CLA-2 OT:RR:CTF:TCM H015928 RES
Port Director
Port of Baltimore
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
40 South Gay Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
RE: Tariff classification of Jayson Industries, Inc. Steel Rollers; Application for Further Review of Protest Number 1303-07-100060.
Dear Port Director:
This letter is in reply to your memorandum dated August 13, 2007, forwarding Application for Further Review (“AFR”) of Protest Number 1303-07-100060 filed on behalf of Jayson Industries, Inc. (“protestant”). The protest is against the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (“CBP”) classification of long and short rollers (“steel rollers”) for use in metal working machinery under the 2005 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (“HTSUS”).
FACTS:
The steel rollers are made of forged alloy steel and are about six inches in diameter and either thirty-two and a half inches or twenty inches in length. The protestant explains in emails from its representative dated September 27, 2006, March 15, 2010, and April, 9, 2010, that the actual machines the steel rollers are used in are casting machines where the input into the machine is molten steel which is processed into steel slabs. According to the April 9, 2010, email, the type of machine is called a continuous casting machine. In addition, in the
engineering design documents of the steel rollers that the importer submitted to CBP on September 12, 2007, the steel rollers are listed as being part of a slab casting machine. The rollers are used in the steelmaking process at the step where “a series of rolls must support the soft steel shell between mold exit and the metallurgical length, in order to minimize bulging due to the internal liquid pressure.”
The merchandise was initially entered on December 2, 2005, under heading 8455, HTSUS, which provides for “metal rolling mills and rolls therefor; parts thereof.” CBP issued a CF 29 on August 31, 2006, proposing that the merchandise be classified under heading 8207, HTSUS, as “[i]interchangeable tools for handtools, whether or not power-operated, or for machine-tools . . . .” Based on the protestant’s failure to respond to the CF 29, CBP liquidated the steel rollers on October 20, 2006, under heading 8207, HTSUS. The protestant asserts that the proper classification is under heading 8455, HTSUS.
ISSUE:
Whether the subject steel rollers are classified under heading 8454, HTSUS, as parts of casting machines or under heading 8455, HTSUS, as parts of rolling mills or under heading 8207, HTSUS, as interchangeable tools for machine-tools?
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Initially, CBP notes that the protest was timely filed on March 15, 2007, which is within 180 days after the date of the October 20, 2006, liquidation. See 19 U.S.C. § 1514(c)(3). Additionally, CBP’s classification of the merchandise is a protestable matter under 19 U.S.C. § 1514(a)(2).
Further Review of Protest No. 1303-07-100060 is properly accorded to protestant pursuant to 19 C.F.R. § 174.24(c) because the decision against which the protest was filed is alleged to involve facts which were not considered at the time of the original ruling.
Classification under the HTSUS is made in accordance with the General Rules of Interpretation (GRI). GRI 1 provides that the classification of goods shall be “determined according to the terms of the headings and any relative section or chapter notes.” In the event that the goods cannot be classified solely on the basis of GRI 1, and if the headings and legal notes do not otherwise require, the remaining GRI 2 through 6 may be applied in order.
In understanding the language of the HTSUS, the Explanatory Notes (ENs) of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System, which constitute the official interpretation of the HTSUS at the international level, may be utilized. The ENs, although not dispositive or legally binding, provide a commentary on the scope of each heading, and are generally indicative of the proper interpretation of the HTSUS. See T.D. 89-80, 54 Fed. Reg. 35127 (August 23, 1989).
The following 2005 HTSUS provisions are under consideration:
8207 Interchangeable tools for handtools, whether or not power-operated, or for machine-tools (for example, for pressing, stamping, punching, tapping, threading, drilling, boring, broaching, milling, turning or screwdriving), including dies for drawing or extruding metal, and rock drilling or earth boring tools; base metal parts thereof:
8454 Converters, ladles, ingot moulds and casting machines, of a kind used in metallurgy or in metal foundries, and parts thereof:
8455 Metal-rolling mills and rolls therefor; parts thereof:
The articles at issue in the instant AFR are steel rollers. As the steel rollers are used in casting machines, the first step is to determine under what heading the casting machines themselves are classified. The protestant asserts that the machines fall under heading 8455, HTSUS, because they are metal-rolling mills. However not all rolling mills fall under heading 8455, HTSUS. EN (I) for heading 8455 describes the scope of the term “rolling mill” under this heading:
Rolling mills are metal working machines consisting essentially of a system of rollers between which the metal is passed; the metal is rolled out or shaped by the pressure exerted by the rollers, and at the same time the rolling modifies the structure of the metal and improves its quality. In some cases, in addition to their normal functions, rolling mills may be used to produce a pattern on the metal surface, or to roll together two or more sheets of different metals to produce a laminated product.
Similar machines for rolling machines other than metal, e.g. calenders, are excluded (heading 84.20). Other roller machines (e.g., for gumming metal foil on to a paper support) (heading 84.20), bending, folding, straightening or flattening machines (heading 84.62) are not regarded as rolling mills in the sense described above and are therefore excluded from this heading.
Rolling mills are of various types according to the particular tooling operations for which they are designed, viz.:
(A) Rolling out to reduce the thickness with a corresponding increase in length (e.g., in the rolling of ingots into blooms, billets or slabs; rolling of slabs into sheet, strip, etc.).
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Unlike the rolling mills described in the EN to heading 8455, which are used in the metal working process, the casting machines are used in the steel making process to take molten steel as an input and produce steel slabs as the output. Thus, based on this description of the casting machines, the subject rollers are not classifiable in heading 8455, HTSUS, because they are not used in any of the machines as described within this heading.
