Sourcing comparison · Construction Equipment
Tariff & fee savings only, assuming equal product cost — your actual landed cost also depends on price and freight, which vary by supplier.
| Annual import value | Estimated duty & fee savings / year |
|---|---|
| $50,000 | $1,319 |
| $250,000 | $6,594 |
| $1,000,000 | $26,375 |
Savings scale linearly with volume. Enter your exact figure to model it precisely.
Calculate your exact volume →For US importers of construction equipment, country of origin has quietly become the biggest line item you can actually negotiate. South Korea carries roughly 12.5% in duties and fees against 10% for Sweden, a spread worth near $2,638 on $100,000 of annual volume. Two suppliers can quote the same factory price and still land at very different costs once Customs is done. Below, each tariff layer is laid out for both origins, with the saving scaled to several order sizes.
The duty layers tell the whole story of the gap. From South Korea, the entry is assessed a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and an 11% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its construction equipment, an effective 12.5% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Sourced from Sweden, the goods face a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and an 8.5% forced-labor Section 301 duty on its construction equipment, an effective 10% once the $49.74 in processing fees are added. Processing and harbor fees apply identically whichever country ships the goods ($49.74 here), confirming the saving is pure duty, not fee. The arithmetic difference between the stacks is $263.75 per $10,000 entry, all of it in the duty layers since the processing fees are origin-blind. That same per-dollar gap is about $659 on a $25,000 order and $2,638 on $100,000 of annual volume. At order level, $25,000 of goods carries roughly $659 more duty from South Korea than from Sweden.
Within HTS 8425, 8426, 8427, 8428, 8429, 8430, 8431, construction equipment includes Excavators, Bulldozers, Tower cranes, Forklifts, Concrete pumps, Road pavers, and Mini excavators. Because construction equipment moves in volume, even a modest per-unit duty gap aggregates into a number that decides sourcing strategy. On the pricing side, construction equipment tariffs raise capital costs for US contractors and infrastructure projects, potentially delaying or reducing scope of construction activity. Based in Asia-Pacific, South Korea is best known to US importers for consumer electronics, passenger vehicles, and steel iron products. South Korea trades under a negotiated bilateral rate that applies alongside the base and Section 232/301 layers, with Section 122 at 0% since its 2026-07-24 lapse — reshaping how its construction equipment stack is built. From Europe, Sweden's top US-bound categories include industrial machinery, passenger vehicles, and pharmaceuticals. Sweden trades under the EU bilateral framework, which shapes the duties on its construction equipment. Different regions — Asia-Pacific versus Europe — mean shipping economics deserve a look beside the tariff math. Sweden is surfaced as a credible alternative, not just the cheapest line — it is among the origins a US buyer of construction equipment could realistically qualify. The figures here reflect the rules in force today; in a year of frequent revisions, the value is in re-running them as policy moves, which this site is built to do.
The headline is $2,638 at $100,000; because the rate gap is fixed, larger programs scale cleanly — $1,319, $6,594, and $26,375 at $50,000, $250,000, and $1,000,000. The numbers come straight from the landed-cost engine, with product cost and shipping fixed across both origins to isolate the tariff difference. These figures reflect tariff and fee savings only, assuming equal product cost — your actual landed cost also depends on price and freight, which vary by supplier. Subtract any per-unit premium Sweden charges from the duty saving to get the true net benefit before deciding. A quick checklist for the Sweden option: match the HTS classification, get a quote that itemises duty apart from freight, and check for any antidumping or countervailing order on your item. Time the switch with the policy calendar in mind — the post-Section-122 picture can favour a different origin entirely. Model your exact volume and compare further origins in the interactive Tariff Savings Finder.
At $100,000 of annual import value, switching from South Korea to Sweden saves an estimated $2,638 in duties and fees, because the effective tariff rate falls from 12.5% to 10%. The saving scales linearly with volume. These figures reflect tariff and fee savings only, assuming equal product cost — your actual landed cost also depends on price and freight, which vary by supplier.
Sweden-origin construction equipment is assessed a 1.5% Most-Favoured-Nation base duty and an 8.5% forced-labor Section 301 duty, for an effective 10% duty rate before the Merchandise Processing Fee ($36.55) and Harbor Maintenance Fee ($13.19).
South Korea carries an effective 12.5% rate versus 10% for Sweden. The gap comes from differences in the base, Section 232 and bilateral rates that apply to each origin.
Tariff rates from Tax Foundation, USITC, and Penn Wharton Budget Model; retaliatory and industry data from the ITA Foreign Retaliations Database and U.S. Census Bureau (NAICS). Last verified .
