You are not buying us for the distance
Vietnam is a working lane for us rather than an aspiration — one of only two overseas markets named on our own homepage, alongside the UAE. It is also a country with a large wood-products industry of its own. Nobody imports a panel from Kerala because Kerala is close. They import it because a particular construction, at a particular price, in a particular quantity, is easier to get from a mill that will press to your sheet than from whatever is on the local market that week.
So the honest pitch on this lane is narrow and it is about specification. Our group has pressed plywood at Perumbavoor since 1986. We make packing-grade MR board to IS 303, BWR hardwood board, calibrated Okoume-faced panels on a eucalyptus core, and film-faced shuttering ply. You send the thickness, sheet size, bond, face and quantity; we quote FOB Cochin in USD against it, with a loading plan attached. If the number does not beat what you can buy at home, it does not, and you will know within one business day.
One detail that comes up on this lane specifically: Vietnamese consignees, like Gulf ones, tend to flag rough crate surfaces on arrival. Where the cargo will be inspected at destination, an Okoume face on the packing or BWR substrate is worth specifying — lighter, cleaner, and it stencils properly.
What we ship to Vietnam
The range that suits an importer supplying export packers and joinery shops.
| Product | Grade / spec | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Packing-grade plywood | MR bond, IS 303 | 6, 8, 12, 15 and 18 mm typical. Cases, crates and industrial packing; Okoume face available on the same substrate. |
| BWR hardwood plywood | BWR bond | The baseline where a crate faces a long or humid voyage rather than a one-trip domestic move. |
| Calibrated Okoume-face panel | Okoume face, eucalyptus core, E1 glue line available | Sanded and calibrated across the sheet; the 16 mm panel weighs about 32 kg. Bare or HPL-laminated, for furniture and joinery. |
| Film-faced shuttering plywood | Phenolic film | Formwork for repeat pours. |
| Boxes, crates and pallets | Built under an ISPM-15 compliant process | Ready-to-pack cases to your internal dimensions, for exporters who want packaging delivered rather than built. |
Cores are rubberwood and eucalyptus; faces are Okoume or Gurjan. The comparison between the two faces is set out in Okoume vs Gurjan plywood, and the species detail is on woods we use.
Import essentials for Vietnam
What your clearing agent needs to land a plywood shipment in Vietnam. We quote FCA or FOB Cochin in USD; customs duty and any import tax are added at import, on your side, not ours.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| HS code | Heading 4412. The national item within 4412.31, 4412.33, 4412.34 and 4412.39 turns on panel construction and individual ply thickness as well as face species; finished cases, pallets and drums are generally considered under 4415. Your broker confirms the line, and we state the code we ship under on the commercial invoice. |
| Customs duty and import tax | Not quoted by us and not in our price. Your clearing agent confirms the tariff line and the rate in force. Import tax 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. Vietnam’s MFN duty on plywood (HS 4412.31/.33/.34) is 5% on CIF value. With a valid Form AI Certificate of Origin under the ASEAN–India Free Trade Agreement, the rate is 0% — confirmed directly in Vietnam’s own AIFTA tariff schedule through 2026. VAT is currently 8% under a temporary relief measure legislated through 31 December 2026, reverting to the standard 10% after — check which rate is current at the time of shipment. |
| Clears at | Hai Phong is the reference port we quote transit against. You nominate the actual discharge port; we sell FOB Cochin, so your forwarder books the carriage and the port goes on the proforma invoice. |
| Typical transit from Cochin | 15 to 18 days port to port to Hai Phong on a direct routing out of Cochin. Chennai and Tuticorin are faster on this particular lane — 12 to 14 and 14 to 16 days — but the inland trucking from Perumbavoor eats the saving. The comparison is worked through in FOB Cochin: what is included, what is extra. |
| Standards and certification | Nothing is included by default. Each mill holds its own BIS licence, so no single CM/L number covers everything we sell; any certificate or test report that applies to your order is named on the quotation by holder, number and product scope. FSC chain of custody, CARB or TSCA Title VI, or a CE Declaration of Performance has to be asked for at enquiry — it decides which mill your order is placed with and cannot be added after the panels are pressed. QCVN 16:2023/BXD, Vietnam’s mandatory technical regulation for construction-material products, covers engineered wood panels including plywood and sets limits on formaldehyde emission and strength. It requires a per-shipment conformity declaration with lab testing before customs release — build this into your lead-time planning and confirm current lab turnaround with your Vietnamese customs broker. |
| Documents we provide | Commercial invoice, packing list with net and gross weights, and the Bill of Lading with every shipment. A Certificate of Origin where the destination, bank or contract requires one. A treatment or fumigation certificate only where that treatment was actually carried out, and a phytosanitary certificate only where the commodity or destination rules call for one. |
| ISPM-15 | Plywood panels are exempt — processed wood, no stamp and no fumigation certificate. Solid-wood packing such as pallets, runners and bearers does fall under the standard, and ours is treated and stamped. |
| Container weight | We load to the lower of the ship-line payload and the road weight limit at your end. The general ship-line payload is about 26.7 tonnes into a 40ft; the figure that applies to your booking is confirmed on the proforma invoice. |
Grade choice on a two-week tropical lane
Transit time modified by the climate of the lane is the best predictor of which bond you need. Under ten days in a dry lane, MR or BWR is enough. A voyage of two weeks or more through monsoon Southeast Asia is a different problem: humidity cycling in a steel box is what turns a marginal glue line into a delaminated corner, and the cost of getting it wrong is never the failed crate — it is the cargo claim, the port-side rework and the demurrage while a replacement is built. Our note on BWR vs BWP for export packing sets out where each grade stops working.
Tell us the voyage the cargo faces after it leaves you, not just the one to Vietnam, and we will quote the bond that survives it.
Terms and the first order
Export quotes are in US dollars under Incoterms 2020, and always name the place the term applies to. FCA Cochin suits a sealed container handed to your carrier; FOB Cochin applies where we deliver on board the vessel you nominate. CFR and CIF are quoted where agreed at enquiry. Payment is 50 per cent advance with the order and the balance before dispatch for standard products, and 100 per cent advance for custom specifications, by bank transfer (T/T).
Pre-shipment inspection is welcome, by you or any agency you appoint, and we hold the goods for it. You get photographs and video of your container as it loads, and a packing list carrying the same weights we declare to the shipping line. If you have not traded with us before, every registration the selling entity holds is listed with its government portal on verify us before you pay.