- ferro-cerium and other pyrophoric ferrous alloys in all forms (heading 3606)
- ferro-nickels or ferro-nickel chromes that are malleable and not normally used as ‘addition materials’ in iron and steel metallurgy (heading 7218 to 7229 or chapter 75)
Heading 7203
The following products are included:
- ferrous products obtained by direct reduction of iron ore and other spongy ferrous products
- iron and steel products produced by reducing the ore without fusion (direct reduction), when in the form of briquettes or pellets
- very pure iron, having an impurity content of no more than 0.06%
Products made of concentrated ores (heading 2601) are excluded from heading 7202.
Heading 7204
Ferrous waste and scrap, generally used for the recovery of metal by remelting, or for the manufacture of chemicals, are included.
They result from the manufacture or mechanical workings of metals and metal goods not usable due to breakage, cutting up, wear or other reasons.
They take the form of:
- crop ends, filings and turnings (shearing or flame-cutting) of heavy and long pieces
- bales, compressed by the fragmentation or shredding of vehicle bodies
- briquettes of iron and steel filings and turnings (made by crushing or agglomeration)
- broken up, old iron articles
- remelted scrap ingots, such as pigs with obvious surface faults that do not comply with the chemical composition of pig iron
Heading 7205
The following products are included:
- granules where:
- less than 90% (by weight) passes through a sieve with a mesh aperture of 1mm
- 90% or more (by weight) passes through a sieve with a mesh aperture of 5mm
- they include shot (usually round in shape) or angular grits
- wire pellets produced by cutting iron or steel wire
- powders (of pig iron, spiegeleisen, iron or steel) suitable for compacting or agglomeration, of which 90% or more (by weight) passes through a sieve with a mesh aperture of 1mm
The following products are excluded:
- radioactive iron powder (isotopes) (heading 2844)
- iron powders presented as medicaments (heading 3003 or 3004)
- granules and powders of ferro-alloys (heading 7202)
- waste filings and turnings of iron or steel (heading 7204)
- small defective ball bearings (heading 7326)
Iron and non-alloy steel
Heading 7206
Ingots of metal made by casting the liquid metallic contents of a furnace or crucible into open metallic moulds are included.
Ingots are the raw material for the metal working process, they can come in:
- blocks
- lumps
- puddled bars
- pilings
The following products are excluded:
- remelting scrap ingots (heading 7204)
- products obtained by continuous casting (heading 7207)
- iron (heading 7203)
Heading 7207
Semi-finished products (that may not be in coils) are included if they are:
- continuously cast products of solid section (whether subjected to primary hot rolling)
- other products of solid section that have not been further worked (other than being subjected to primary hot rolling or roughly shaped by forging) — this includes blanks for angles, shapes or sections
These products include:
- blooms and billets used for re-rolling to bars, rods, angles, shapes and sections, or for the manufacture of forgings
- rounds used for the manufacture of seamless-steel tubes
- slabs and sheet bars — rectangular in section, with widths greater than their thickness
Headings 7208 to 7210
The following products are included:
- flat-rolled products of any size (other than rectangular or square), with a width of 600 millimetres or more — provided they do not assume the character of articles in other headings
- flat-rolled products which may be subject to surface treatment (classified under heading 7208)
- corrugated flat-rolled products (classified under heading 7208)
- alloy steel (defined as steel with additional metals) made by smelting mixed ores that are either added with the steel in the furnace, or in the molten bath near the end of the finishing period
Ribbed products with an angular profile are excluded and are classified under heading 7216.
Headings 7211 to 7212
Flat-rolled products of any size (other than rectangular or square) are included if they have:
- a width of no more than 600 millimetres
- the same characteristics as outlined under 7208 to 7210
Headings 7213 to 7215
Bar and rods are included. Heading 7213 covers those hot rolled in irregularly wound coils.
Heading 7216
Angles and shapes are classified under heading 7216 and:
- usually have capital omega, obtuse, acute and right L angles
- can have square or rounded corners
- can have equal or unequal limbs
- have edges that may or may not be bulbed
Heading 7217
Wire (plated and non-plated) is included.
Stainless steel
Heading 7218
The following products are included:
- ingots and other primary forms
- semi-finished products
Heading 7219
Flat rolled products with a width 600 millimetres or more are included.
Products may be:
- hot or cold rolled (in coils or not in coils)
- surface treated
- clad
Heading 7220
Flat rolled products with a width less than 600 millimetres are included.
Products may be:
- hot or cold rolled
- surface treated
- clad
Heading 7221
Bars and rods (hot rolled and in irregular coils) are included.
Heading 7222
Bars and rods (not included under heading 7221) that are hot or cold rolled are included.
Angles, shapes or sections are included if they are:
- hot rolled
- hot extruded
- hot drawn
- cold formed (or cold finished)
Heading 7223
Wire is included.
Other alloy steel
Heading 7224
The following products are included:
- ingots and other primary forms
- semi-finished products
Heading 7225
Flat rolled products with a width 600 millimetres or more are included.
Products may be:
- hot or cold rolled (in coils or not in coils)
- surface treated
- clad
Heading 7226
Flat rolled products with a width less than 600 millimetres are included.
Products may be:
- hot or cold rolled
- surface treated
- clad
Heading 7227
Bars and rods (hot rolled and in irregular coils) are included.
Heading 7228
The following products are included:
- bars and rods (not included under heading 7227) that are hot or cold rolled
- angles, shapes or sections are included if they are:
- hot rolled
- hot extruded
- hot drawn
- cold formed (or cold finished)
- hollow drill bars or rods of alloy or non-alloy steel
Spheroidal graphite cast iron
Spheroidal graphite cast iron is classified as ‘Other cast articles of other iron’ under subheading 7325 99 90.
