US imports of Aluminum plates, sheets and strip

US imports under HTS 7606 at a glance

Between March and July 2026, US importers entered $3.01 billion of aluminum plates, sheets and strip under HTS heading 7606, from 39 of the 55 origin countries covered here and across 19 ten-digit tariff lines — roughly $601 million a month of customs value under a single four-digit heading.

Chapter 76 covers aluminium and articles of aluminium; heading 7606 is one of its larger entries by value, which is why the duty treatment below is worth checking line by line.

Who exports aluminum plates, sheets and strip to the United States

South Korea is the largest origin with $728 million, or 24.2% of the heading, with China at 19.6% and Germany at 8.9%. The top three take 52.7% between them — enough concentration to matter when one origin's duty treatment changes, but not so much that a buyer has no alternative to qualify.

Canada sits near the top of the table, and the duty numbers reflect it: Canada entered 6.6% of its value free of duty. Cargo that qualifies under USMCA and is claimed correctly at entry pays nothing; cargo that does not qualify, or that is never claimed, pays the ordinary rate. The certification is the whole difference.

What importers actually paid in duty

Almost everything under this heading is dutiable: 98.3% of entered value carried duty, and CBP collected $1.66 billion over the five months. The effective rate on dutiable value was 56%, which works out to $55.12 of duty per $100 of goods. There is no meaningful duty-free channel here — classification and origin are the only levers.

The spread between origins is real. Among origins with at least 2% of the heading, China paid the most duty relative to value — $75.74 per $100 — while South Africa paid $39.13. On a $250,000 purchase order that gap is about $92,000 in duty alone, which is worth pricing into a sourcing decision rather than discovering on the entry summary.

The 10-digit lines under heading 7606

19 ten-digit lines carried trade under this heading in the period. The largest, 7606.12.30.91 (not clad), took 34.4% of the heading at $1.04 billion. 7606.12.30.45, 7606.12.30.96 and 7606.12.30.35 follow. Rates diverge between those lines, so the classification your broker files is worth checking against the goods rather than carried over from the last entry.

What the duty stack looks like

The rate on an entry is not one number. It is a stack: the general (column 1) rate for the 10-digit line, less any trade-agreement preference the goods qualify for, plus whatever additional duties apply to that product and origin, all applied to the customs value declared. The $55.12 per $100 above is what that stack averaged across every entry in this heading — a benchmark, not a quote.

For the origins carrying the most volume, the per-country breakdowns go a level deeper: South Korea (7606.12.30), China (7606.12.30) and Germany (7606.12.30). To price a specific shipment, put your 10-digit code and country of origin into the tariff simulator.

What this means for your next shipment

The practical sequence is: confirm the 10-digit line against the actual goods, confirm origin under the substantial-transformation rules rather than the shipping address, then price the duty on that pair. Airlift USA moves the cargo and coordinates classification and entry filing through our licensed broker network, so the code agreed at booking is the one on the entry.

For the operational side rather than the tariff side, see the Metals & Fabricated Industrial Goods guide for how this cargo moves, the China to USA lane for transit times and ports and the heading index to compare against the rest of chapter 76.