Wholesale used engines to South Africa

Engine families that move here	Hyundai and Kia G4 (Accent, i20, Rio, Cerato, Sportage), Toyota 1NZ / 2NZ / 2ZR / 2AZ, Nissan QR25, 2TR for the bakkie trade
Discharge ports	Durban; Port Elizabeth and Cape Town by arrangement
Indicative sea transit	From Nansha or Shekou, about 17 to 25 days to Durban. 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 2,870 per unit, FOB Guangzhou

Reading for this lane: How to verify a used engine supplier before you pay  ·  How much does a container of used engines cost?

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

You need an ITAC import permit, and it is issued by value

Used engines are controlled goods in South Africa. The International Trade Administration Commission issues import permits for used or second-hand engines and gearboxes, and a container that arrives without one does not clear. You apply on form IE230 as a first-time importer and form IE461 thereafter, and ITAC asks for a copy of your SARS tax clearance certificate and a copy of your SAPS Second-hand Goods Act certificate along with the application.

The permit is granted as a rand value of proposed imports, not as a quantity of engines. For an established importer the initial issue for a year is set at 50 per cent of the previous year's allocation, with a 15 per cent increase normally allowed after each full calendar year of importing. That is the mechanism that makes South Africa a lane you grow into rather than one you enter at full container scale.

The first-timer cap is the number that decides your first order

New entrants and first-time importers of used engines and gearboxes are issued a maximum of R500 000 in total for proposed engine and gearbox imports, for a six-month period — January to June, then July to December of a calendar year. That is the single most important figure on this page, and almost nobody publishes it.

Work it through honestly. At recent exchange rates R500 000 is somewhere in the region of USD 26 000 to 28 000, and rand movement can shift that by thousands either way, so price it on the day. Our cheapest full 20-ft load — ninety G4FA units — is above that figure. The conclusion is uncomfortable but it is better said before you pay a deposit than after: a genuinely first-time South African importer usually cannot cover a full sealed container inside one six-month allocation.

There are two honest ways forward. Either you already hold an allocation history with ITAC and your permit covers a container, in which case tell us the permit value and we build the mix to fit it; or you are starting out, and the sensible first move is a second six-month allocation, a consolidated load with another permit holder, or a lane where the entry cost is lower. We would rather tell you that now than sell you a container you cannot clear.

Displacement decides what the permit can cover

The permit categories are drawn by engine capacity. Used petrol engines for passenger vehicles and light delivery vehicles are covered up to 3 000 cc, and used diesel engines for the same classes up to 3 500 cc. Everything we would normally quote to a South African buyer sits comfortably inside those limits: the Hyundai-Kia G4 family at 1.4 to 2.4 litres, Toyota 1NZ, 2NZ, 2ZR and 2AZ, Nissan QR25 at 2.5 litres, and 2TR-FE at 2.7 litres.

Two codes in our catalogue fall outside. The 1GR-FE is a 4.0-litre petrol V6 and the VQ35DE a 3.5-litre petrol V6; both are above the 3 000 cc petrol threshold for this permit category, so do not build them into a South African container on the assumption that a passenger-vehicle permit will carry them. Isuzu 4JB1 stock is light-commercial rather than passenger, which puts it under the separate commercial-truck spares rules, where permits turn on whether a suitable substitute is available locally.

This is also why South Africa is one of the few lanes where we ask what your permit says before we quote a mix. Everywhere else the mix is a commercial decision; here it is a regulatory one.

Why a graded, serialized load matters more here

South Africa has a real local remanufacturing industry, and the import controls exist to protect it. That means a used engine import is looked at more closely than in a lane where nobody minds. A load where every unit is photographed, compression-tested and serialized before payment, with the serial on the block matching the photo set, is a load you can account for — to ITAC, to SARS, and to the customer who buys the engine off your floor.

It also matters for the SAPS Second-hand Goods Act side of your business. Traceable stock with per-unit records is the kind of stock a second-hand goods dealer can hold without argument.

Documentation for the lane

ITAC import permit obtained before the date of shipment, commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin and bill of lading, under HS 8407 for petrol and 8408 for diesel. Permits are valid only for the calendar year in which they are issued and only for the class of goods and country of origin stated on them, so the permit has to name China as origin for a container loaded at our Guangzhou warehouse. Confirm the current requirements with ITAC or your clearing agent before you book: import control rules change, and this page is a starting point rather than legal advice.

Published prices for this lane

Per unit, FOB Guangzhou, every unit Grade A. These are the codes that actually move to South Africa — 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 South Africa runs from USD 30,600 (all G4FA) to USD 258,300 (all 2TR-FE) FOB, and a 40-ft from USD 44,200 to USD 373,100. Sea freight to Durban; Port Elizabeth and Cape Town by arrangement 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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