HS Code 7326.20 — Articles of iron or steel wire | South Africa Import & Export

HS 7326.20 has no anti-dumping landmine of its own. The trap is adjacent: misclassify into 7318 (threaded fasteners) and you walk into a 48.04% safeguard; misclassify into 9403 (furniture) and your duty rate flips. The real money sits in essential-character classification.

What this HS code covers

HS 7326.20 is the residual heading for finished articles made of iron or steel wire — products where wire is the structural material and the item is no longer in roll, sheet or continuous form. Think wire baskets, mesh shelving cut and finished to size, cable trays, retail display racks, supermarket trolley wire components, pre-cut wire mesh inserts, and fabricated wire ware.

At eight digits the SA tariff splits the heading into 7326.20.10 (articles of iron or steel wire used in the construction of motor vehicles) and 7326.20.90 (other articles of iron or steel wire). What does NOT belong here: raw drawn wire (chapter 7217), woven or welded wire mesh on a roll (7314), nails, tacks and staples (7317), chain (7315), and threaded fasteners (7318). Each of those neighbours carries its own duty profile — and one of them carries a 48.04% safeguard.

South African trade picture

South Africa imported USD 53.91 million of HS 7326.20 across 23,478 tonnes in 2024, with China supplying 54.2% of that value and 74.8% of the weight (UN Comtrade, reporter ZAF, HS 732620, 2024). Germany sits second at USD 12.71M / 23.6% by value but only 5.8% by weight — a clean illustration of the split: Chinese bulk-fabricated wire articles versus German finished, higher-unit-value wire ware. Czechia (4.1%), the Netherlands (2.8%) and Belgium (2.5%) round out the top five, with the US, Italy and India trailing.

The three-year trend is flat in dollars and rising in weight. Imports moved from USD 53.80M in 2022 to USD 50.11M in 2023 and back to USD 53.91M in 2024, while tonnage climbed 9.4% over the same period (UN Comtrade, reporter ZAF, HS 732620). South Africa shipped USD 35.02M of 7326.20 articles outbound in 2024, almost all into Africa: Lesotho (19.2%), Côte d’Ivoire (14.7%), the UAE (12.8%), Namibia (8.3%) and DR Congo (5.2%). If you are sourcing wire articles for a SADC project, Lesotho is an outbound corridor — not an inbound origin.

Duties and VAT

The MFN duty rate for 7326.20 must be verified at clearance against the current SARS Schedule 1 Part 1 at https://tdn.sars.gov.za/portal/. Public commentary places 8-digit splits in the 15–20% ad valorem band, but rates change and we will not publish a hard percentage here without source confirmation. VAT is 15% on the customs ATV (FOB customs value × 1.10) plus customs duty plus any anti-dumping or safeguard duty applied, per section 13(2) of the VAT Act. There is no excise on chapter 73 wire articles.

Preferential rates are where European-origin imports earn their keep. Under the SACU-EU EPA and the SACU-UK EPA, chapter 73 is broadly liberalised, so a correctly issued EUR.1 or origin declaration generally takes German, Belgian, Dutch, Italian and Czech wire articles to a free rate. That preference covers roughly 34% of South Africa’s 2024 7326.20 imports by value — material money on the table if your supplier issues the document and your broker captures it on the SAD 500.

SADC-origin manufacturers (Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, Botswana, Mauritius) qualify under the SADC Trade Protocol with an SADC EUR.1 meeting Annex I product-specific rules. SACU’s AfCFTA tariff offer for chapter 73 is in phased implementation — verify the live status of the specific 8-digit split against the SACU Schedule of Concessions before clearance. There is no preference for China. Chinese-origin wire articles pay the full MFN rate, every time.

