Industrial machinery
exported to Vietnam

Vietnam certifies machinery at import, and that apparatus was rebuilt during 2026. Law 78/2025/QH15 and Decree 37/2026/ND-CP, effective 23 January 2026, scrapped the Group 2 goods model for three risk tiers, each ministry then reissuing its list on 1 July 2026. Circular 33/2026/TT-BCT places industrial machinery, equipment and materials in the industry ministry's medium band, one of six such groups, and designates nothing as high risk. The medium tier means a declaration of conformity, not mandatory third-party type approval. Its annexes are HS-coded, so the most useful thing a seller hands over is the eight-digit code for each line.

Form E is worth money and is refused on detail

ACFTA preference has real value here, and customs is the region's most exacting on formalities. The schedule under Decree 118/2022/ND-CP runs 2022 to 2027 over 11,459 tariff lines, averaging 3.05 per cent applied. Four conditions hold together or the claim fails: the line is in the schedule, origin lies in an ACFTA party, direct consignment is met, and the certificate is properly issued. Rejections usually trace to third-party invoicing or a mismatch between issuing authority and named exporter. Without it the buyer pays the MFN rate in place of zero to three per cent.

Items that leave the medium-risk path

Parts of a mixed order travel a stricter route. Section I of Circular 01/2021/TT-BLDTBXH attracts state quality inspection at import: safety helmets, welding goggles, respirators, dielectric gloves and footwear, fall-arrest harnesses, lifts and escalators, gas cylinders above 0.7 bar. Section II escapes border inspection but must pass occupational safety inspection before use: boilers and pressure vessels above 0.7 bar, refrigerating systems charged with 5 kg or more, cranes and gantry cranes, forklifts from 1,000 kg.

A wireless module can be harder than the plant

Circular 36/2026/TT-BKHCN, in force on the same July date, put radio modules onto the risk lists. Wi-Fi rated 60 mW EIRP or above in the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands is high risk and needs type approval on top of a declaration. A controller with an embedded module can therefore be harder to clear than the machine it sits in.

Labelling, language and where to discharge

Decree 43/2017, amended by Decree 111/2021, requires goods to arrive bearing an original label with the compulsory content, a Vietnamese supplementary label added before circulation — a factory decision, not a warehouse one. Declarations run through VNACCS/VCIS in Vietnamese; English commercial papers pass in practice, but a certified translation can be demanded. Northern cargo works through the Lach Huyen deep-water terminals in the Hai Phong complex. Main-line sailings from China berth in the south at the Cai Mep-Thi Vai cluster in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, where oversize and heavy-lift plant belongs; Cat Lai, the Ho Chi Minh City terminal, sits on the river and is limited on draft and vessel size.

Tenders, tax and reconditioned plant

Public buying rests with the finance ministry under the Law on Bidding 22/2023/QH15, operating rules in Circular 79/2025/TT-BTC from 4 August 2025. The portal moved to muasamcong.mof.gov.vn when Planning and Investment folded into Finance in 2025. Vietnam observes the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement without acceding to it. VAT is 8 per cent, down from 10, until 31 December 2026 and reverts in 2027 — a figure for the landed cost. Reconditioned equipment is age-capped by Decision 18/2019/QD-TTg, broadly ten years by sector. Nothing electrical needs altering: 220/230 V single-phase, 380 V three-phase, 50 Hz; for plant the socket is academic, since industrial lines terminate hard-wired. This is equipment supply only — no spare-parts programme, no service network — and warranty, installation and training follow the contract.