HSN Code for Iron and Steel: Chapters 72 and 73

Iron and steel as a raw material sit in Chapter 72 of the Customs Tariff, while articles made of iron or steel — pipes, structures, tanks, fasteners, chain — sit in Chapter 73. That single split is the spine of steel classification, and there is no one "HSN code for steel": the correct eight-digit code depends on the exact product, its form and how far it has been worked. The same raw-material-versus-article logic runs through the tariff more broadly, and we walk through it for a different material in our guide to the HSN code of cement, where crude limestone in Chapter 25 becomes a finished concrete block in Chapter 68. Steel follows the identical pattern one section further along.

Where steel and iron sit in the HSN

The Harmonised System classifies goods by what they are made of and how far they have been processed, not by what they end up doing. Iron and steel occupy the whole of Section XV alongside other base metals, and within that section the tariff runs the same ladder it uses elsewhere: primary material first, then increasingly worked forms, then finally the finished articles made from that material. Chapter 72 covers the first two stages — iron and steel as such, in whatever shape the mill or foundry produces it in. Chapter 73 covers the third stage — things made of iron or steel.

If you already understand how the chapter, heading and sub-heading hierarchy works, the rest of this article will read as a straightforward walk down two chapters. If you need the mechanics first, our explainer on how HSN codes work covers that structure, and our guide on how to search for an HSN code is useful when you hit a product that does not obviously match either table below.

Chapter 72: iron and steel in primary and semi-finished form

Chapter 72 follows the tariff's own internal logic: primary material first, then form. It starts with pig iron straight from the blast furnace and ends with the alloy and stainless steel families, which repeat the same form-based ladder — bars, sheets, wire — for a different grade of material.

Notice how the chapter is organised: it does not group by end use at all. Hot-rolled coil sold to a re-roller (7208), the same coil after it has been cold-rolled (7209), and a galvanised version of either (7210) are three different headings even though a non-specialist would call all three "sheet steel". Get the process step right — hot-rolled, cold-rolled, coated — and the heading generally follows.

Chapter 73: articles of iron or steel

Chapter 73 picks up where Chapter 72 leaves off. Everything here has been shaped, joined or fabricated into something more specific than a bar, sheet or coil. The headings run from pipes and structural fabrications through to small hardware items.

Heading 7308 deserves particular attention because it is where most steel fabricators end up, and it is also the boundary that causes the most disputes, covered below.

When "raw" steel becomes an "article"

The test is the same one that separates crude stone from a cut kerbstone in Chapter 25: has the material merely been brought to a standard mill shape, or has it been worked into something identifiable as a finished component? An angle section cut to a specified length, with square-cut ends and no further processing, is still a Chapter 72 product — it is simply steel in a particular length. The same angle section drilled, notched, welded to other sections and assembled into a recognisable frame, bracket or support becomes an article of Chapter 73, most commonly heading 7308.

The practical marker most classifiers use is fabrication: cutting to length, straightening and simple de-coiling generally keep a product in Chapter 72; drilling for connections, welding pieces together, and assembling into a structure or part of a structure move it into Chapter 73. A single steel bar rarely causes a dispute. A bundle of bars that have been cut, bent and tack-welded into a reinforcement cage is where item masters most often get the classification wrong.

7308 versus a works contract

This is the single most valuable distinction for anyone selling or buying structural steel. Heading 7308 classifies structural steel and steel structures as goods — but that classification only applies when the steel is genuinely supplied as goods, delivered as fabricated components without an installation obligation bundled into the same contract.

The moment a contract combines fabrication with erection on site — supply and installation of a roof structure, a lattice tower, a shed frame bolted and welded into place — the transaction typically becomes a works contract: a composite supply of goods and services attached to immovable property, which GST treats as a supply of services in its own right. A works contract is invoiced under a Service Accounting Code rather than an HSN code, even though steel is the dominant cost in the job. Our guide to HSN and SAC treatment for works contracts covers how that classification and the associated valuation rules work in more detail.

Fasteners, scrap, utensils and pipe fittings

A handful of other boundaries account for most of the remaining classification errors in a steel-trading item master.

Fasteners keep their own heading

Bolts, nuts, screws and washers sit in heading 7318 regardless of what they are sold with or fasten to. A common error is coding a bolt against the structure, machine or hardware assembly it is packaged with instead of against 7318 on its own. Our guide to HSN codes for hardware items covers fasteners and related small parts in more detail.

Scrap, reverse charge and e-way bill scrutiny

Ferrous waste and scrap falls under heading 7204. Metal scrap has been singled out for specific GST compliance measures — including reverse charge and tax-deducted-at-source style provisions on certain scrap supplies — because the trade has historically shown high rates of under-reporting, and scrap movements attract closer e-way bill scrutiny than most other goods. Confirm the current applicability, thresholds and mechanics of these provisions against the latest CBIC notification rather than assuming a rule you learned previously still applies unchanged; our overview of the reverse charge mechanism explains how that mechanism works generally.

Stainless steel utensils split across two chapters

Stainless steel table, kitchen and household articles generally stay in Chapter 73, most commonly under heading 7323, but cutlery — knives, forks and spoons — moves out of Chapter 73 entirely and into Chapter 82, which covers cutlery, hand tools and edged implements. A steel dinner plate and a steel dinner knife from the same set are therefore classified in different chapters, because 82 is reserved for cutting and edged articles specifically.

Pipes versus tube fittings, and coated pipe

A length of pipe is classified under 7304, 7305 or 7306 depending on whether it is seamless or welded and its diameter. The elbows, tees, flanges and couplings used to join pipe sections are a separate heading, 7307, even when sold in the same order as the pipe itself. Pipe that has been insulated or coated for corrosion protection is still classified as pipe under the appropriate 7304-7306 heading in most cases, but the coating or lining material can shift the classification where the coating is substantial enough to change the essential character of the product — confirm the treatment for composite or lined pipe against the tariff rather than assuming the bare-pipe heading always carries through unchanged.

Item masters, digits and e-way bills

Steel traders typically carry the most grade-and-dimension-heavy item masters of any sector, because the same heading can span dozens of stock-keeping units differentiated by grade, gauge, diameter, length and coating. That density makes classification discipline more important here than almost anywhere else: a single wrong digit at the eight-digit level can misstate the applicable rate line across an entire product family rather than a single SKU.

The number of digits you are required to show on an invoice and in GSTR-1 Table 12 depends on your aggregate annual turnover, and the threshold has been revised more than once, so check the current requirement rather than relying on how your billing software was configured when the item master was first built. Our guide to HSN digit requirements by turnover sets out how that scales.

Steel movements are also among the most heavily scrutinised categories on e-way bills, given the value density and the volume of interstate movement in the trade. The HSN code declared on the e-way bill must agree with the code on the underlying invoice; a mismatch is one of the more common triggers for detention at a check post, and it is worth reconciling the two documents before a consignment leaves the yard rather than after it is stopped. Our e-way bill rules and limits guide covers the thresholds and validation requirements in full.

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