Why Are More and More African Mining Enterprises Purchasing Used Chinese Mining Trucks?
2026-07-02 21:27
This process specifies the complete export operation standards for used Chinese mining dump trucks, mining heavy-duty trucks and other engineering vehicles purchased by African buyers, with Shandong Shengchi Heavy Truck acting as the official Chinese exporter. Complying with China’s regulatory policies for used vehicle exports and the import access requirements of mainstream African countries, it covers the whole process including preliminary verification, vehicle preparation, document processing, customs declaration and release, sea freight logistics, and destination port customs clearance and delivery, adapting to the import scenarios of mining engineering vehicles in various African countries.
I. Preliminary Negotiation and Vehicle Compliance Verification (Transaction Initiation Stage)
Led by Shandong Shengchi Heavy Truck, this stage confirms buyer requirements, screens vehicle qualifications and finalizes transaction terms to eliminate export compliance risks from the source.
1. Supply-Demand Negotiation and Term Confirmation: Confirm with African buyers the purchased model, tonnage, vehicle age, quantity, delivery port, trade terms (mainly FOB and CIF), payment methods and after-sales agreements. Sign the official Used Vehicle Export Purchase and Sales Contract, clarify core commitments that the vehicles are accident-free, flood-free, major-fault-free and non-assembled, and mark unique identifiers including VIN and engine number.
2. Vehicle Compliance Screening: Verify vehicles in strict accordance with China’s used vehicle export standards and African access requirements. Core criteria: vehicle age ≤ 8 years, mileage ≤ 500,000 kilometers, no fire damage, major accidents or water immersion records, no tampering or damage to the frame and engine, and full compliance with national safety standards for exported mining engineering vehicles. Meanwhile, verify the latest access rules of target African countries (e.g., West African countries such as Nigeria require heavy commercial vehicle age ≤ 15 years) to avoid access violations.
3. Vehicle Ownership Verification: Check the original Motor Vehicle Registration Certificate, vehicle purchase tax payment certificate and original purchase invoice to ensure clear vehicle ownership without mortgage, seizure or outstanding violations, laying a foundation for subsequent ownership endorsement and license application.
II. Vehicle Preparation and Third-Party Inspection (Compliance Preparatory Stage)
Shandong Shengchi Heavy Truck completes vehicle renovation and compliance inspection, and issues officially recognized inspection reports to meet the dual requirements of China customs declaration and African customs clearance.
1. Comprehensive Vehicle Preparation: Targeting the operating characteristics of mining trucks, conduct full maintenance and overhaul on the engine, gearbox, hydraulic system, dumping system, braking system, tires and chassis, replace aging parts, clean the vehicle interior and exterior to ensure stable operating conditions and meet export delivery standards. Remove domestic vehicle labels to adapt to export inspection requirements.
2. Authoritative Third-Party Inspection: Entrust CMA-qualified third-party inspection institutions (such as CATARC) to conduct comprehensive inspection on vehicle condition, safety performance, exhaust emission and vehicle uniqueness, and issue the Used Vehicle Export Quality Inspection Report with CMA certification mark, serving as the core compliance document for export license application, customs declaration and overseas customs clearance.
3. Vehicle Ownership Endorsement: Carry the vehicle registration certificate, inspection report and sales contract to the local vehicle management office to go through the "Transfer for Export" ownership endorsement, lock the vehicle export status to prohibit secondary domestic transactions, and complete pre-export filing.
III. Full Set of Export Document Processing (Core Compliance Stage)
Relying on its official export qualification, Shandong Shengchi Heavy Truck uniformly processes all official documents, ensuring full consistency among vehicles, documents, contracts and invoices, which is the key to smooth customs declaration and overseas clearance.
1. Export License Application: Log in to the unified platform of the Ministry of Commerce, submit application forms, vehicle registration certificates, inspection reports, export sales contracts and enterprise qualification documents to apply for the Used Vehicle Export License. Adopting the "one batch, one license" management mode with a 6-month validity period, the license strictly corresponds to the quantity and VIN information of exported vehicles to avoid document inconsistency.
2. Basic Trade Documents: Prepare export commercial invoices and packing lists, clearly indicating vehicle brand, model, VIN, quantity, transaction value and origin (China), with fully consistent information across contracts, invoices and customs declaration documents.
