Industrial machinery
exported to Thailand

Thai certification is aimed at products rather than at plant, and the exposure that trips up an exporter sits inside the machine. The Thai Industrial Standards Institute administers compulsory standards over roughly 112 to 129 items across 18 sectors under the Industrial Product Standards Act, and general machinery in HS 84 is largely absent from those lists. Its components are not. The efficiency class for three-phase induction motors under TIS 866 became compulsory on 18 April 2026, and TIS 2134-2565 on room air conditioner energy efficiency on 4 April 2026. So a processing line is unregulated while a drive motor bolted inside it is regulated, and where a compulsory standard applies the importer must hold a TISI licence before the goods can leave customs, the institute then issuing a release letter to the Customs Department. That turns up at the port rather than at the drawing stage, so every motor rating and packaged cooling unit belongs on the specification.

Ask the buyer's duty position before pricing origin work

Three regimes take duty off capital equipment here, and which one a customer sits under changes the conversation:

• Board of Investment promotion, which exempts import duty on machinery released through the eMT online system;
• a Customs Free Zone, where duty, value added tax and excise are suspended on machinery entering the zone;
• an IEAT Free Zone, where machinery, equipment, tools and construction materials are exempt from import duty, value added tax and excise outright.

An ACFTA Form E may accordingly be worth nothing to a promoted or zone-based buyer, which is worth establishing early.

Sixty per cent has to be Thai

A ministerial regulation in force from 8 December 2020 obliges government agencies to buy domestically produced goods for at least 60 per cent of their goods requirement, and on a construction project at least 90 per cent of the steel by value or volume must be made in the country. Made in Thailand status is certified by the Federation of Thai Industries and calls for domestic raw-material content of 40 per cent or more. A foreign-owned company with a Thai factory can meet that; an exporter shipping finished units from China cannot. For tender volumes the practical answer is a Thai manufacturing or assembly partner holding the certificate, with direct import confined to whatever falls outside the quota. The framework is the Government Procurement and Supplies Management Act 2017, run by the Comptroller General's Department, with notices on the e-GP portal at gprocurement.go.th. Appeals are now lodged electronically, small and medium enterprises carry a 10 per cent price preference, and Thailand observes the WTO procurement agreement without being a party to it.

Berths, paperwork and sockets

Container loads and project cargo route to Laem Chabang in Chonburi, the deep-sea gateway. Bangkok Port at Khlong Toei is a river facility limited on vessel size and throughput, suiting smaller lots for home consumption, and Map Ta Phut handles bulk and petrochemical traffic. Entries are filed through Thai Customs e-Customs. Technical regulations and institute forms are published in Thai, and while English commercial documents pass in practice, customs may call for a Thai translation, so allow time for one. Supply is 220/230 V single-phase and 380 V three-phase at 50 Hz. The official grounded fitting is Type O, the Thai three-pin under TIS 166; Type C is everywhere, and Types A and B still turn up although they are going. Parts, installation and training are supplied to the extent the supply contract provides for them. Erection, instruction of operators and the reach of any guarantee are settled when the supply agreement is drawn.