The lane: Kochi to Dar es Salaam
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.
Dar es Salaam is the discharge port on the traffic we quote for Tanzania. 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We do not publish sailing schedules.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.
Most buyers on a new lane start with one container rather than a programme, and that is a sensible way to begin. A trial load can be mixed — two or three products in one box, each with its own sheet count on the packing list — so you can put more than one grade in front of your own customers before committing to a run. Say what you want to test and the quote is built around it. Tanzania is one of several lanes we serve; the export hub covers the rest.
What Tanzanian buyers order
Four lines carry most of the volume: packing-grade plywood for crates, cases and pallet decks, commercial and BWR plywood for furniture 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.
If packaging rather than panels is what you actually need, we build the finished article: plywood boxes and crates to your internal dimensions and plywood pallets, shipped ready to pack, with their solid wood treated and IPPC-marked by a DPPQS-registered treatment provider where the destination requires it.
Loading: check payload and usable space
Check the permitted payload and the space and layout available for the sheets, with packing allowances and the destination road limit. Either weight or fit may govern. Every quote includes a loading plan with sheets per container and net and gross weight; our container loading guide explains the checks.
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 Tanzania 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 Tanzania
What your clearing agent needs to land a plywood shipment in Tanzania. 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 | Tanzania currently overrides the EAC Common External Tariff on this heading with an annually renewed national measure: instead of the CET headline rate of 25% for HS 44.12 (plywood, veneered panels and similar laminated wood), the EAC Gazette in force (Vol. AT 1 No. 16, 30 June 2026) sets Tanzania’s duty at 35% of CIF value for the year from 1 July 2026 — a stay of application the country has renewed on this heading for at least two consecutive fiscal years running, and due for reconfirmation at the next 1 July cycle. On top of duty, Mainland Tanzania VAT is 18% (charged on CIF plus duty), plus a Railway Development Levy of 2% of CIF value and a Destination Inspection Fee of 0.6% of FOB value. Exact HS sub-line classification and the rate in force on the ship date are still for your clearing agent to confirm. |
| 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 | Plywood (HS 4412, every 8-digit line) sits on the Tanzania Bureau of Standards’ PVoC-regulated goods list, so a Certificate of Conformity from a TBS-appointed agency — currently SGS, Intertek, TÜV Rheinland, WSCT or CCIC — is required before the shipment sails, submitted through TBS’s Online Application System (oas.tbs.go.tz) and authenticated against the shipping documents ahead of customs clearance. The standard per-shipment route charges an inspection fee of about 0.5% of FOB value, subject to a USD 250 minimum. A shipment that arrives without a valid pre-shipment certificate is instead diverted to TBS destination inspection at the port, with the delay and cost that implies. As with every market, tell us at enquiry which certificate or test report your import requires, since it decides which of our factories makes the order and cannot be added once the panels are pressed — inspection by you or an agency you appoint is welcome, and the goods are held for it. |
| Clears at | Dar es Salaam |
| Port-to-port transit | Published estimates for this lane disagree sharply enough that we won’t publish a single figure: freight-marketplace schedule data (Cogoport) shows direct Nhava Sheva/Mundra-area services reaching Dar es Salaam in as little as 8 days on the fastest sailings, while independent route estimators (SeaRates, CargoRouter) put total transit at 20–23 days, consistent with a transshipment routing via Colombo, Salalah or Mombasa rather than a direct call. Whether your shipment sails direct or transshipped is the deciding factor, and that is only fixed once the vessel is booked — the schedule is confirmed with the quote. |
| 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.