3. Auxiliary Customs Clearance Documents: Apply for certificates of origin as required to help African buyers enjoy corresponding tariff preferences; purchase sea freight cargo insurance at 110% of CIF value to meet the mandatory insurance requirements of most West African ports.
4. Enterprise Qualification Filing: Keep on file Shandong Shengchi Heavy Truck’s business license, import and export operation right filing form, and used vehicle export pilot enterprise qualification documents for customs verification.
IV. Domestic Port Customs Declaration, Inspection and Release (Core Customs Clearance Process)
After completing document collection, submit declarations to the exit port customs uniformly, with the exporter handling the whole customs declaration process to ensure smooth clearance.
1. Document Submission and Declaration: Sort out full documents including export license, vehicle registration certificate, inspection report, contract, invoice, packing list and customs declaration power of attorney, entrust professional customs brokers to declare to the port customs, mark "used vehicle export" on the customs declaration form, and accurately fill in vehicle declaration elements.
2. Customs Verification and Inspection: The customs focuses on verifying the consistency of VIN, engine number and documents, authenticity of vehicle conditions and document compliance, and investigates assembled vehicles, scrapped vehicles and illegally modified vehicles. As key inspected engineering vehicles, mining trucks must have no illegal modifications to pass inspection.
3. Tax Processing and Release: The export of used mining trucks enjoys China’s export tax exemption policy with no export tariff payable. After customs verification and inspection, the customs issues the export customs declaration form (tax refund and foreign exchange settlement copy), completes port release and approves vehicle shipment.
V. Sea Freight Logistics (Cross-Border Transportation Stage)
Shandong Shengchi Heavy Truck coordinates high-quality logistics channels to match mainstream African routes and ensure safe and on-time delivery to destination ports.
1. Port and Route Selection: Match routes according to buyers’ destinations. Main West African ports: Lagos (Nigeria), Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire); Main East African ports: Mombasa (Kenya), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). The shipping cycle is 25–35 days. Avoid risky Red Sea routes and prioritize stable sea freight channels.
2. Loading and Transportation: Use ro-ro ships and bulk carriers for dedicated loading of mining trucks. Conduct professional fixing and anti-collision reinforcement to prevent vehicle damage and displacement during sea transportation, track logistics trajectories in real time and update transportation progress to African buyers timely.
3. Bill of Lading Issuance: After shipment, the shipping company issues the official Bill of Lading (B/L), the core document for overseas cargo pickup and property right transfer. The exporter sorts out full documents and delivers them to African buyers or their customs clearance agents.
VI. African Destination Port Customs Clearance and Delivery (Final Stage)
This stage is mainly undertaken by African buyers with assistance from Shandong Shengchi Heavy Truck to complete overseas customs clearance, tax payment and vehicle delivery.
1. Pre-Clearance at Destination Port: African buyers entrust local qualified customs clearance agents to submit full export documents, bills of lading and insurance policies for customs declaration, and pay tariffs, VAT and port miscellaneous fees in accordance with ECOWAS common external tariffs and local policies.
2. Local Compliance Inspection: The destination port customs verifies vehicle age, condition, document authenticity and insurance validity. Some countries require road driving compliance inspection to confirm that vehicles meet local mining vehicle access standards before release.
3. Cargo Pickup and Closing: After customs clearance and tax payment, buyers pick up vehicles from port yards and can arrange inland transportation to mining sites as needed. After transaction completion, Shandong Shengchi Heavy Truck archives full export documents, logistics vouchers and signing records to complete the whole export closed-loop process.
VII. Core Notes
1. National Policy Differences: African countries have varying access standards for used engineering vehicles in terms of vehicle age restrictions, tariff rates and mandatory certifications. Verify the latest access policies of target countries before export to avoid customs clearance failures.
2. Document Consistency: The VIN, vehicle parameters and transaction information on all documents must be completely consistent. Altering or forging documents is strictly prohibited, which is the core red line for African customs clearance.
3. Transparent Vehicle Condition: Given the special operating conditions of used mining trucks, conduct comprehensive pre-export maintenance and fully disclose vehicle conditions, and retain inspection and maintenance records to reduce overseas after-sales disputes.
4. Time Limit Control: The export license is valid for 6 months. Arrange customs declaration and shipment reasonably to avoid license expiration affecting export procedures.
Link to original article： https://en.shengchi-truck.com/sys-nd/120.html
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