Section 122 Tariff Expiration in July 2026: What It Means for Sourcing Aluminum Castings from China

# Section 122 Tariff Expiration in July 2026: What It Means for Sourcing Aluminum Castings from China

If you buy aluminum castings from China, the Section 122 tariff expiration on July 24, 2026 is the single most important date on your sourcing calendar this summer. The temporary 15% surcharge that has applied to virtually all Chinese imports since February is scheduled to lapse by statute — and depending on what Congress does next, your landed cost on the same casting could change meaningfully within a single quarter.

This article explains what Section 122 is, what actually expires in July, what stays in place either way, and how procurement teams can time RFQs and shipments around the uncertainty — without gambling the supply chain on a single policy outcome.

What Is the Section 122 Tariff, and Why Does It Expire?

Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows the President to impose a temporary import surcharge of up to 15% for a maximum of 150 days, unless Congress votes to extend it. The current 15% surcharge was imposed in late February 2026, after the Supreme Court struck down the earlier IEEPA-based tariffs. Counting 150 days forward gives the hard statutory deadline: July 24, 2026.

Three scenarios are on the table:

• •It simply expires. The 15% surcharge disappears, and imports from China revert to the underlying tariff stack (normal duty plus Section 301).
• •Congress extends or replaces it. Lawmakers could pass legislation extending the surcharge or substituting a new tariff instrument before the deadline.
• •A partial or sector-based replacement. Some product categories keep elevated rates while others revert.

No supplier — ours included — can tell you which scenario will happen. What a good supplier *can* do is help you model both cost cases before you commit volume, which is exactly what we recommend asking for in any quote conversation this summer.

What Stays in Place Either Way

The expiration only affects the temporary 15% surcharge. Two layers do not expire on July 24:

• •Normal MFN duty for your casting's HTS classification.
• •Section 301 China tariffs, which have applied since 2018-2019 and currently run between 7.5% and 25% depending on the product list. Most machined aluminum casting categories sit in this range. You can confirm the Section 301 status of your exact HTS subheading in the official USITC China tariff reference list.

So the realistic comparison for a typical aluminum casting imported from China is roughly "Section 301 + 15%" today versus "Section 301 only" if the surcharge lapses — a potential 15-percentage-point swing in landed cost on the same part, with no change in the part itself.

What This Means for OEM Buyers Right Now

1. Quote now, structure the PO around the deadline

Tooling for a gravity die casting program typically takes several weeks, and first articles follow after that. A program quoted in June ships production parts in late Q3 at the earliest — which means orders placed now will largely clear customs after July 24. If the surcharge expires, you capture the lower rate without having done anything except starting the RFQ early. Our RFQ process is designed to give you a complete quote from drawings within days, so the tariff calendar — not the quoting calendar — is your only constraint.

2. Ask for landed-cost modeling in both scenarios

A casting quote that only shows EXW or FOB price tells you half the story in a year like this. When buyers send us an RFQ, we encourage them to ask for the duty-inclusive comparison both ways. The math is simple, but seeing it on paper usually changes the conversation about order timing and volume split.

3. Don't pay panic premiums for "tariff-free" routing

Policy uncertainty tends to produce creative offers — transshipment arrangements, questionable country-of-origin claims, or aggressive routing through third countries. Customs enforcement on origin fraud has tightened sharply, and the penalty exposure lands on the importer of record: you. A 15% surcharge that may expire in six weeks is not worth a compliance violation that follows your company for years.

4. Use the window to qualify a second source

Whichever way July 24 goes, the deeper lesson of the last few years is that tariff exposure is a supply-chain design variable, not a quarterly surprise. Qualifying a pressure-tight casting supplier takes weeks, not days — sample castings, dimensional reports, leak testing, PPAP documentation. Starting qualification now means that by the time the policy picture clarifies, you have options instead of constraints.

How We Handle This at Bohua

We are an IATF 16949 certified gravity die casting foundry in Ningbo, and a large share of our production ships to North American and European OEMs in the pump, valve, and vehicle-component sectors. Tariffs are part of our customers' total cost, so we treat them as part of our job:

• •We quote with HTS classification stated, so your broker can verify the duty stack before you commit.
• •We flag timeline implications — if your program's first shipment can reasonably land after a policy date, we tell you.
• •We never advise origin manipulation. Cost engineering happens in the casting design, the machining strategy, and the logistics plan — not in the paperwork.

If you want to see how this works on a real part, our casting cost comparison guide walks through how China landed costs compare with US and European sourcing even with tariffs included.

The Bottom Line

• •The 15% Section 122 surcharge expires July 24, 2026 unless Congress acts — that part is statute, not speculation.
• •Section 301 tariffs (7.5–25%) remain either way; model your landed cost on that base.
• •Programs quoted in June ship after the deadline anyway — so the smartest move is to start RFQs now and keep both cost scenarios on the table.
• •Treat any "guaranteed tariff-free" routing offer as a compliance red flag.

*This article is general sourcing guidance, not legal or customs advice. Tariff rates and deadlines reflect publicly available information as of June 12, 2026 — confirm your product's current duty treatment with your customs broker before making purchasing decisions.*