Sri City · Andhra Pradesh
Export-grade packing plywood, crates and pallets for Sri City's auto, electronics and engineering exporters
We manufacture the packing-grade plywood, export crates, sea-stuffing pallets and container flooring that Sri City's SEZ and domestic-tariff lines run on. Our group has manufactured this material in Perumbavoor since 1986, and every load ships direct from our Kerala facilities up the Tirupati corridor to the Satyavedu and Tada gates.
The industrial picture
An export city, not a building-material market
Sri City is a large planned integrated business city and multi-product SEZ at Tada, in Tirupati district at the northern edge of Andhra Pradesh, sitting on the AP–Tamil Nadu border roughly 55–60 km north of Chennai. The estate is supported by APIIC industrial estates in the Satyavedu and Tada mandals.
What matters for packaging is the zone structure. The estate runs more than one customs regime side by side, and each one changes how a consignment leaves the factory floor:
- The notified SEZ — export-oriented units producing for shipment abroad. These lines need export-grade outer packaging from the first carton: treated, stamped and ready for a customs seal.
- The Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) — units selling into the Indian market, where the spec is driven by transit protection and stacking rather than international wood-packaging rules.
- Warehousing and re-export operations — distribution lines that consolidate, hold and re-ship. Re-export movements pull the same ISPM-15 timber discipline as a direct export load.
This is the key distinction for a buyer here: Sri City is not a building-material plywood market — that conversation belongs to Chennai and Bengaluru. It is an export-grade industrial-packaging market, where the demand is heat-treated crates, four-way sea-stuffing pallets and container flooring for open-top and flat-rack engineering moves.
Sector by sector
Who packs what across the sectors
The sector mix inside the estate maps cleanly onto distinct packaging needs:
- Automotive & mobility — vehicle assembly, two-wheeler and EV lines, and component suppliers running CKD (completely-knocked-down) export programmes. CKD kits demand precise, drawing-built plywood cases and dunnage that immobilise parts for long sea transit.
- Electronics & EMS — contract-electronics and assembly lines shipping finished and semi-finished goods in cushioned crates. The priority here is clean, consistent plywood panels for vibration-controlled cases.
- Engineering & capital goods — heavy-equipment, industrial-materials and precision-equipment exporters. These are the heavy, irregular moves: framed and skeletal crates rated to several tonnes, plus container-floor plywood for open-top and flat-rack stuffing.
- FMCG & consumer goods — fast-moving consumer-goods plants that are heavy pallet and block-stacked-timber users, running high pallet volumes through fast despatch cycles.
- Apparel, textile and building-material lines also operate inside the estate, adding steady pallet and case demand.
What we ship
The full export-packaging range, built to your spec
We manufacture and ship the complete outer-packaging set an export line needs — board, cases, pallets and flooring — from one operation, so a single call-off can carry sheets, knocked-down crate components and pallets together. Packing-grade (MR-Packing) board runs 8 × 4 ft on a rubberwood / hardwood core with a commercial face. For higher-spec export work, an Okoume face-veneer option is available on the packing and BWR grades — it is a veneer choice on those grades, not a separate product, giving a cleaner, more uniform face where the buyer's customer inspects the crate.
| Thickness | Typical use at Sri City |
|---|---|
| 6 mm | Light nailed-case panels, internal partitions and lids for electronics and component cartons |
| 8 mm | Standard packing-case walls and pallet decking for sub-tonne loads |
| 9 mm | Mid-weight case sides for component and FMCG consignments (on order) |
| 12 mm | Framed-crate cladding and heavier case bodies for engineering moves |
| 15 mm | Reinforced panels for tall or block-stacked loads (on order) |
| 18 mm | Structural crate members, skeletal-crate panels and heavy-machinery cases |
| 28 mm | Container-floor plywood, 2440 × 1220 mm sheets, for open-top and flat-rack stuffing |
Beyond sheet stock
- ISPM-15 heat-treated crates and cases — nailed plywood cases for sub-tonne loads, framed plywood-clad crates rated 1–5 t, and skeletal crates with plywood panels for heavy machinery. The IPPC stamp, treatment code and country mark are applied to the timber members; heat treatment and stamping are completed before despatch, and the paperwork travels with the truck.
- Pallets — four-way entry for sea-container stuffing, in 1200 × 800 mm (Euro) and 1100 × 1100 mm (CP / Asian) footprints, built on solid sawn timber or a plywood deck over a stringer frame.
- Container flooring and dunnage — 28 mm container-floor plywood in 2440 × 1220 mm sheets, with sawn-timber dunnage cut to length for chocking and load restraint.
