Furniture parts, hardware and lighting: the HS codes buyers get wrong

Parts made specifically for furniture stay in Chapter 94 — 9401.91 or 9401.99 for seat parts, 9403.91 or 9403.99 for other furniture — but hardware is different: base-metal hinges, castors, handles and most drawer slides are usually heading 8302, plastic fittings 3926, and luminaires heading 9405. Loose glass and stone tops go to their own chapters. Confirm each national line and duty with your broker.

What is the HS code for furniture hardware?

Usually heading 8302, not Chapter 94: hinges, castors, handles, brackets and most drawer slides of base metal are “mountings and fittings suitable for furniture”. Chapter 94’s notes exclude parts of general use, so hardware keeps its own code even when it is packed in the same carton as the cabinet.

The rule of thumb: if it could equally be used on a door, a vehicle or a machine, it is probably not a furniture part. The rest of the chapter is in our furniture HS codes guide.

When is a part still classified as furniture?

When it is recognisably made for one piece of furniture and would be useless elsewhere — a sofa frame, a cabinet door, a table leg, an office chair base. Those go to 9401.91/.99 or 9403.91/.99.

• Complete but unassembled. A flat-pack wardrobe with all its panels and fittings is classified as the finished wardrobe, not as parts.
• Spares and replacements. A pallet of spare doors or legs sent later is entered as parts.
• US cabinet components. Doors, drawer fronts and carcasses for wooden kitchen cabinets and vanities from China can fall within the US anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders even when entered as parts — see anti-dumping duties on cabinets and vanities.

What is the HS code for lighting?

Luminaires are heading 9405, which HS 2022 reorganised to separate fittings designed solely for LED sources from the rest. Bulbs and LED modules are light sources and sit in Chapter 85.

Furniture with built-in lighting — an illuminated wardrobe or a headboard with reading lights — is still classified as furniture. Lighting also brings electrical-safety marks: the Canadian sourcing post in this research lists lamps and switches among the products that need CSA certification. Browse our lighting sourcing page for how we handle it.

What does the comment section add?

The comments under the sourcing and factory posts add the certification and drawing questions the posts skip.

• Lamps need UL or CSA. Under the Canadian sourcing post, a reader asked why lamps were missing from the list; the author replied that lamps must carry CSA or UL certification.
• Certification cuts both ways. Another commenter asked for aluminium-composite windows and steel doors with CSA certification — a sign that suppliers with the right marks are scarce.
• Factories quote from drawings. Under the Nanhai stamping factory’s post, enquiries for springs, screws and nuts were answered with a request for drawings rather than a price.

How much duty applies to hardware and lighting from China?

It varies by national line and by the China-specific measures in your market, so check each line separately (at the time of writing — confirm with your broker). In the US, Section 301 duties have applied to many 8302 hardware and 9405 lighting lines since 2018 and have changed repeatedly; our guide to US tariffs on furniture from China explains what to check.

Because hardware and lighting are often a small share of an order’s value, buyers tend to lump them onto a furniture line. That saves nothing and risks a correction. List them separately, with material and quantity, just as you would a chair — see office furniture HS codes for how fit-out accessories are split.

What should buyers ask a Foshan hardware or lighting supplier?

Ask for drawings, material, finish and the certificates the destination requires — before sampling. A Nanhai metal-stamping factory posting on Xiaohongshu says it has worked for 25 years and that more than 80% of its output is exported directly or indirectly; its first question to enquirers in the comments is whether they have drawings.

• Base-metal type and finish (for 8302 and for corrosion claims).
• Load ratings for slides and hinges.
• For lighting: light-source type (LED-only or not), driver, and UL, CSA, CE/UKCA or RCM status as needed.

For outdoor sets, where metal fittings and solar lights often travel together, see outdoor and rattan furniture HS codes.

How Source Foshan handles it