Iron and steel

Iron and steel in primary and semi-finished forms

HSN Chapter 72 covers iron and steel in primary and semi-finished forms — pig iron, ferro-alloys, ferrous waste and scrap, granules and powders, ingots, blooms, billets and slabs, semi-finished products, hot- and cold-rolled flat products, bars and rods, angles, shapes and sections, wire, and stainless steel and other alloy steel in all upstream forms. Within this chapter the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has notified 483 tariff lines spanning headings 7202 through 7229, by far the largest single-chapter coverage in the entire BIS-notified perimeter, reflecting the cumulative coverage of the Steel and Steel Products (Quality Control) Order, 2024 (S.O. 3716(E)) and predecessor steel QCOs administered through the Ministry of Steel.

The controlling standards include IS 1786 family equivalents and IS 2062 (carbon and low-alloy steels), IS 6911 (stainless steel sheets and strips), IS 5522 (stainless steel flat-rolled products for utensils), IS 11946 and IS 11947 (hot-rolled HSLA steel), IS 814 (covered electrodes — used for product identification), IS 6419 (welding rods), IS 15997 (TMT bars equivalents) and IS 16014 (cold-formed welded structural hollow sections). All 483 codes fall under the ISI Mark Scheme (Scheme-I of Schedule-II of the BIS Conformity Assessment Regulations, 2018). Indian steel mills require a CM/L licence per plant per product family; foreign mills shipping into India require a Foreign Manufacturers Certification Scheme (FMCS) licence with a 6–9 month timeline.