The lane: Kochi to Mombasa
Our group began working timber in Perumbavoor, Kerala, in 1986. Our factories sit about 40 km from Cochin Port; containers are stuffed at the factory under our own supervision and gate in at the Vallarpadam terminal, so the inland leg is short and the sheet count in the box is the sheet count on the packing list.
Mombasa is the discharge port on the traffic we quote for Kenya. If you clear somewhere else, say so in the enquiry and we will quote against that routing.
We do not publish sailing schedules. Port-to-port time depends on the carrier and the service, and a number printed on a page is wrong the first time the schedule changes. The sailing is confirmed alongside the quote, and the shipping documents are shared before the vessel sails.
What matters more than the sailing on this lane is what happens after the box is landed. A container that has to travel inland from the coast is governed by the road weight limit on that leg, not by how much the ship could carry, and dense plywood makes that limit matter. Tell us the limit that applies to your haul and it goes into the loading plan before the container is stuffed. Kenya is one of several lanes we serve; the export hub covers the rest.
What Kenyan buyers order
Four lines carry most of the volume: packing-grade plywood for crates and cases, commercial and BWR plywood for furniture, shopfitting and joinery, film-faced shuttering plywood for formwork, and marine plywood for coastal and wet-area work.
| Product | Build | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Packing-grade plywood | MR bond, IS 303; 6, 8, 12, 15, 18 mm typical | Crates, case panels, pallet decks |
| Commercial / BWR plywood | MR or BWR bond; Okoume face on request | Joinery, fit-out, furniture |
| Film-faced shuttering plywood | Film-faced, made for repeated concrete pours | Slab and column formwork |
| Marine plywood | IS 710, BWP bond | Boat work, coastal construction, wet areas |
| Plywood boxes, crates, pallets | ISPM-15 where required: solid-wood parts treated and marked by a DPPQS-registered provider; certificate where the quote states it | Machinery packing, logistics |
| Cable drums, container flooring ply | Made to order | Cable plants, container repair |
Okoume is a face veneer on the MR-packing and BWR builds rather than a separate grade; specify it in the enquiry if the panel face matters at the far end. We also make calibrated panels with an Okoume face on a eucalyptus core, made to the E1 emission class (test report on request for the lot quoted) — 16 mm at roughly 32 kg a sheet, bare or HPL-laminated. Full builds and thickness options are on the packing plywood, film-faced shuttering plywood and commercial plywood pages.
The road limit, not the ship, sets the payload
Plywood is dense cargo. At about 26.5 tonnes, a 40 ft container of plywood at the 650 kg/m³ used in our loading guide uses only about 41 of its 67 cubic metres of gross volume, but sheet layout, door height and packing can still set the count first, so either limit may govern. The weight side turns on thickness, panel density, pallet weight and the road limit at the discharge end. Get the road limit wrong and the cost is not theoretical — it is a box stripped at a weighbridge, part-loaded onward, and a delivery date gone.
Every quote we issue carries a loading plan: sheets per container, net and gross weight, loose-loaded and palletised counts where the difference matters. We work both box sizes; a 20 ft is often the right answer on a weight-restricted haul even though a 40 ft looks cheaper per sheet on paper. The arithmetic is set out in our note on 20 ft loading by thickness, and rubberwood plywood container weight covers panel density.
USD quotes on FOB Cochin terms
Export quotes are issued in US dollars, FOB Cochin by default. FCA at a named place is often the better term for a sealed container and we quote it on request. Standard products ship against 50% advance with the balance before dispatch; made-to-order and custom-fabricated goods are 100% advance. Payment is by bank transfer (T/T).
We do not publish rate lists. Veneer and timber costs move and a printed number goes stale. Send the spec — thickness, sheet size, grade, face, quantity and discharge port — and a written quote comes back within one business day. What FOB Cochin does and does not include is set out in our note on the term, and the whole order path, from spec confirmation to the document set on sailing, is on how we export.
We ask for money in advance, so we make ourselves easy to check. Our IEC, FIEO RCMC, LEI, CIN and GSTIN are listed at company verification with where to check each one, all against the same legal entity that will invoice you.
ISPM-15, and what certification actually costs you if you ask late
Plywood panels are exempt from ISPM-15. Plywood is a processed wood product, pressed under heat and adhesive, so the panels ship without a heat-treatment stamp and without a fumigation certificate. The standard covers solid-wood packaging — pallets, crates, dunnage. Where we supply plywood boxes, crates or pallets, their solid-wood parts are treated and IPPC-marked by a DPPQS-registered treatment provider where the destination requires it; the treatment method follows the destination's rules, and a treatment certificate is supplied where the quotation states it. If you run your own packing line, our note on heat treatment versus methyl bromide sets out the difference.
