Industries
Freight forwarding and customs clearance for machinery and equipment
Bakery, food, and factory machinery, from crated FCL to out-of-gauge breakbulk.
Pain points
Common challenges
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Out-of-gauge cargo
A crate a few centimetres over height stops being container cargo. It becomes a flat rack or a breakbulk booking, a crane at both ends, and a road permit — all decided by a packing list nobody read early enough.
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Machines and their parts
A complete machine, a sub-assembly shipped separately, and a box of spare parts are three different tariff questions, and answering them as one is how a shipment picks up a duty adjustment years later.
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Relief arranged too late
Investment-promotion and free-zone relief on imported machinery is approved before the goods arrive, not claimed afterwards. Once the entry is filed at full duty, getting it back is a much longer job.
How we move Machinery & Equipment
- FCL and LCL for crated machines, tooling, and spare parts
- Flat rack, open top, and breakbulk for machines that will not fit a standard container
- Airfreight for spare parts when a production line is down
- Door-to-door delivery to the factory floor, with the lifting and the over-dimension road permits arranged at the Thai end
Common questions
Machinery & Equipment: common questions
Can you ship a machine that does not fit in a container?
Yes. Machines over container height or width move on a flat rack or an open top, and genuinely large ones move as breakbulk. What we need first is the crated weight, the three crated dimensions, and where the lifting points are — those decide the equipment, the crane time, and whether the road leg needs an over-dimension permit. Send us the crate drawing and we will tell you which of those applies before you commit to the purchase.
Can machinery be imported into Thailand without paying duty?
Sometimes. A company holding an investment promotion can import approved machinery under an exemption, and machinery brought into a free zone is treated separately again. Both work off a list approved before the goods arrive, so the relief has to be arranged while the machine is still being built — once the entry has been filed at full duty, recovering it is a much longer job. Where neither applies, machinery pays its tariff rate, and VAT at 7% is charged on the customs value plus that duty.
Are there restrictions on importing used machinery?
Some categories of used and reconditioned machinery carry extra import conditions in Thailand, and a few need permission before the machine ships. Which category applies depends on the tariff heading and on the machine itself, so we check the actual specification against the conditions in force before you buy — not after the machine is on the water. Where a permission is needed, it has to be in hand before arrival.