Kolkata · West Bengal
Packing-grade plywood, crates and pallets for Kolkata's port and Howrah engineering belt
We manufacture packing-grade plywood, crate kits and pallets in Perumbavoor and ship them into the Kolkata-Howrah belt every month. Our group has run plywood operations since 1986, and we move full loads down the eastern lane to the river port, Howrah foundries and the export estates.
The industrial picture
Kolkata is a packing-and-shipping city
Kolkata sits at a junction few Indian cities can claim: a working deep-water river port, a century-old industrial belt across the Hooghly in Howrah, and an export base built on jute, tea, leather and engineering goods that all have to leave the country inside a wooden box. Greater Kolkata is not a single market — it is at least four overlapping ones, and each has its own packing logic.
- Kolkata Dock System and Haldia Dock Complex: break-bulk and container traffic for engineering goods, tea chests, jute bales and project cargo. Crate-heavy.
- Howrah industrial belt — Liluah, Belur, Bally, Dasnagar, Salkia: foundries, light engineering, wire and bar units, fan and pump makers. Heavy, dense loads that need stiff plywood cases and pallets.
- Kasba, Topsia and Tangra: leather goods, tannery output and small engineering — lighter export crates, often on jute-and-ply combination packing.
- Falta SEZ, Bantala Leather Complex, Kalyani and Dankuni industrial zones: export-oriented units with steady heat-treated pallet and case demand.
Add the tea auction trade routed through Kolkata from North Bengal and Assam, the jute mills along the Hooghly from Titagarh down to Budge Budge, and the project cargo that moves through Khidderpore for power, metro and refinery work across the East and North-East, and the picture is consistent: packing-grade plywood is one of this city's working consumables.
What we ship
The lines we dispatch east
We manufacture the packing-grade plywood, crates and pallets we ship from our own facilities to Cochin Wood specifications. To Kolkata buyers we typically dispatch the following.
Packing-grade plywood (MR / commercial)
The workhorse for crate panels, case lids, internal partitions and engineered packing. Standard sheet is 8 ft × 4 ft, with thickness commonly run from 6 mm to 18 mm. The thicknesses Kolkata foundry packers ask for most often are 8 mm, 12 mm and 18 mm — 8 mm for case sides and tops on light engineering loads, 12 mm for medium-duty machinery crates, 18 mm for heavy base panels and pallet decks.
| Thickness | Typical Kolkata use |
|---|---|
| 6–8 mm | Case sides, tops and lids on light engineering loads |
| 10–12 mm | Medium-duty machinery crates, partitions |
| 14–16 mm | Reinforced sides for dense foundry castings |
| 18 mm | Heavy base panels and pallet decks |
Face veneer options on the MR-Packing and BWR grades include Okoume and Gurjan. Okoume is the lighter, cleaner face preferred by exporters who pay container freight by weight.
Crate kits and case-ready cuts
For repeat exporters in Howrah and Falta we ship pre-cut panel sets keyed to a drawing: base, four sides, top and corner runners. The kit lands at the customer's nail-gun line and assembles directly. This saves cutting wastage and keeps dust off the shop floor — important for tea and food-grade exporters in particular.
Pallets, heat-treated and stamped
Standard footprints we ship east are 1200 × 1000 mm (the pallet most engineering exporters use), 1200 × 800 mm (Euro pallet) and 1100 × 1100 mm (used in some South-East Asia and Far-East lanes Kolkata exporters serve). Heat-treatment and the IPPC stamp are mandatory for all wood packaging leaving Indian ports under ISPM-15; every pallet we dispatch carries the stamp and the lot record.
Container flooring and sawn timber
For the heavier project loads that move out of Khidderpore — transformers, paper-mill rolls, heavy castings — we supply 28 mm container-flooring grade plywood and dressed sawn timber runners for skids and dunnage. Jackwood and rubberwood runner stock is available in the sizes most lashing crews specify.
Logistics
Kochi to Kolkata: the lane
The distance from Perumbavoor / Kochi to Kolkata is roughly 2,000 km by road. Practical lane behaviour:
| Mode | Transit time | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Full-truck (32-ft / 20-ft multi-axle) | 6–8 days door-to-door | Full-load sheet stock, bundled crate kits, pallet decks |
| Part-load (LTL via Bengaluru / Hyderabad hubs) | 9–12 days | Smaller repeat orders, sample crates |
| Coastal container (Cochin → Kolkata / Haldia) | 10–14 days port-to-port | Larger consolidated loads where coastal economics work out |
The road route runs Kochi — Bengaluru — Hyderabad — Vijayawada — Visakhapatnam — Bhubaneswar — Kharagpur — Kolkata, mostly on NH-16 once east of Hyderabad. Coastal shipping via Cochin Port to Kolkata or Haldia is occasionally the better option for full-container moves of pallet-deck stock; we work it out per quote. Every pallet and crate dispatched on this lane carries the ISPM-15 heat-treatment stamp and lot record.
Choosing a grade
Picking the right grade for a Kolkata load
The decision rule is usually about the destination, the freight and the customer of the customer. A few practical patterns:
- Domestic / regional engineering crate moving from Howrah to the North-East or to a project site: MR-grade packing plywood, 12–18 mm, Gurjan face. Lowest cost per crate where freight is not the binding constraint.
- Export crate (Europe, USA, Australia): BWR / BWP plywood with Okoume face. Lower density means a lighter crate, which matters when sea-freight is rated on chargeable weight or an air-freight conversion is on the table.
- Wet-zone packing (jute mills, tea cartons holding for monsoon): BWR grade with a boiling-water-resistant glue line. Higher upfront cost, lower failure rate through Bengal's long humid stretch.
- Shuttering / formwork for construction: a separate film-faced product. Not the same as packing ply. Use it for civil work, not for crates.
Our pricing is structured ex-factory with GST and transport extra. Detail thicknesses, monthly quantity and the delivery zone (Howrah, Khidderpore, Falta, Dankuni, Kalyani and the like) and we will work a landed cost for your gate.
FAQ
What Kolkata buyers usually ask
Do you supply directly to Howrah and Liluah small-unit packers, or only to large exporters?
Both. Our minimum dispatch is typically a part-truck for sheet stock or a single pallet skid for samples. We work with small Howrah engineering packers as readily as with Falta SEZ exporters.
What is your lead time once a PI is confirmed?
Standard packing-grade ply: 4–6 working days for production-ready stock and dispatch from Kochi, then the road or coastal transit on top. Custom-cut crate kits add 2–3 days of cutting.
Can you handle ISPM-15 documentation for our shipping line?
Yes. Every pallet and crate carries the IPPC stamp, and we supply the heat-treatment certificate along with the invoice and e-way bill. Most Kolkata CHA offices accept the format directly.
Get a quote
Quote your next Kolkata requirement
If you are running packing for Howrah engineering exports, tea or jute consignments through Kolkata Port, or a project-cargo move out of Khidderpore, we would like to quote your next month's requirement. Share thickness, sheet size, monthly volume and the delivery zone and we will come back with an ex-Kochi rate plus a landed price at your gate. Request a quote here, or read the full packing and grade reference in our resource hub first. Our group has manufactured plywood in Perumbavoor since 1986, and the eastern packing lane to Kolkata is one we know well.