Product certification is a different question, and it is settled before the panels are pressed rather than after. If your import into Kenya needs a particular certificate, test report or pre-shipment inspection, say so at enquiry: it decides which of our factories makes your order and it cannot be added once the goods exist. BIS licences are held factory by factory, so there is no single number covering everything we make; any certificate that applies to your order is named on the quotation by holder, number and product scope. Pre-shipment inspection by you or by any third-party agency you appoint is welcome, and we hold the goods for it.
Import essentials for Kenya
What your clearing agent needs to land a plywood shipment in Kenya. We quote FCA or FOB Cochin in USD; customs duty and any import taxes are added at import, on the valuation basis your destination's customs law uses.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| HS code | 4412 (plywood; the national item within 4412.31 / 4412.33 / 4412.34 / 4412.39 turns on panel construction and individual ply thickness as well as face species, and finished cases, pallets and drums are generally considered under 4415 — your broker confirms the line) |
| Customs duty and import taxes | Kenya applies the EAC Common External Tariff to plywood imports from India: HS 4412 covers every plywood, veneered-panel and laminated-wood construction (bamboo plywood, ordinary plywood up to 6mm ply, LVL, blockboard/laminboard/battenboard, and other), and it sits in the CET’s intermediate-goods band at 25% ad valorem on CIF value — not the 35% top band, which is reserved for finished and sensitive goods such as wooden frames, packing cases and furniture. India has no free-trade or tariff-preference agreement with Kenya or the EAC, so this standard CET rate applies in full with no reduction to claim. On top of duty, Kenya adds a Railway Development Levy of 2% of CIF value, an Import Declaration Fee currently at 2.5% of CIF following its reduction from 3.5% under the 2023 Finance Act (some older published guides still cite the earlier 3.5% figure), and VAT at 16%, charged on CIF value plus duty, IDF and RDL combined. Kenya’s annual Finance Act can also gazette a one-year override on specific tariff lines, so your clearing agent confirms the exact rate in force against KRA’s current schedule at the time of shipment. |
| Landed-cost note | Indicative only — your broker must confirm the destination tariff line and the rates in force. Import VAT is not charged on CIF alone: the base is the customs value plus customs duty, and local law may add excise, fees and other incidental charges. |
| Conformity, standards and inspection | Kenya’s Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVoC) programme has covered all imports since December 2015, and plywood from India falls outside the limited exemptions (raw materials or machinery imported directly by registered manufacturers, goods already carrying KEBS’s Diamond Mark, and goods originating from Africa, Europe, North America or Oceania, which get destination inspection instead of pre-shipment PVoC). Your shipment needs pre-shipment testing and a Certificate of Conformity from a KEBS-accredited PVoC agent in India before it is loaded; KEBS’s current Zone 2 roster (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) lists Bureau Veritas, Intertek, SGS and TÜV Rheinland as accredited agents. On arrival, the importer submits that certificate with the Import Declaration Form and Customs Entry to obtain an Import Standardization Mark sticker, and KEBS also reserves the right to inspect and sample the cargo again at Mombasa. Tell us at enquiry which certificate, test standard or pre-shipment inspection your import requires, because it decides which of our factories makes the order and cannot be added after the panels are pressed; inspection by you or an agency you appoint is welcome and the goods are held for it. |
| Clears at | Mombasa |
| Port-to-port transit | Cochin has no direct sailings to Mombasa, so cargo typically transships through Colombo, Salalah, Jebel Ali or Djibouti rather than travelling point to point, and no fixed transit-day figure is published for this specific routing. For comparison, the more heavily-served India-origin lanes run faster: Nhava Sheva to Mombasa runs roughly 10–13 days on the most frequent sailings, and Mundra roughly 9–10 days on the quickest; Cochin’s transshipment routing adds to both the day count and the uncertainty. The schedule is confirmed with the quote, taken from the live carrier booking for the sailing actually used. |
| Documents we provide | Commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, bill of lading, with a phytosanitary or treatment certificate where the destination, product or contract requires one |
| ISPM-15 | Panels exempt; solid wood in assembled crates and pallets treated and IPPC-marked by a DPPQS-registered treatment provider where the destination requires it, with a treatment certificate where the quotation states it |
The duty and conformity figures above are sourced, not estimated. Where the published sources genuinely disagreed — the sailing time on this lane above all — the row says so rather than naming a number. A gap costs a buyer one email; a confidently wrong tariff, or a certification we do not hold, costs them a container sitting on a quay.