Factory-direct from Kerala, quoted FOB Cochin
Cochin Wood Industries is an Indian plywood manufacturer and exporter. Our group began working timber in Perumbavoor, Kerala, in 1986, and our factories sit about 40 km from Cochin Port, where your container is stuffed and gated in. We hold no stock in the Caribbean, so what you buy is the panel at the factory gate, priced in US dollars.
Puerto Rico is one of several lanes we run into the Americas. The export hub covers the rest, and plywood export to the United States goes deeper on the formaldehyde question below.
Formaldehyde: confirm which regime your entry falls under
Buyers bringing plywood into Puerto Rico ask us the same certification question mainland buyers do. We will not tell you which regime applies to your entry — that is your customs broker's call, and it depends on the product type and its end use. What we will do is act on the answer.
If the answer is CARB or TSCA Title VI, name it at enquiry. We quote it only where our factory for your order holds it, and it cannot be retrofitted after the panels are pressed. We make no blanket compliance claim: BIS licences and test reports are held factory by factory, and any certificate that applies to your order is identified on the quotation by holder, number and product scope, then released to verified buyers on request. A low-emission E1 glue line is available on Okoume-faced panels, but E1 and CARB Phase 2 / TSCA Title VI are different regimes with different test methods, so confirm the exact class rather than treating one as a substitute. Our note on formaldehyde compliance for plywood exports sets out what to ask any supplier for; the certificate policy in full is on company verification.
What we ship to Puerto Rico
Seventeen product lines come out of the same cluster; the export range loads from the same port. These are the ones we would put in front of a first-time buyer on this lane; the rest are in the catalogue.
| Product | Build | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial plywood | MR or BWR bond | Furniture, shopfitting, doors and general joinery. |
| BWR hardwood plywood | Boiling-water-resistant bond | Humid and coastal service. |
| Marine plywood | IS 710, BWP bond | Boat work, coastal construction, wet areas. |
| Packing-grade plywood | MR bond, IS 303 | 6, 8, 12, 15 and 18 mm are the usual thicknesses. Cases, crating and pallet decks. |
| Film-faced shuttering plywood | Phenolic film face, made for repeated pours | Slab and column formwork. |
| Calibrated Okoume-face panel | Okoume face, eucalyptus core, E1 glue line available | 16 mm at about 32 kg a sheet, bare or HPL-laminated. |
Mixed loads are normal. A container split across two or three of these lines is a standard order, not a special request. On an island lane the moisture question is worth settling on the order line: MR is moisture-resistant, not waterproof, and our note on BWR versus BWP for export packing sets out where each bond stops.
Container weight, and the road limit at your end
Plywood is dense. At its roughly 26.5-tonne ship-line payload, 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. We load every container within the lower of the ship-line payload and the road limit that applies at your end, and check that the sheets fit.
Tell us which limit that is when you enquire. If your inland leg runs under US highway rules, we cap the container at the same figure we use for the mainland — about 20 tonnes — and say so on the proforma invoice with the sheet count and the net and gross weights. The arithmetic is on the container weight guide.
Import essentials for Puerto Rico
What your customs broker needs to land a plywood shipment. We quote FCA or FOB Cochin in USD; duty and any tax at import are added on the destination side.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| HS code | Heading 4412 (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 | Puerto Rico sits inside US customs territory, so a direct India–Puerto Rico plywood shipment is dutied exactly like a mainland US entry, under HTS Chapter 4412. The base (Column 1/MFN) rate for the tropical hardwood-faced plywood typical of Indian commercial and marine ply runs 8% ad valorem on lines such as 4412.31, 4412.33, 4412.34 and 4412.51/.52 — India holds no US FTA or GSP preference, so 8% is the floor for this shipment, though a handful of coniferous-faced lines run lower and birch-faced panels are typically duty-free, and only your customs broker can confirm the exact 8/10-digit line. On top of the base rate: the Section 232 timber/lumber tariff (10% on softwood lumber, effective 14 Oct 2025) explicitly excludes HTS 4412 plywood, including lauan-faced panels, so it does not apply here, though Commerce is due to report to the President by 1 Oct 2026 on whether to extend Section 232 to hardwood products; and the IEEPA ‘reciprocal tariff’ on India, along with the Section 122 surcharge that briefly replaced it, are both no longer in force — the Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs on 20 Feb 2026, and the Section 122 surcharge lapsed by around 24 Jul 2026. A separate Section 301 action against forced labour, covering 60 economies including India, took effect 24 Jul 2026 at a 10% ad valorem surcharge on goods not covered by its exclusion list — but published sources disagree on whether wood products sit on that exclusion list, so whether the 10% reaches this shipment is unresolved; have your broker confirm the current Section 301 status of the specific HTS line before costing the order, since it is the difference between roughly 8% and roughly 18% total federal duty. Separately from the federal duty, and regardless of how the Section 301 question resolves, Puerto Rico’s own Impuesto sobre Ventas y Uso (IVU) applies to goods brought onto the island at a combined 11.5% (10.5% Commonwealth plus 1% municipal), administered by the Departamento de Hacienda via an Import Declaration (Model SC 2970) filed through the SURI portal on every shipment; this is the Puerto Rico buyer’s liability rather than CWI’s as FOB seller, and a buyer holding an Eligible Reseller Certificate can defer it and collect IVU on resale instead of paying it at the port. |
| Formaldehyde compliance | CARB or TSCA Title VI where your broker confirms it applies — named at enquiry, and quoted only where our factory for your order holds it; the quotation names the certificate |
| Clears at | The discharge port you nominate. We quote FOB Cochin; you or your forwarder book the vessel. |
| Documents we provide | Commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, bill of lading |
| Plant health | A phytosanitary certificate where the destination requires one, and a fumigation certificate only where fumigation was actually carried out, confirmed against your country's rules at proforma-invoice stage |
| ISPM-15 | Plywood panels exempt; solid-wood packing treated and IPPC-marked by a DPPQS-registered treatment provider where the destination requires it, with a treatment certificate where the quotation states it |
Terms, documents, and checking us before you pay
Export quotes are issued in US dollars under Incoterms 2020, and always name the place or port: FCA Cochin where a sealed container is handed to your carrier, FOB Cochin where we deliver on board, CFR or CIF where agreed. 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).
Every shipment carries a commercial invoice, a packing list with bundle-wise net and gross weights, the Bill of Lading and a certificate of origin. Tell us your broker's checklist when you confirm the order: destination-specific documents are agreed before production ends, not after the container sails.
We ask for money before you have met us, so check us first. IEC AAJCC9689H is searchable at dgft.gov.in; RCMC/FIEO/10262/2024-2025 is our Federation of Indian Export Organisations registration for wood and articles; the LEI 98450010B744B73B1445 is on gleif.org if your bank runs a counterparty check. Each registration and the portal that confirms it is listed on company verification. Pre-shipment inspection is welcome, by you or an agency you appoint, and loading photographs and video of your container go out the same day it stuffs. The whole sequence is on how we handle an export order.