On 6 February 2025 the South African Revenue Service updated its Prohibited and Restricted Imports and Exports list to require an International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) export permit for a broad basket of base-metal tariff headings: 72.04 (excl. 7204.21), 7404.00, 72.05, 72.06, 72.07, 72.18, 72.24 (iron/steel waste, ingots, semi-finished and granules), 74.02, 74.03, 74.05, 74.06 (unrefined/refined copper and copper powders), 76.01, 76.03, 76.04 (unwrought aluminium, powders and bars), 78.01 (unwrought lead), 79.01 (unwrought zinc) and 80.01 (unwrought tin). The same update removed the export-permit requirement from six copper sub-headings (7403.12, 7403.13, 7403.19, 7403.21, 7403.22, 7403.29) and added several machinery tariff headings (8417.10, 8417.80, 8462-series) to the import-permit list.

Analyst notesShow

Mechanism

This is a routine-looking SARS customs-list update that extends the same export-permit architecture South Africa first built for scrap metal in November 2022 (Notices R.2801-R.2804, filed separately). Where that action targeted waste/scrap and semi-finished metal products under emergency infrastructure-theft framing, this update reaches further upstream into primary base-metal tariff headings — unwrought copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and tin, plus iron/steel waste and semis — bringing them under the same ITAC permit-before-dispatch regime.

The list is a licensing gate, not a ban: an exporter can still ship, but only against an ITAC-issued permit, giving the state a chokepoint (and a data trail) it did not have on these headings before. The partial carve-out on six copper sub-headings (7403.12-29, refined copper cathodes and similar) in the same notice suggests a targeted rather than across-the-board tightening — refined copper cathode trade was freed up even as copper powder/other-form headings (7405/7406) were added.

Downstream implications

Exporters of South African base-metal scrap, ingots and semis (largely

destined for Asian and European smelters/refiners) now need an ITAC permit for shipments across seven metal families, not just the ferrous/ copper scrap covered by the 2022 emergency ban.

Consistent with South Africa's broader 2022-2025 pattern of using ITAC

export-permit gates (scrap metal, chrome ore, and now this basket) to capture upstream trade data and slow raw/semi-processed material outflow ahead of domestic beneficiation policy.

Open questions

Whether ITAC has published rejection rates or permit-processing times

for these headings since February 2025 — the register has no evidence yet of the permit regime binding in practice versus being a paperwork formality.

Whether the six copper sub-headings removed from the list reflect an

industry lobbying win or a technical correction; no rationale was found in the primary source.

Sources

Primary: SARS — What's new: Prohibited and Restricted Imports and Exports list

Secondary: Global Trade Alert — intervention 143157 · Freight News — SARS' Prohibited and Restricted Imports and Exports List: Update

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Mechanism

Downstream implications

Exporters of South African base-metal scrap, ingots and semis (largely

destined for Asian and European smelters/refiners) now need an ITAC permit for shipments across seven metal families, not just the ferrous/ copper scrap covered by the 2022 emergency ban.

Consistent with South Africa's broader 2022-2025 pattern of using ITAC

export-permit gates (scrap metal, chrome ore, and now this basket) to capture upstream trade data and slow raw/semi-processed material outflow ahead of domestic beneficiation policy.

Open questions

Whether ITAC has published rejection rates or permit-processing times

for these headings since February 2025 — the register has no evidence yet of the permit regime binding in practice versus being a paperwork formality.

Whether the six copper sub-headings removed from the list reflect an

industry lobbying win or a technical correction; no rationale was found in the primary source.