Heading 7206 covers iron and nonalloy steel in ingots or other primary forms that have not yet been worked into defined semifinished shapes. Heading 7207 covers semifinished products — blooms, billets, and slabs — that have been hot-worked or continuously cast into specific cross-sectional dimensions and carbon content ranges. If the product meets the dimensional and compositional criteria for a semifinished product, it belongs in 7207 rather than 7206.

Heading 7206 explicitly excludes iron of heading 7203, meaning that direct-reduced iron and iron of at least 99.94% purity in lump or pellet form are classified under 7203 even if they are in a primary form. Heading 7206 is reserved for conventionally produced iron and nonalloy steel that does not meet those purity or production-route criteria.