It’s not classified as non-malleable cast iron (under 7325 10 00) because it’s deformable under:
- tensile stress
- compressive stress (to a certain degree)
It’s not classified as malleable cast iron under 7325 99 10. Code 7325 99 10 60 covers spheroidal graphite cast iron (also known as ductile cast iron), and parts thereof, of a kind used to:
- cover ground or sub-surfaces systems, or openings to ground or sub-surface systems
- give access to ground or sub-surface systems, or provide view to ground or sub-surface systems
This is because it differs in terms of its composition and method of production. Malleable cast iron under pressure or hammering can easily spread and flatten.
Iron and steel processes and terms
Forging is a process where metal is formed into a shape by heat and pressure.
Hot-drop forging and drop stamping is the production of metal shapes or sections by hot shaping cut blanks in dies.
Wire drawing is a cold process in which bars or rods (in irregularly wound coils) are drawn through one or more dies at high speed to obtain coiled wire of a smaller diameter.
Bright drawing is a cold process in which bars or rods are drawn at slow speed through one or more dies to obtain products of smaller or different shaped sections.
Hot drawing is a process where metal is heated and passed through a die to produce the finished shape.
Rolled or obtained by continuous casting means a process that casts molten steel directly into semi-finished shapes.
Hot extrusion is a process consisting of enclosing a piece of metal heated to forging temperature (approximately 360 to 520 degrees Celsius) in a chamber. High pressure is applied to the metal which is then forced through a die.
Cold extrusion is a similar process as hot extrusion, but with the metal kept at room temperature.
Sintering is a process where compacted metal powder (obtained by moulding) is passed under a burner and ignites. Air drawn through the powder causes any Sulphur or carbon present to oxidise. This causes a partial fusion of the particles in the powder, forming a porous cellular clinker (a sinter).
Closed-die forging is a process where hot metal is shaped within the walls of 2 dies that enclose the work piece.
Annealing is the heating of a metal or alloy to a predetermined temperature (below its melting point), maintaining the temperature before cooling slowly.
Pig iron, is an iron-carbon alloy not usefully malleable, containing more than 2% by weight of carbon and which may contain by weight one or more other elements within the following limits:
- not more than 10% of chromium
- not more than 6% of manganese
- not more than 3% of phosphorus
- not more than 8% of silicon
- a total of not more than 10% of other elements
Spiegeleisen, is an iron-carbon alloy containing by weight more than 6% but not more than 30% of manganese and otherwise conforming to the specification of pig iron.
Ferro-alloys, are alloys in pigs, blocks, lumps or similar primary forms, in forms obtained by continuous casting and also in granular or powder forms, whether or not agglomerated, commonly used as an additive in the manufacture of other alloys or as de-oxidants, de-sulphurising agents or for similar uses in ferrous metallurgy and generally not usefully malleable, containing by weight 4% or more of the element iron and one or more of the following:
- more than 10% of chromium
- more than 30% of manganese
- more than 3% of phosphorus
- more than 8% of silicon
- a total of more than 10% of other elements, excluding carbon, subject to a maximum content of 10% in the case of copper
These may also contain by weight one or more other elements within the following limits:
- not more than 10% of chromium
- not more than 6% of manganese
- not more than 3% of phosphorus
- not more than 8% of silicon
- a total of not more than 10% of other elements.
Classes of Steel
Steels can be grouped into one of the 3 classes of chemical composition. These are:
- stainless steels
- other alloy steels
- non-alloy steels
Stainless steel is defined as an alloy steel containing, by weight, 1.2% or less of carbon and 10.5% or more of chromium (with or without other elements).
Other alloy steel is defined as steels not complying with the definition of stainless steel and containing by weight one or more of the following elements in the proportion shown:
- 0.3% or more of aluminium
- 0.0008% or more of boron
- 0.3% or more of chromium
- 0.3% or more of cobalt
- 0.4% or more of copper
- 0.4% or more of lead
- 1.65% or more of manganese
- 0.08% or more of molybdenum
- 0.3% or more of nickel
- 0.06% or more of niobium
- 0.6% or more of silicon
- 0.05% or more of titanium
- 0.3% or more of tungsten (wolfram)
- 0.1% or more of vanadium
- 0.05% or more of zirconium
- 0.1% or more of other elements (except sulphur, phosphorus, carbon and nitrogen), taken separately
If none of these criteria apply, then such steel is considered as a non-alloy steel.
For more information, see the chapter notes to chapter 72 in the Tariff.
More information
If this guidance does not cover your specific item in detail and you’re importing goods into Great Britain, you can search for it in the Online Trade Tariff.
If you’re importing goods into Northern Ireland from outside the UK, and the EU and the goods are not ‘at risk’ of onward movement to the EU, you should also use the Online Trade Tariff.
If you’re importing goods into Northern Ireland from outside the UK and the EU, and the goods are at risk of onward movement to the EU, you should use the Northern Ireland (EU) Tariff.
If this guidance does cover your item, you’ll still need to look up the full commodity code to use in your declaration on the appropriate tariff.
You can find more ways to help you find a commodity code by referring to the links given in this section.
Updates to this page
Last updated 7 March 2022 + show all updates
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Information about pig iron, spiegeleisen and ferro-alloys has been added to the iron and steel processes and terms section. Classes of steel has been updated with information about stainless steel and other alloy steel.
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Guidance on expressions and their meanings and defining spheroidal graphite cast iron has been added.
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Minor text amendments made throughout the document.
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Change of service contact details, as of the 1 September 2015 the tariff classification helpline is changing from telephone contact to email.
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Fixing references to specialist guides
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First published.