Do we pay customs duty on melting scrap?

Most genuine remeltable, shredded, stainless and tinned scrap is charged 0% customs duty. Re-rollable scrap is charged 5%. Sales tax at the standard 18% applies regardless of the customs duty rate.

Why is our declared invoice value being overridden?

Scrap is assessed against Valuation Ruling No. 56/2025, which prices it off the LME index published weekly in the London Metal Bulletin, not your invoice. If your declared or invoiced value is higher than the ruling's benchmark, the higher figure stands — the ruling only sets a floor.

Is scrap imported by steel melters treated differently from general scrap?

The customs duty and the valuation ruling apply the same way regardless of who imports it. What differs by end-use is a separate sales tax mechanism at the manufacturing stage for registered steel melters and re-rollers, tied to their electricity consumption — that sits downstream of the import and is not a concession at the border.

Can we import scrap containing radioactive contamination risk without any check?

No. Customs equipment at the ports screens for radiation, run with PNRA's technical support. A flagged container is held for a PNRA survey. There is no certificate you arrange in advance that substitutes for that screening.

Why does auto-parts scrap carry a much higher rate?

Because the category is watched for used, serviceable parts travelling under a scrap description. The Import Policy Order separately bans a specific list of auto parts, and vehicle chassis cut into pieces, from import as steel scrap regardless of description.

What counts as re-rollable scrap rather than ordinary remeltable scrap?

A physical test in the Import Policy Order: width up to 1000 mm, thickness 6 mm or more, and length up to 2.5 metres, 1.5 metres for girders and pipes. It has to consist of mill rejects, crop ends, cuttings of plates or bars, or used rails and girders — not just fit the dimensions.

Does scrap coming through Iran or Afghanistan by land get a different value?

Yes. The ruling allows a 7% discount on the LMB benchmark for land-route imports, with the actual land freight to the station added back on top.

How is scrap arriving by air valued?

The difference between air freight and sea freight is added to the same benchmark used for sea imports — the underlying value doesn't change, only the freight component.

Import duty · Scrap

What customs charges on scrap, and why the auto-parts line isn't priced like scrap.

Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026

Ferrous scrap comes in under PCT heading 72.04, and most of it — remeltable scrap, shredded scrap, stainless and tinned scrap, turnings and borings — carries 0% customs duty. Two categories do not: re-rollable scrap is charged 5%, and anything falling into the auto-parts scrap lines is charged 25%, a rate written to discourage it rather than collect it. Customs duty was never the figure that decided a scrap shipment. That is the valuation ruling, which prices your consignment against the week's LME scrap index, not last month's number and not your invoice.

One heading, several different scraps

Heading 72.04 covers everything from mill crop ends to shredded car bodies, and customs does not price them the same way. Genuine melting and re-rolling scrap sits at the bottom of the range. Scrap that reads as a way to bring in used auto parts under a cheaper description sits at the top of it, at a rate written to discourage the trade rather than to collect from it, and a separate order bans some of it outright whatever the rate.

The distinction is not academic. It is the first thing an examining officer checks against the invoice and the packing list, because it decides which of two very different duty bills applies to the same container.

What's in the container, and what it's checked against

PCT headings and their physical definitions: Pakistan Customs Tariff, FY2026-27, and the Import Policy Order, 2022 (SRO 545(I)/2022), as amended. Checked September 2026.
Category	PCT heading	What decides the rate
Remeltable scrap, shredded scrap, stainless and tinned scrap, turnings and borings	7204.1090 / 7204.2100 / 7204.2900 / 7204.3000 / 7204.4100 / 7204.4990 / 7204.5000	Genuinely unusable metal for melting — the ordinary case
Re-rollable scrap	7204.1010 / 7204.4910	A physical definition in the Import Policy Order: width up to 1000 mm, thickness 6 mm or more, length up to 2.5 m (1.5 m for girders and pipes)
Waste and scrap of auto parts	7204.1020 / 7204.4920	Whether what actually arrives is scrap metal or a used, serviceable part travelling under a scrap description
Waste and scrap of compressors	7204.4940	A named line of its own, separate from the auto-parts lines above it

Customs duty and sales tax on ferrous scrap

PCT heading 72.04 covers ferrous waste and scrap, and remelting scrap ingots. These are the rates by category.

