Industrial machinery
exported to Bangladesh

Representation in Bangladesh is a matter of registration rather than of appointment. Under the Importers, Exporters and Indentors (Registration) Order 1981 no indentor may trade without registration from the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports, an indentor being the party holding a sole agency or distribution right from a foreign supplier. The clause that catches exporters out is the next one: an indentor already holding a sole agency needs prior permission from the CCI and E before taking on another foreign principal. So appointing a second agent, or one who already represents a competing works, is an application to a regulator rather than a deal between two companies. Establish what a prospective agent already holds before discussing exclusivity.

The draught decides the routing

Chattogram carries roughly 92 per cent of national international trade and about 98 per cent of container volume, a record 3.52m TEU in FY26, which leaves little room to nominate anywhere else: Mongla's container berth draft is only 4.5 to 5 m and Payra has no container terminal. The limiting figures are a channel draught of 8.50 to 9.20 m and a maximum length overall of 190 m. That makes it a feeder port, so boxes are relayed through Colombo, Singapore, Port Klang or Tanjung Pelepas and no direct mainline sailing from China should be assumed. Anything heavy or out of gauge wants its routing fixed before a delivery date is offered.

The letter of credit ceiling is gone

The Import Policy Order 2026-2029, gazetted on 24 August 2026, abolished the US$500,000 annual limit on importing without a letter of credit. Industrial and commercial importers may now buy against a purchase or sales contract at any value, where a container-load programme above that figure previously compelled one. It also made a valid certificate of origin mandatory to claim any PTA, FTA or CEPA concession. On terms, a Bangladesh Bank circular of 10 December 2025 widened the three-year usance facility beyond capital machinery to heavy and specialised industrial equipment and dropped the advance clearance it used to need, so three-year deferred payment can be offered openly.

The concessionary rate is tested on the importer

Capital machinery attracts a 1 per cent import tariff, introduced on 9 June 2022, but eligibility turns on the buyer's compliance record rather than on the nature of the goods. It requires an industrial Import Registration Certificate and VAT returns filed regularly, and the NBR tightened it on 27 December 2023 to call for books of accounts and payment challans as well, field offices having found zero-return filers claiming it. Qualify the IRC class and the filing history before quoting a landed price that assumes 1 per cent.

Marks, earthing and paperwork

No general pre-shipment verification of conformity programme operates. BSTI runs mandatory Certification Mark licensing over a list of 55 imported products at a marking fee of 0.1 per cent of CIF, and that list is consumer electricals with nothing industrial on it, though it has been widened repeatedly and deserves checking per shipment. Supply is 230 V at 50 Hz, often quoted locally as 220 V, and universal sockets predominate, accepting types A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I and O but earthed only on B, D, G, I and O: a Type C plug seats perfectly without earthing the machine, so state the earthing arrangement rather than leaving it to site. Trade documents are in English. A consignment arrives with no parts programme and no maintenance arrangement attached to it, and whatever is owed by way of commissioning, operator instruction or guarantee is owed because the contract says so.