Kochi → Sri City logistics
A clean inbound lane with no sea-freight stop
The run from our Kerala facilities to the Satyavedu gates is roughly 750 km of road and nothing else — there is no port stop or sea-freight leg in the inbound chain, which is what makes just-in-time call-offs work cleanly against your despatch schedule. The route climbs out of Kochi on the Coimbatore corridor, joins the north–south NH-44 trunk through Salem, Krishnagiri and Chittoor, then cuts east at Tirupati to the Satyavedu gates.
| Leg | Detail |
|---|---|
| Distance | ~750 km, Perumbavoor / Kochi to Sri City |
| Route | Kochi–Coimbatore corridor → NH-44 (Salem–Krishnagiri–Chittoor) → east at Tirupati to the Satyavedu gates |
| Running time | ~16–18 h on the road |
| Door-to-door | ~36–48 h, factory floor to estate gate |
| Inbound chain | All-road, no port stop, no sea freight |
Strong return-load availability on the Andhra-to-Kerala leg keeps the inbound rate competitive against north-Indian supply bases that have to truck the same material far further south. And because Sri City sits inside a tight port cluster — Kattupalli, Ennore and Chennai to the south, Krishnapatnam to the north — your outbound options stay open whichever line you book on. Crates and pallets built to a sea-freight spec leave our floor ready for stuffing at any of these, with the ISPM-15 documentation already in the cab.
Choosing a grade
Matching the panel to the move
The right specification depends on weight, transit mode and who opens the crate at the other end. As a guide:
- Domestic and DTA loads — MR-Packing board on a rubberwood / hardwood core handles transit protection and stacking for movements inside India at the most economical rate.
- Export and re-export loads — every wooden member that crosses a border must carry ISPM-15 heat treatment and the IPPC stamp. We treat and stamp before the truck leaves, so nothing is held at a port for non-compliant packaging.
- Moisture-exposed or long-voyage routes — the BWR grade, with the option of an Okoume face, holds up where humidity and deck exposure are a factor on longer sea legs.
- Heavy and irregular engineering moves — 18 mm structural members and skeletal crates, plus 28 mm container-floor plywood for open-top and flat-rack stuffing.
Indicative ex-factory pricing runs 8 mm at ₹28, 12 mm at ₹33.50 and 18 mm at ₹42 per sq.ft — selling rate is purchase plus ₹2.50/sq.ft, with GST and transport extra. Okoume-faced and BWR grades are quoted separately, and jackwood runners are ₹400/cft. For crates and pallets we price against your submitted drawing, because the timber content and treatment, not the panel alone, set the number. Submit a thickness, size and monthly quantity and we'll return a firm number against it.
Questions buyers ask
Sri City supply, answered
What's the minimum order to Sri City?
The economical floor is one 32-ft full-truck load, which is what keeps the per-sheet landed cost where it should be. Smaller requirements ship as part-loads, with a longer transit time as the truck consolidates other freight on the lane.
Can you build to our own crate drawing?
Yes. We build to a submitted crate drawing or spec — whether that is a nailed sub-tonne case, a 1–5 t framed crate or a skeletal crate for heavy machinery — and we hold a working spec on file for repeat call-offs so the second and tenth orders match the first: the same panel, the same grade, the same dimensions. That is useful for the CKD and EMS programmes that ship the same footprint week after week.
Is the ISPM-15 paperwork sorted before the container is stuffed?
ISPM-15 heat treatment and IPPC stamping are completed before the truck leaves our floor, with the treatment code and country mark applied to the timber members. The treatment certificate travels with the consignment — so the crate is export-ready when it reaches the estate and the documentation is in hand for the port.
Do you supply container flooring for open-top and flat-rack moves?
Yes — 28 mm container-floor plywood in 2440 × 1220 mm sheets, with sawn-timber dunnage cut to length for chocking and restraint on engineering and capital-goods loads.
Is this the right ply for building or interior work?
No — and we'll say so. Sri City is an export-packaging market. If you need shuttering or interior-grade board, that is a different conversation. What we manufacture for this estate is packing and crating material built to survive a sea voyage.
How do you keep the inbound rate competitive?
The lane is all-road with no port stop, and strong return-load availability on the Andhra-to-Kerala leg holds the rate down versus supply bases that have to haul the same material much further south.
Get a quote
Send the spec, get a firm number
Tell us the thickness, the crate or pallet drawing, the monthly quantity and the despatch gate at Sri City, and we'll come back with a firm, written quote and a lead time you can build a schedule around. Whether you're stuffing CKD kits for an automotive line, cushioning electronics in the SEZ, or palletising FMCG out of the DTA, we'll send the right grade for the move.
Looking for thickness charts, grade guides or the rest of our city supply notes? Browse the Resources library for the full set, or go straight to contact to start a quote.