Casting machines are eo nomine classifiable under heading 8454, HTSUS, which provides for “[c]onverters, ladles, ingot moulds and casting machines, of a kind used in metallurgy or in metal foundries.” EN (D) to heading 8454 further elaborates on types of casting machines that fall under subheading 8454, HTSUS, stating:
This group includes:
Machines (generally incorporating a conveyor belt or chain) for the successive filling, cooling and emptying of the moulds. These sometimes incorporate devices for shaking or tapping the moulds to facilitate the even setting of the molten metal.
Machines for casting under pressure. These consist essentially of two adjustable plates to which are fixed the two halves of the mould. The liquid metal from a reservoir is forced into the mould, either by the direct action of compressed air on the free surface of liquid metal. In some cases these machines incorporate cooling devices, to accelerate solidification of the metal and arrangements for separating the cast article from the mould. They are mainly used for casting small non-ferrous metal articles. However, the heading does not cover machines for moulding metal powders under pressure, by sintering, (heading 84.62).
Centrifugal casting machines in which the molten metal is led into a cylindrical mould rotating at high speed; the metal is thrown on to the sides of the mould and solidifies in the form of a pipe.
Continuous casting machines. In these, steel is conveyed from the ladle in a distributor which feeds the different casting flow lines. These flow lines include:
(a) an ingot mould, without bottom, with its cooling devices;
(b) outside the ingot mould system for atomizing water in order to cool the cast metal;
(c) a group of conveyor rollers allowing the regular extraction of the solidified metal; and
(d) a system of cutting-off machines, followed by an evacuation device
The moulds to be sued with the machines this group fall usually in heading 68.15, 69.03, or 84.80.
In addition, the EN to subheading 8454.90 states that “[s]ubject to the general provision regarding the classification of parts (see the General Explanatory Note to Section XVI), the heading also covers parts of the machines of this heading.”
The functions of the casting machines is to take molten steel as an input and produce steel slabs, fit the description in EN (D)(4) of a continuous casting machine. Therefore, the casting machine is classified in heading 8454, HTSUS.
Turning to the classification of the instant steel rollers, Note 2(b) to Section XVI, HTSUS, states that:
[s]ubject to note 1 to this section, note 1 to chapter 84 and to note 1 to chapter 85, parts of machines (not being parts of the articles of heading 8484, 8544, 8545, 8546, or 8547) are to be classified according to the following rules:
Parts which are goods included in any of the headings of chapter 84 or 85 (other than headings 8409, 8431, 8448, 8466, 8473, 8485, 8503, 8522, 8529, 8538 and 8548) are in all cases to be classified in their respective headings;
Other parts, if suitable for use solely or principally with a particular kind of machine, or with a number of machines of the same heading (including a machine of heading 8479 or 8543) are to be classified with the machines of that kind or in heading 8409, 8431, 8448, 8466, 8473, 8503, 8529, or 8538 as appropriate. However, parts which are equally suitable for use principally with the goods of headings 8517 and 8525 are to be classified in heading 8517.
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Note 1(o) to Section XVI, HTSUS, states that this section does not cover:
Interchangeable tools of heading 8207 or brushes of a kind used as parts of machines (heading 9603); similar interchangeable tools are to be classified according to the constituent material of their working part (for example, in chapter 40, 42, 43, 45, or 59 or heading 6804 or 6909).
The EN to heading 8207 states:
Whereas (apart from a few exceptions such as machine saw blades) the preceding headings of this Chapter apply in the main to hand tools ready for use as they stand or after affixing handles, this heading covers an important group of tools which are unsuitable for use independently, but are designed to be fitted as the case may be into:
hand tools, whether or not power-operated (e.g., breast drills, braces and die-stocks)
machine-tools, of headings 84.56 to 84.65, or of heading 84.79 by reason of Note 7 to Chapter 84,
Tools of heading 84.67.
Because the steel rollers are specifically designed and manufactured to be used in a slab casting machine (also categorized as a continuous casting machine) that are classified under the heading 8454, Note 2(b) to Section XVI, HTSUS, directs classifying the steel rollers under this heading. Furthermore, insofar as the steel rollers are used with casting machines of 8454, they are not excluded by Note 1(o) to Section XVI, HTSUS, and are not classifiable in heading 8207, HTSUS. CBP has previously classified steel rollers for continuous casting machines under heading 8454, HTSUS. See NY 857250, dated October 30, 1990, and NY I88900, dated November 26, 2002.
Therefore, the steel rollers are classified under the specific subheading of 8454.90.00, HTSUS, as “[c]onverters, ladles, ingot molds and casting machines, of a kind used in metallurgy or in metal foundries, and parts thereof: Parts: Other.”
HOLDING:
Pursuant to GRI 1, the steel rollers are classified under heading 8454, HTSUS, specifically subheading 8454.90.00, HTSUS, as “[c]onverters, ladles, ingot molds and casting machines, of a kind used in metallurgy or in metal foundries, and parts thereof: Parts: Other.” The general, column one, rate of duty is free.
The Protest should be GRANTED. Since the classification indicated above is a different provision as the classification under which the entry was liquidated, you are instructed to grant the protest in full and reliquidate the entry pursuant to subheading 8454.90.00, HTSUS. A copy of this ruling should be attached to the CBP Form 19 and provided to the protestant as part of the notice of action on the protest.
Sixty days from the date of the decision the Office of International Trade, Regulations and Rulings, will make the decision available to CBP personnel, and to the public on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Home Page on the World Wide Web at www.cbp.gov, by means of the Freedom of Information Act, and other methods of public distribution.
Sincerely,
Myles B. Harmon, Director
Commercial and Trade Facilitation Division