Same steel bottle, 27% or 12%. It depends on where the steel was melted.

Take a stainless steel water bottle. The normal US duty on it is 2%. Most importers would guess that's roughly what they pay.

They don't. A steel bottle is a "derivative" steel article under Section 232, and that brings a second duty, charged on the full customs value of the bottle, not just the steel inside. How much depends on one question that has nothing to do with where the bottle was made: where was the steel melted?

Two identical bottles, two different bills

Where the steel was melted	Section 232	Total	Duty
Outside the US, or unknown	+25% · 9903.82.09	27%	$2,700
At least 85% in the US	+10% · 9903.82.06	12%	$1,200

Rates as answered by the Falmoran engine for entries on 15 Oct 2026. Duty only; MPF and HMF are not included. Not legal advice; a licensed customs broker files the entry.

Same bottle, same factory, same price. $1,500 apart on every $10,000, because of a fact on a mill certificate that most buyers never ask for.

Where it was made barely matters

Run the same bottle from Vietnam or India and the answer is the same: 25%, or 10% with US-melted steel. Section 232 follows the metal, not the factory.

There is a second effect people miss. Goods charged under Section 232 are exempt from the new forced-labor Section 301 duty (heading 9903.05.90). So the steel bottle from Vietnam does not also pay Vietnam's 12.5%. It pays 232 instead. Put a plastic bottle and a steel bottle side by side from the same Vietnamese factory and they follow two completely different sets of rules.

The 85% line moved this year

Until 8 June 2026, the lower rate needed 95% US metal. It was lowered to 85% (CBP CSMS 68855869). Some goods that missed the old line now qualify. If you checked your steel products before June and gave up, check them again.

How to get the answer from your supplier

• Ask for the mill certificate of the steel used, not a sales sheet. It names the mill, and the mill tells you the country of melt.
• Ask for the share. If the bottle uses steel from more than one source, you need the percentage by weight that was melted and poured in the US.
• Keep it on file per shipment. The fact can change when your supplier changes steel suppliers, and nobody will tell you.

If the answer is "we don't know", you cannot claim the lower rate, and the entry pays 25%.