Answer desk
MIDTRANS is a freight forwarding and customs clearance company moving commercial and industrial cargo between Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. The answers below cover cargo scope, ports, ACID and Nafeza, Jebel Ali re-export, documents, classification and how a shipment is quoted.
Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt
ACID on Nafeza, CargoX documents, and clearance at Alexandria, Damietta, Port Said and Cairo.
Import, export and Jebel Ali Free Zone re-export declarations filed from the Dubai office.
Import declarations, release at Latakia and Tartous, and inland delivery to Damascus.
Storage, consolidation and cross stuffing before one movement to Syria or Egypt.
Services and cargo scope
MIDTRANS is a freight forwarding and customs company moving commercial and industrial cargo across land, sea and air, with warehousing and customs clearance handled by the same team.
MIDTRANS moves commercial and industrial cargo only: trade goods, machinery, spare parts, raw materials, equipment and project consignments travelling under commercial documents. MIDTRANS does not handle household furniture, household removals, personal effects, baggage, relocation, small parcels, courier or express consumer shipments. Every consignment we accept moves on a commercial invoice and packing list issued by a company shipper to a company consignee.
MIDTRANS operates land freight, sea freight, air freight and warehousing, with customs clearance running alongside all of them. We book full container and part container sea shipments, cross-border trucking, air consignments on commercial carriers, and storage, consolidation and cross stuffing in warehouse space. One MIDTRANS team handles the transport leg and the customs leg of the same consignment.
MIDTRANS covers Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt as core markets, with company offices and customs staff in Syria and the United Arab Emirates, and licensed customs brokers and partners in Egypt. MIDTRANS also moves commercial cargo from and to China, Turkey, Europe, the Gulf Cooperation Council states, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. The corridors between these markets, including the United Arab Emirates to Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to Syria, run as regular MIDTRANS trade lanes.
MIDTRANS has offices in Dubai (head office), Jebel Ali, Damascus, Tartous and Latakia, and works with a partner in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. The Dubai head office is in Deira, Port Saeed, United Arab Emirates, and the Damascus office is in Syria. The Dubai and Damascus offices are staffed by MIDTRANS freight and customs personnel, handle bookings, documentation and clearance for the Syria and United Arab Emirates markets, and coordinate Egypt cargo with licensed Egyptian customs brokers and partners. Customers reach MIDTRANS through the contact page, WhatsApp or email.
FCL, full container load, means a shipper books an entire sea container and that container travels sealed from the loading point to the destination with no other cargo inside. LCL, less than container load, means a consignment takes part of a container and shares it with cargo from other shippers, consolidated at origin and separated at destination. MIDTRANS books both FCL and LCL sea freight.
MIDTRANS handles dangerous goods, project cargo and heavy or out-of-gauge consignments. Dangerous goods move under the applicable IMDG or IATA classification with the safety data sheet and the shipper declaration prepared before booking. Project and heavy cargo move on flat rack, open top or breakbulk equipment, with lifting arrangements, route survey and permits organised as part of the shipment plan.
Egypt
Egyptian imports run through the Nafeza single window. The ACID number is registered before departure and the shipping documents are submitted through CargoX while the cargo is still at origin.
Customs clearance in Egypt is carried out by a licensed customs broker acting for the Egyptian importer of record, working through the Nafeza single window platform. MIDTRANS has no office and no customs licence in Egypt: clearance and port handling there are carried out by licensed Egyptian customs brokers and partners that MIDTRANS appoints and supervises, while MIDTRANS coordinates the documents and follows inspection and release at the port of entry. The Egyptian importer holds the ACID registration that the declaration is matched against.
ACID is the Advance Cargo Information number required for cargo imported into Egypt. The Egyptian importer registers the ACID on the Nafeza platform before the shipment departs the port of origin, and the issued number is then passed to the exporter. The ACID number must appear on the commercial invoice, the packing list and the transport document, whether that is a bill of lading or an air waybill.
CargoX is the document transfer platform used to submit shipping documents for Egyptian imports while the cargo is still at origin. The exporter uploads the commercial invoice, the packing list, the certificate of origin and the transport document to CargoX and transfers them to the Egyptian importer, who links them to the ACID file on Nafeza before the vessel or the aircraft departs.
When the ACID registration and the shipping documents disagree on shipper name, consignee name, goods description, quantity or value, Egyptian customs holds the consignment and the declaration cannot be released against the mismatched file. Correction requires the Egyptian importer to amend the ACID record on Nafeza, or the exporter to reissue the documents, and the cargo waits at the port until the two records agree.
MIDTRANS moves sea cargo into Egypt through Alexandria, Damietta, Port Said and Ain Sokhna, and moves air cargo into Cairo. