Do billets and hot-rolled coil pay the same duty?

No. Billets are charged 5% and hot-rolled coil, uncoated and 600 mm or wider, is charged 0%. They sit under different headings in Chapter 72 and are assessed separately.

What does declaring steel as secondary quality actually change?

On cold-rolled coil, coated sheet, rebar and bars, secondary quality is charged double the prime rate in customs duty terms — 20% against 10%. It is also the line customs checks most closely, because it is where a rate is claimed rather than simply read off the product.

Why is our galvanized or galvalume coil from China being charged an extra duty?

The National Tariff Commission has an anti-dumping duty in force on galvanized steel coils/sheets from China, extended to galvalume coils/sheets in 2025 after a circumvention finding. It applies only to Chinese-origin material and is charged in addition to the ordinary customs duty and sales tax.

Does the anti-dumping duty apply if we import the same coil from Vietnam or Korea instead?

Not under this notice. It names China specifically. A different anti-dumping case can exist for other origins on a similar product, so the position that matters is the one against your actual country of origin, checked at the time of shipment.

Is coated steel always taxed the same as plain galvanized sheet?

No. VCM/PCM pre-painted sheet under a set thickness carries a lower customs duty rate than ordinary galvanized sheet, even though both fall under the same PCT heading.

Do rebar and structural sections carry the same rate?

No. Deformed bars and rods run at 10% prime / 20% secondary, the same as coil. Angles and structural sections are generally 20%, except large H, I and U sections above a set height, which carry 5%.

Can you tell us the duty before we sign the purchase contract?

We can tell you the rate for the specific PCT heading and quality grade once we know exactly what's being bought. What we won't do is quote a rate before confirming which heading and which quality declaration actually fits the goods.

Import duty · Steel

What steel actually costs to bring in, by product, not by chapter.

Shafiq Traders · Updated 13 September 2026

Steel is not one duty rate. Semi-finished billets are charged 5%. Hot-rolled coil is charged 0%. Cold-rolled coil, coated and galvanized sheet, rebar and structural sections are charged 10% if declared as prime and 20% if declared as secondary quality — a line customs checks rather than takes on the invoice. On top of all of that, galvanized and galvalume flat steel from China carries a separate anti-dumping duty of up to 40.47%, set by the National Tariff Commission and payable in addition to the ordinary customs duty, on China-origin material only.

The same metal, five different bills

An importer who has cleared hot-rolled coil before assumes the next shipment of rebar or coated sheet runs on the same rate. It doesn't. The Pakistan Customs Tariff prices a semi-finished billet, a flat-rolled coil and a finished bar under different chapters of Chapter 72, each with its own line.

Two things cut across all of them. Whether the product is declared prime or secondary quality changes the rate on most finished lines. And if it is flat-rolled steel from China, a second duty — administered by a different authority than the one that sets the customs tariff — can apply on top.

What's imported, and what decides the rate

Pakistan Customs Tariff, FY2026-27. Checked September 2026.
Product	PCT heading	What decides the rate
Billets and semi-finished steel	72.07	Cross-section and whether it is a billet, not the quality grade
Ingots	72.06	A separate, lower-charged line from billets
Hot-rolled coil (uncoated, 600 mm+)	72.08	Not split by prime or secondary — one rate either way
Cold-rolled coil (uncoated, 600 mm+)	72.09	Prime or secondary quality, declared and checked separately
Galvanized and coated sheet	72.10	Prime or secondary quality; VCM/PCM pre-painted sheet has its own lower rate
Rebar and other bars and rods	72.13 / 72.14	Prime or secondary quality
Angles, shapes and structural sections	72.16	Section height for large H-beams; prime/secondary for the rest

Customs duty by product

Chapter 72 of the Pakistan Customs Tariff. Where a line splits by quality, both rates are given.

Ingots (iron and non-alloy steel, primary forms)0%on assessed value · PCT 7206.1000
Billets and other semi-finished products5%on assessed value · PCT 7207.11 / 7207.12 / 7207.19 / 7207.20 series
Hot-rolled coil, uncoated, 600 mm width or more0%on assessed value · PCT 72.08 series
Cold-rolled coil, uncoated, 600 mm width or more10% (declared prime) / 20% (declared secondary quality)on assessed value · PCT 72.09 series
Galvanized and other coated flat sheet10% (prime) / 20% (secondary quality) — 5% for VCM/PCM pre-painted sheet under a thickness limiton assessed value · PCT 72.10 series
Rebar and other hot-rolled bars and rods10% (prime) / 20% (secondary quality)on assessed value · PCT 72.13 / 72.14 series
Angles, shapes and sections20% (most sections) / 5% (U, I or H sections above listed heights)on assessed value · PCT 72.16 series
Sales tax18%on value inclusive of customs duty · Sales Tax Act, 1990, Section 3(1) — standard rate

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.

Anti-dumping duty on China-origin flat steel

This is not a customs tariff line. It is a separate duty set by the National Tariff Commission after an anti-dumping investigation, collected the same way as customs duty but in addition to it, and it applies to China-origin material only.

Galvanized steel coils/sheets, China6.09% to 40.47%, depending on exporteron in addition to ordinary customs duty · PCT 7210.4110, 7210.4190, 7210.4990, 7212.3010, 7212.3090, 7225.9200, 7226.9900
Galvalume (aluminium-zinc coated) steel coils/sheets, China40.47%on in addition to ordinary customs duty, effective until 8 February 2027 · PCT 7210.6110, 7210.6190, 7210.6910, 7210.6990

Checked 13 September 2026 against National Tariff Commission — Notice of Final Determination and Extension of Definitive Anti-dumping Duties, Galvalume Steel Coils/Sheets from China, 28 June 2025. Rates move at the budget and by SRO in between, so confirm the current figure with us before you price a consignment on it.

Prime or secondary quality is a claim, not a description

On coil, sheet and bar, the duty rate for a secondary-quality declaration runs at double the prime rate. That gap exists because genuine secondary-quality steel — off-spec runs, mill rejects, coil ends — is a real category with a real discount attached to its price, and customs prices the tariff line to match. It also means a declaration of secondary quality on steel that reads as prime in every other respect is exactly the mismatch an assessing officer is trained to look for.

We would rather tell a client before the declaration goes in that their coil does not read as secondary quality than file it that way and wait for a query. A reassessment after the fact costs more than the duty it was meant to save, and it costs the importer, not the agent who filed it.

The anti-dumping duty follows the product, not the description

Galvanized steel from China has carried an anti-dumping duty since 2017, extended through a sunset review in 2022. When importers began bringing in galvalume — coated with zinc and aluminium instead of zinc alone — as a way around it, the domestic producers filed a circumvention case, and the Commission extended the same rate to galvalume in 2025. The two products are chemically different coatings on the same base steel, and the Commission treated the switch as the same duty being dodged by relabelling, not a genuinely different import.

None of this touches steel from any other origin. The duty is set against Chinese exporters specifically, following an investigation into dumped pricing from that country, and it sits on top of the ordinary customs duty and sales tax rather than replacing either.

If your coil doesn't genuinely read as secondary quality, we will tell you that before the declaration goes in, not file it that way and see what customs makes of it. Declaring a discount you can't support is not a saving. It is a query with your name on it, and it lands after the container is already at the terminal.

Questions

What steel importers ask us

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Tell us what is coming.

Give us the product, the port and roughly when the vessel is due, and we will tell you what the clearance involves and what it will cost.

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