Wholesale used engines to DR Congo

Engine families that move here	Toyota 2TR / 1GR for the Hilux and Land Cruiser fleets, 1NZ / 2ZR, Isuzu 4JB1, Nissan QR25
Discharge ports	Matadi for Kinshasa and the west; Dar es Salaam then road for Lubumbashi and the east
Indicative sea transit	From Nansha or Shekou, about 35 to 50 days to Matadi; the eastern route runs via Dar es Salaam and overland. A band, not a promise: direct services sit at the low end and transhipment at the high end, and your forwarder confirms the actual schedule at booking
Container sizes	20-ft (exactly 90 engines) and 40-ft (exactly 130 engines)
Minimum & maximum order	One full sealed container. The quantity is fixed and not negotiable — 90 units in a 20-ft or 130 in a 40-ft, our standard load whatever the mix; never single units, never a partial load
Published price range	USD 340 to USD 4,090 per unit, FOB Guangzhou

Reading for this lane: Used engine HS codes: 8407 petrol, 8408 diesel  ·  How to verify a used engine supplier before you pay

Nearby lanes we also load for: Zambia  ·  Tanzania. Buyers who re-export across a border should say so at enquiry — the mix and the documents differ.

The DIB comes first, and the container has to match it

Imports into the DRC run through a pre-export verification programme operated by OCC, the Office Congolais de Contrôle, with Bureau Veritas BIVAC appointed to carry out the verification. It applies to consignments from USD 2 500 FOB upward, which means it applies to every container of engines without exception.

The process starts with you, not with us. You file a DIB — Déclaration d'Importation des Biens — through your commercial bank, registered with the Banque Centrale du Congo via the Single Window platform; it is valid for one year and renewable once for six months. Second-hand goods are allowed under the programme, provided the DIB describes them as such. If the DIB says new, and the container holds used engines, you have a problem that no amount of good grading will fix.

AV or ARA — and why our fixed count is an advantage here

After verification, BIVAC issues one of two outcomes. An AV, Attestation de Vérification, goes to you and to OCC through the Single Window and is what clears the goods. An ARA, Avis de Refus d'Attestation, is a refusal — and a consignment with an ARA is not to be shipped to the DRC at all.

One of the listed grounds for an ARA is that the DIB quantity or FOB value is exceeded. Read that carefully, because it turns an ordinary supplier habit into a real risk: a supplier who quietly loads a few extra units, or who adjusts the invoice after the fact, can cause the whole consignment to be refused. Our standard load is exactly 90 engines in a 20-ft and exactly 130 in a 40-ft, quoted at a fixed FOB per unit, with a serial recorded for every single unit before you pay the balance. On most lanes that discipline is reassuring. On this one it is the difference between an AV and an ARA.

So tell us the DIB figures when you enquire. We build the container to the declaration rather than to a round number, and the packing list reconciles to it line by line.

Insurance has to be Congolese — which is why we quote FOB

Under the exchange regulation applied to the programme, import cargo insurance is to be placed with an insurance company based in the DRC. That is a rule which quietly breaks the usual CIF quotation habit: a foreign supplier who bundles insurance into the price is arranging cover that does not satisfy the requirement.

We quote FOB Guangzhou as a matter of course, on every lane and for every buyer, and here that happens to be exactly what the regulation wants. Your freight and your insurance are arranged where they must be, and the invoice shows the FOB, freight and insurance breakdown that the verification expects to see.

Two entry routes, two different containers

Kinshasa and the west are served through Matadi. Lubumbashi, the Katanga mining belt and the east are usually served overland, most often through Dar es Salaam and Zambia, occasionally through Beira. They are effectively two different markets with two different cost structures, and a mix that makes sense for one is often wrong for the other.

The mining and NGO fleets pull Land Cruiser and Hilux demand — 1GR-FE and 2TR-FE at the top of our price list — while the urban trade in Kinshasa runs on smaller Toyota petrol and Korean stock. Say which route you are on when you enquire and the quotation is built for it.

Documentation for the lane

DIB registered before shipment, verification by BIVAC at our warehouse, AV issued through the Single Window, commercial invoice showing the FOB and freight breakdown by line item, packing list reconciled to the DIB, certificate of origin and bill of lading, under HS 8407 for petrol and 8408 for diesel. Markings and instructions must be in French or English. Programme details are revised periodically — confirm the current position with your bank and your clearing agent before the container is booked.

Published prices for this lane

Per unit, FOB Guangzhou, every unit Grade A. These are the codes that actually move to DR Congo — you can mix them freely inside one container, and the full sixteen-code catalogue is open to you as well.

A 20-ft container is exactly 90 units and a 40-ft exactly 130, whatever the mix. At the prices above, a 20-ft load to DR Congo runs from USD 30,600 (all G4FA) to USD 368,100 (all 1GR-FE) FOB, and a 40-ft from USD 44,200 to USD 531,700. Sea freight to Matadi for Kinshasa and the west; Dar es Salaam then road for Lubumbashi and the east is quoted separately. Most containers are a mix, so your figure sits between the two: build the exact mix in the quoter and the total reaches your inbox the same minute.

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