Alloy steel and welding wire from China

0% duty and no steel measure

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 27 September 2026, heading 7229 covers wire of alloy steel other than stainless. All 5 lines carried 0% on goods from China, with no anti-dumping measure and none of them under the UK steel safeguard measure: silicon-manganese steel wire, including the 0.6 mm to 4 mm line with the chemistry of common solid welding wire (up to 0.2% carbon, 0.6% to 1.4% silicon, 0.9% to 1.9% manganese); high-speed steel wire; wire with 0.9% to 1.15% carbon and 0.5% to 2% chromium, used for bearings; and other alloy steel wire.

Silicon of 0.6% or more makes the steel alloy steel under the chapter 72 notes, which is why solid welding wire usually falls here rather than under non-alloy wire (see our steel wire guide). Flux-cored wire and coated electrodes are heading 8311 (see our welding electrodes guide), and stainless wire is 7223 (see our stainless wire guide). Confirm the commodity code.

Standards and classification

Solid wire electrodes for gas-shielded welding of non-alloy and fine-grain steels are classified to BS EN ISO 14341, which sets the chemical composition symbols (such as G3Si1 and G4Si1) and the weld metal properties. High-speed steel is specified by grade to ISO 4957, and bearing steels to ISO 683-17.

Wire sold for welding to UK users should come with a certificate of analysis and, for structural fabrication to BS EN 1090, the inspection certificate the fabricator's welding procedures require.

Specifying welding and alloy wire

Specify the classification or grade, diameter and tolerance, copper coating or uncoated, spool or drum type and weight, cast and helix for feeding, surface cleanliness, tensile strength range, packing against moisture, and the certificate type per lot.

Worked duty example

An invented example rather than a quote: 20 tonnes of solid MIG welding wire on spools, commodity code 7229 20 00 10, bought for £22,000 free on board, with £2,500 of freight and insurance, so £24,500 is the value customs works from. No duty is due on silicon-manganese welding wire; import VAT at 20% of £24,500 is £4,900. If you are VAT-registered, that VAT is normally reclaimable. See calculating UK import duty and VAT for the method.

Inspection checklist

Documents: check the certificate of analysis for carbon, silicon and manganese against the classification ordered, and the lot numbers on every spool.

Feeding and surface: check diameter with a micrometer, cast and helix, copper coating adhesion and surface cleanliness on sampled spools, and run a feed test.

Packing: check spools are layer-wound, vacuum-packed or bagged with desiccant, and cartoned to prevent crushing.

What goes wrong

Welding wire orders fail on chemistry, winding and rust. Silicon or manganese falls outside the classification, poor layer winding and cast cause feeding problems, coating flakes and clogs liners, and wire rusts in damp containers.

Test a sample lot, run a feed trial on your own equipment, and check packing before shipment. See our quality inspection guide.

Cambridge China Bridge sources welding and alloy steel wire for UK distributors and fabricators, checking the maker's laboratory and winding lines first. See second supplier.