The industrial picture

North Karnataka's commercial spine, estate by estate

Hubli-Dharwad is the commercial spine of North Karnataka, a twin-city industrial cluster that pushes out tile pallets, bus assemblies, food-grade exports and engineering sub-assemblies every week. The footprint is spread across a handful of well-defined KIADB belts, and knowing which estate a buyer sits in usually tells us what plywood specification they need before the call even starts.

Key industrial belts and sectors

• Tarihal Industrial Area — the largest KIADB estate on the Hubli side, housing automotive ancillary units, fabrication shops and the bus-body and rail-coach ecosystem. Crates here trend large and heavy.
• Gokul Road Industrial Area — a mix of engineering, packaged-food and FMCG units. Demand leans toward repeatable pallet sizes and lighter export cartons with plywood reinforcement.
• Belur Industrial Area, Dharwad — KIADB's flagship Dharwad estate, anchored by automotive, electrical and pharma units. This belt drives steady ISPM-15 crate volume because finished goods often move to GCC and South-East Asian markets.
• Rayapur and Mummigatti — newer KIADB pockets with food-processing, cold-chain and agro units. Container flooring and slip-sheet plywood see seasonal spikes here.
• Ceramic and granite cluster around Hubli — a large tile and sanitaryware ecosystem that consumes heavy plywood volumes for tile pallets, edge-protection battens and reinforced crates for vitrified-tile exports.
• APMC Yard and agro-processing belt — chilli, cotton, jowar and oilseed processing units that need pallets and container-floor sheets for bulk export cargo.

The sectors we serve here break down cleanly into four buckets: automotive and bus-body assemblies, ceramic and tile exports, agro and food processing, and general engineering exports. Each bucket has its own plywood diet.

What we ship

Three product families on every north-bound truck

The truckloads heading north on NH-66 and then east via NH-748 typically carry a mix of three product families. The exact split depends on which estate the buyer sits in.

Packing-grade plywood

Our MR-Packing grade is the workhorse. Standard thicknesses moving to Hubli-Dharwad are 6mm, 8mm, 12mm and 18mm in 8x4 sheets, with 12mm most common for crate side panels and 18mm for bases under heavy ceramic or machinery loads. The grade carries our packing-spec glue line and hardwood core, and is graded for one-way export packaging rather than furniture finish. Okoume is available as a face-veneer option on this grade where buyers want a cleaner export-grade appearance, typically for high-value machinery crates or branded ceramic exports.

Rates are ex-factory; GST and freight extra.

Crate construction

For Tarihal and Belur estate buyers building crates for buses, rail components, transformers or CNC machines, we ship knock-down crate kits cut to specification — base, four sides, lid, with battens and corner pieces pre-sized. We supply ISPM-15 heat-treated sawn timber for the framing, stamped at certified facilities within our group. Loads above 2 tonnes typically take 18mm bases with 12mm sides on hardwood framing; lighter loads run 12mm bases with 8mm sides.

Pallet sizes

Ceramic and tile exporters in the Hubli belt tend to standardise on a few footprints. The two most common we ship are the 1200x1000mm Euro-style for European-bound containers and the 1100x1100mm CP standard for GCC and South-East Asia. Both are built with hardwood deckboards on rubberwood or jackwood stringers, with plywood top decks where the load profile demands a continuous surface.

Container flooring

For 20ft and 40ft containers being stuffed with granite slabs, ceramic tiles or heavy machinery sub-assemblies, we supply 18mm packing plywood floor sheets cut to container-floor dimensions. This is a small but recurring product for the Hubli-Mangaluru export movement.

Logistics

Kochi to Hubli-Dharwad, lane and transit

The road distance from our Perumbavoor dispatch yard to Hubli is roughly 700 km. The standard route runs Perumbavoor → Thrissur → Palakkad → Coimbatore → Salem → Bangalore bypass → Tumakuru → Chitradurga → Hubli, taking the NH-44 corridor for most of the trip. Transit time for a single-driver truck is typically 36 to 48 hours; double-driver moves can land inside 30 hours when consignments are time-critical.

Trucking lane economics

The Kochi-Hubli lane is well priced because it is part of the broader South-to-North truck movement and rarely runs empty in either direction. Full-truck loads (FTL) of 20 to 22 tonnes of mixed plywood and sawn timber are economical at this distance. Part-truck loads (PTL) are workable but the per-sheet freight bumps up noticeably, so we usually advise consolidating to FTL where the buyer's monthly draw supports it. For ISPM-15 stamped crate kits on tight export deadlines, we can also route through Mangaluru and into Hubli inland via NH-66 → NH-67, which sometimes makes sense if the buyer's container is loading at New Mangalore Port.

Choosing a grade

Which grade for which load

A quick reference for buyers comparing options for typical Hubli-Dharwad use cases:

The general rule we apply on buyer calls: if the load is going inside India, MR-Packing is almost always the right answer. If it is going on a sea voyage longer than 14 days, the conversation shifts toward BWR or Okoume-face options.

FAQ

Common questions from Hubli-Dharwad buyers

How quickly can a truck be despatched after the PI is settled?

For stock-grade MR-Packing in standard thicknesses, despatch happens within 48 to 72 hours of payment confirmation. Cut-to-size crate kits and Okoume-face loads typically add another 3 to 5 working days because of the cutting and pressing schedule.

Do you supply ISPM-15 stamped crates ready to load?

Yes. Crate kits ship with ISPM-15 stamped sawn-timber framing from our group's certified facilities. The plywood panels themselves do not require ISPM-15 because they are engineered wood, but the framing timber does, and that is what carries the stamp.

What is the minimum order quantity for Hubli-Dharwad delivery?

The freight economics make full-truck loads (around 800 to 1,000 sheets depending on thickness mix) the most efficient option. Smaller volumes are possible on shared trucks but the per-sheet landed cost rises sharply.

Get a quote

Request a PI ex-Perumbavoor

For Hubli-Dharwad buyers in the Tarihal, Gokul Road, Belur, Rayapur or APMC belts who need a structured quote on packing plywood, crate kits, pallets or container flooring, the fastest path is to share thickness mix, monthly draw volume, delivery estate and end-use (export vs domestic). We manufacture in Perumbavoor, where our group has run export-packing operations since 1986, and we will return a PI ex-Perumbavoor with GST and freight calculated to your Hubli or Dharwad yard within one working day. Request a quote with your specifications, or browse our resource hub for grade comparisons, ISPM-15 documentation and crate-construction guides before you write up the requirement.