Engineering Goods and Hardware: India's Biggest Export, and the Metal Duty That Decides Your Price
- Updated
In January 2026 a small US seller on Etsy asked why a "wooden" product from India had cost so much more to land than planned. The replies were blunt. One said simply "If its made in india, 25%." Another warned that the extra duty would depend "on how much steel is used" (r/Etsy, January 2026 (opens in a new tab), one thread, three replies). The seller had bought furniture. The customs officer saw steel.
Both replies were reasonable in January. Both are wrong now, and the way they went wrong is the most useful thing we can tell you about Indian engineering goods. This page covers what the official "engineering" line contains, which parts of it a wholesaler can actually buy, where those parts are made, and how the US and EU metal rules change your price. One caveat. India publishes engineering exports as one big number, and almost no cluster in it has a published size, so we tell you where the evidence stops.
What "Engineering Goods" Means, and Why Most of It Isn't for You
India's engineering line was worth US$122.43 billion in FY2025-26, up 4.86% on the year (PIB, April 2026 (opens in a new tab)). It's the country's largest export group by a distance. It also has no sub-lines in the official list. Auto components and sports goods sit inside it, and so do steel pipes, pumps, machinery, castings and kitchen tools.
Most of that value moves between large manufacturers and industrial buyers on long contracts. If you're a wholesaler or a brand, the part you can buy is narrower: hardware (locks, hinges, fasteners, handles), metal kitchenware and tools, brass and copper fittings, and metal home décor. Those are the products this page is about.
How big is India in them? Not very, by each importing country's own customs data. In articles of iron or steel, India's share of 2025 imports was 4.6% for Australia, 3.0% for the UK, 6.6% for the US and 5.2% for the EU, and 10.2% for the UAE in 2023 (our analysis of UN Comtrade records). China leads everywhere. India is a real second source in metal articles, not the default one, and the wider context is on India's export industries.
Where the Hardware Is Made
Aligarh for locks. Uttar Pradesh names Aligarh's district products as locks, metal craft, engineering products (industrial fasteners) and handicrafts (UP ODOP, Aligarh (opens in a new tab)). It's the one hardware town with an official designation, and it isn't only locks. The town profile is on Aligarh and the product page is Locks and door hardware.
Jamnagar, Faridabad and Delhi for brass and copper parts. This is the finding that surprises people. When we read who ships "other articles of copper" (HS 7419) from India to the US, the big named shippers weren't the handicraft exporters of Moradabad. Moradabad held 12.9% of named bills. The rest came largely from engineering brass and copper makers in Jamnagar in Gujarat, Faridabad and Delhi. If you're buying brass fittings, inserts or turned parts, Jamnagar is where the volume is (Indicative, from shipping records rather than an official cluster list).
Moradabad for mixed metal décor. Moradabad's largest US shippers list iron and steel articles (HS 7326) as their main line far more often than brass. It's a décor town that works in every metal, plus glass and wood.
Rajkot, Coimbatore and Ludhiana. Their reputations for castings, pumps and cycles are well known in India, but we found no official or export-council source giving their size or product mix. We're not going to describe them on reputation alone.
The Metal Duty, as a Timeline
This is where the Etsy seller's January replies went stale. We read the Federal Register notice at source.
Before 6 April 2026. Section 232 duty on derivative articles was charged on the metal content. That's why "it depends how much steel is used" was the right answer in January.
From 6 April 2026. The proclamation now applies duty to "the full customs value of the imported product, regardless of metal content" (Federal Register, 9 April 2026 (opens in a new tab)). Covered goods are sorted into annexes, and the annex decides the rate:
| Annex | What it covers | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| I-A | All aluminium and steel articles, most copper articles, certain derivatives | 50% |
| I-B | Copper articles and certain aluminium and steel derivatives | 25% |
| III | Listed articles on a temporary rate | 15% until 31 December 2027, then 25% |
| II | Listed articles taken out of the duty | 0% |
A Section 232 article doesn't also pay the 10% Section 301 duty that most Indian goods now carry. It pays the 232 rate instead. The wider US tariff picture is on US Section 232 on metals.
So what does that mean for a hardware buyer? Two things. First, a steel-heavy product and a product with one steel bracket now pay the same percentage if they sit on the same annex line, so a small metal part can move a whole article into a much higher bracket. Second, the HS line you choose with your supplier is now a pricing decision, not paperwork. The annexes list lines one by one, and we haven't mapped every hardware line, so check this with your own customs broker before you price the order. Bring the product drawing and the material breakdown, not just a description.
The EU Version: CBAM and Lost GSP
The EU's version of the problem arrives differently. Since 1 January 2026 the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism is in its definitive phase for iron and steel, aluminium and a few other materials. Importers bringing in more than 50 tonnes a year of covered goods must become authorised CBAM declarants and buy certificates for the embedded emissions (DG TAXUD (opens in a new tab)). Certificate sales open on 1 February 2027.
Fasteners and many steel and aluminium articles are in scope. If your supplier can't give you verified emissions data, default values apply in place of the factory's real figures. Ask a prospective supplier, early, whether they can report the embedded emissions of the steel they use and who supplies it. A factory that can answer is worth more to you than one quoting a lower price without the data. We don't publish CBAM cost estimates, because the ones in circulation have no source we could trace.
On top of that, India has lost EU GSP preference for 2026 to 2028 in the sections covering iron and steel, base metals and machinery, so those lines pay full MFN duty. The section-by-section table is on EU CBAM and GSP for metals.
What to Ask Before the PO
Four questions do most of the work for engineering hardware, and they're all about paperwork you'll need later:
- What is the material, grade and weight of each metal in the item? You need this for the US annex check and the EU CBAM report.
- Which HS line do you export it under, and why? If your supplier's line and your broker's line differ, settle it now.
- Who makes the metal parts? Plenty of good Indian hardware is assembled from bought-in castings or forgings. That's normal job work, not a warning sign. But the casting maker is the one whose steel and process you're relying on, so know who it is.
- Can you give us emissions data for the steel or aluminium? Essential for the EU, useful everywhere.
Back to the Etsy Seller
The January answer was "it depends on how much steel is used." The October answer is "it depends which annex line it falls on, and then the whole value pays." That's a harder rule for products with a little metal and an easier one to calculate. Either way, the duty on Indian hardware can now outweigh the price difference between two suppliers, so get the line confirmed before you compare quotes.
If you'd rather have someone collect the material declarations and emissions data from the factory and check them against the drawings, SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) handles that.