Platinum Bushings for Basalt Fiber Production Aren't 'Machines,' CBP HQ Rules

Platinum bushings used in basalt fiber production aren't "machines" as defined by the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, according to a ruling recently released by CBP headquarters.

The ruling came in response to Mafic USA's protest and application for further review. Mafic argued that the correct classification for the platinum bushings was under HTS heading 8479 as “machines and mechanical appliances having individual functions, not specified or included elsewhere in this chapter; parts thereof.” CBP had classified the bushings under heading 7115 as "Other articles of precious metal or of metal clad with precious metal."

The bushings at issue are precious metal blocks of platinum/rhodium that contain hundreds of holes through which basalt lava flows and is extruded into filaments. The bushing is positioned within a "bushing well module" consisting of a frame and electrical components.

Mafic said the subject bushing was a part of the bushing well, which carried out the specific individual mechanical function of basalt lava to fiber conversion via extrusion and that the bushing was not specified or included elsewhere in Chapter 84.

CBP pointed to Note 1(K) to Chapter 71, which states the chapter does not cover goods of Chapter 84. If the subject bushing is classifiable in Chapter 84 it couldn't be classified in heading 7115. CBP said it therefore first looked at whether bushing was classified as a part of subheading 8479.90.

In order to classify an article in subheading 8479.90 as a “part” of an article of heading 8479, CBP first looked at the whole well module. The agency noted that neither the bushing nor the bushing well performed any "mechanical function" as they both remained static during the extrusion process. The bushing well module "does not act on anything and it applies no force to push or pull the basalt lava through the holes," CBP said. Instead, it acts as a conduit for the lava, which flows from the furnace to the winder. Neither the well nor the bushing have any moving parts and neither incorporate any mechanical devices that would cause the lava to move. The bushing well "does not utilize, apply, or modify energy or force, or transmit motion," CBP said.

Both "popularly and in the wider mechanical sense," the bushing well doesn't meet the definition of a "machine," CBP said. To qualify, it would need to be a combination of mechanical parts "designed to operate upon material to change it in some preconceived and definite manner," which it doesn't do, the agency said.

Mafic argued that the bushing well performed a similar “extrusion” process like other extrusion machines. However, CBP noted that even if the process is similar, the bushing well is not a machine or mechanical appliance because it has no "mechanical" functions.

Having been excluded from Chapter 84, CBP said that the bushings could be examined for classification under Chapter 71, which covers "all articles wholly or partly of precious metal or metal clad with precious metal not constituting jewellery, unfinished or incomplete articles of jewellery or parts of jewellery (heading 7113) or goldsmiths’ or silversmiths’ wares, unfinished or incomplete articles of goldsmiths’ or silversmiths’ wares or parts thereof (heading 7114), and not excluded under the provisions of Note 2(A) or 3 to this Chapter." The subject bushing is described as a precious metal block of platinum/rhodium and is therefore classified under subheading 7115.90.60, as “other articles of precious metal or of metal clad with precious metal: other: other: other,” CBP said.