By Outrider Editorial Team · Updated August 20, 2026
Official definition
This U.S. industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in (1) rolling, drawing, or extruding shapes (e.g., bar, plate, sheet, strip, tube) from purchased nonferrous metals and/or (2) recovering nonferrous metals from scrap and rolling, drawing, and/or extruding shapes (e.g., bar, plate, sheet, strip, tube) in integrated mills.
FY2025 obligations
$566.3M
Contract actions
1,393
IDVs
43
Top buying agencies
- Department of the Treasury$526.2M
- Department of Defense$40.0M
- Department of State$14.1K
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration$0
FY2025 federal contract obligations, USAspending.gov
NAICS 331491 obligated $566 million in FY2025 across 1,393 contract actions. Treasury is $526 million of it, about 93 percent, with DoD at $40 million and nothing else material. Like its upstream neighbor, this code is a Mint supply chain sitting inside the manufacturing sector, and the DoD remainder is specialty alloy shapes for defense applications.
What belongs here
Rolling, drawing, or extruding shapes such as bar, plate, sheet, strip, and tube from purchased nonferrous metals other than copper and aluminum, and recovering nonferrous metals from scrap and forming shapes in integrated mills.
- Smelting and primary refining of the metal itself is 331410, which obligated $1.5 billion in FY2025 to the same customer.
- Fastener stock converted into finished fasteners is 332722.
- Miscellaneous fabricated products are 332999.
Competing in this code
43 IDVs across 1,393 actions with one dominant customer means the competitive question is qualification as a Mint strip or blank supplier, and that list changes rarely. The $40 million DoD slice behaves completely differently: specialty alloy mill products bought against military specifications, competed in small quantities, and open to any mill that can certify composition and mechanical properties. A small nonferrous mill entering federal work should target that slice and ignore the Treasury number entirely, because the two customers share nothing except a NAICS code.
Frequently Asked
NAICS 331491 questions, answered.
What is the SBA size standard for NAICS 331491?
SBA sets it at 900 employees, counted as a 24-month average headcount across your company and every affiliate, not revenue. At or under that number you are small on NAICS 331491 solicitations and eligible for the set-asides in this code.
Which agencies buy nonferrous mill products under NAICS 331491?
FY2025 obligations: Treasury ($526 million), DoD ($40 million). Treasury is 93 percent of the code, and DoD's $40 million is the only slice realistically open to a new mill.
How do NAICS 331491 and 331410 relate?
They are consecutive stages of the same supply chain and, in federal terms, the same customer. 331410 is smelting and primary refining, which obligated $1.5 billion in FY2025. 331491 is rolling, drawing, and extruding purchased metal into shapes, at $566 million. Treasury dominates both because the United States Mint buys metal and then buys it converted to strip and blanks.
Where should a small nonferrous mill focus in this code?
On the $40 million DoD slice, not the Treasury share. Defense buys specialty alloy mill products against military specifications in small quantities, and any mill that can certify composition and mechanical properties can compete. The Mint qualification path is long and the supplier list rarely turns over.
Register Under NAICS 331491
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