There is no current ITAC anti-dumping, countervailing or safeguard duty that specifically names HS 7326.20 (ITAC Investigation Reports register, accessed 18 May 2026). What IS live on adjacent steel lines: ITAC Report No. 763 on flat-rolled iron / non-alloy steel from China (Preliminary Determination, 30 January 2026); ITAC Report No. 767 on certain flat-rolled iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel from China, Japan and Taiwan (Final Determination, 13 January 2026); and Government Gazette Notices 3827 and 3828 of 2026 covering hot-rolled products and structural steel from China and adjacent origins.

The closest live trade-remedy to a wire-article importer is the Section 26 safeguard on threaded fasteners of iron or steel under HS 7318.x (stainless excluded), historically cited at 48.04% ad valorem and currently in its second sunset review (WTO Committee on Safeguards notification, 6 March 2026). 7326.20 itself is clean — the trap is everything that sits next to it.

Documents and compliance

The SARS file on a 7326.20 entry stands or falls on the commercial invoice. A description that says “wire products” or “metal goods” will trigger an examination almost every time. State the article, the wire diameter, the dimensions, the finish, the unit weight, and the per-unit value. Where the article combines materials, give the material breakdown by weight AND by value — that is what answers the GIR 3(b) essential-character question before the SARS examiner has to ask it.

Documents typically required for an HS 7326.20 entry:

• Commercial invoice with full product description, wire specification, dimensions, finish, and material breakdown by weight and value where the article is mixed-material
• Packing list with weights per line
• Bill of lading or air waybill
• SAD 500 with the correct 8-digit split (7326.20.10 motor-vehicle use vs 7326.20.90 other) and the country of origin field completed under non-preferential origin rules
• Certificate of origin — Form A or commercial CoO for non-preferential entries; EUR.1 for SACU-EU EPA, SACU-UK EPA and SADC preference; AfCFTA certificate where the SACU offer covers your split
• Mill test certificate or manufacturer’s specification sheet where requested
• Manufacturer’s process flow and bill of materials with country-of-stock for each input — critical for any Asian origin where Chinese wire stock may be in play

Common mistakes

The single most expensive mistake on this heading is misclassification. A wire shopping basket with no other material is 7326.20. The moment that basket acquires a plastic moulded handle or a wooden base, a SARS examiner can move it into 9403 (other furniture) or 9405 (lighting hybrids) using the General Interpretive Rule 3(b) essential-character test — and your duty rate changes. A roll of welded wire mesh is 7314, not 7326.20, and the difference matters because the trade-remedy exposure on 7314 lines is not the same. A length of threaded wire that you call a “wire article” can be ruled into 7318 — and that is where the 48.04% safeguard lives.

The second trap is origin. With China at 54% of imports and trade-remedy pressure on adjacent chapter 72 / 73 lines, “manufactured in Vietnam” or “manufactured in Malaysia” claims on wire articles drawn from Chinese stock are a known SARS challenge point. SARS reads non-preferential origin under section 46 of the Customs and Excise Act 91 of 1964 — substantial transformation, last meaningful change in tariff classification, or the value-add threshold under the applicable agreement. Cutting and bending Chinese wire in a Vietnamese workshop is generally NOT substantial transformation. Keep the manufacturer’s process flow and bill of materials on file for every Asian-origin 7326.20 entry.

How JLog handles it

For wire-article importers we classify the goods against the 7326 / 7314 / 7317 / 7318 / 9403 boundary before the consignment ships, write the commercial-invoice description SARS expects, and capture any available EUR.1, SADC EUR.1 or AfCFTA preference on the SAD 500. Where the origin chain runs through China to a downstream Asian country, we collect the manufacturer’s process flow and bill of materials up front so the section 46 substantial-transformation question is answered on the file, not at the examination desk. We move the freight (sea or air), clear it at Cape Town, Durban or OR Tambo, and release to your warehouse or to ours in Woodstock.

7326.20 itself has no anti-dumping duty. The 48.04% safeguard sits one HS line over. Get the classification right on the invoice — or pay the wrong rate at clearance.

Get a quote for shipping HS 7326.20: jlog.co.za/get-a-quote