Remeltable scrap, stainless/tinned scrap, turnings and borings, remelting ingots0%on assessed value · Pakistan Customs Tariff, PCT 7204.1090, 7204.2100, 7204.2900, 7204.3000, 7204.4100, 7204.4990, 7204.5000
Re-rollable scrap5%on assessed value · Pakistan Customs Tariff, PCT 7204.1010, 7204.4910
Waste and scrap of auto parts25%on assessed value · Pakistan Customs Tariff, PCT 7204.1020, 7204.4920
Waste and scrap of compressors0%on assessed value · Pakistan Customs Tariff, PCT 7204.4940
Sales tax18%on value inclusive of customs duty · Sales Tax Act, 1990, Section 3(1) — standard rate, no exemption found for this heading

Checked 13 September 2026 against Federal Board of Revenue — Pakistan Customs Tariff, FY2026-27. Rates move at the budget and by SRO in between, so confirm the current figure with us before you price a consignment on it.

What the valuation ruling actually prices

Customs does not assess scrap on your invoice. Valuation Ruling No. 56/2025 pegs it to the London Metal Bulletin's weekly import index for Pakistan, by sea, and adjusts from there by category.

Remeltable scrap and shredded scrapLME price published in LMB for Pakistan import, by seaon US$ per metric tonne, C&F · Valuation Ruling No. 56/2025, dated 18 February 2025
Re-rollable scrapThe above, plus US$75/MTon US$ per metric tonne, C&F · Valuation Ruling No. 56/2025
Remeltable HMS scrapThe above, less US$25/MTon US$ per metric tonne, C&F · Valuation Ruling No. 56/2025
Bundle scrapThe above, less US$55/MTon US$ per metric tonne, C&F · Valuation Ruling No. 56/2025
Land route imports (Iran, Afghanistan)7% discount on the LMB value, plus actual land freight to the stationValuation Ruling No. 56/2025

Checked 13 September 2026 against Directorate General of Customs Valuation — Valuation Ruling No. 56/2025 (Iron & Steel Scrap: Remeltable/HMS/Shredded/Re-Rollable). Rates move at the budget and by SRO in between, so confirm the current figure with us before you price a consignment on it.

The ruling moves with the market; your invoice doesn't have to

Ruling 56/2025 superseded a 2021 ruling after ship-breakers and steel producers disputed how the land-route freight discount was being applied — it was being taken off the whole C&F value instead of just the freight component, which made Iranian and Afghan scrap cheaper than the same scrap landed by sea. The fix was a fresh valuation exercise, not a patched number.

The benchmark itself moves weekly with the LME price as published in the London Metal Bulletin. If your declared value or invoice is higher than the benchmark, the higher figure is what gets assessed — the ruling is a floor, not a ceiling. Quoting a customs cost before pulling that week's index is a guess, and a guess is not a figure we put in front of a client.

Why the auto-parts line is priced to discourage, not to collect

The deterrent rate on auto-parts scrap exists next to a separate rule that bans the thing it is often used to disguise. The Import Policy Order bans chassis of used vehicles cut into pieces regardless of whether the shipment is described as steel scrap, and separately bans auto parts — tyres, glass, bearings, compressors and a specific list of others — imported as steel scrap under any description. Genuine scrap metal from a vehicle is not the same import as a used, serviceable part wearing a scrap invoice, and customs treats the two differently on sight, not on the paperwork alone.

Re-rollable scrap has its own physical test for the same reason: a defined width, thickness and length, because a shipment that does not meet those dimensions is not re-rollable scrap by description, whatever the invoice calls it.

If your container is flagged at the radiation scanner, we cannot argue it through. Customs runs that equipment with PNRA's training and technical support, and a positive reading goes to a PNRA survey before anything moves — a decision that is theirs, not ours, and not something an agent's standing at the port shortens.

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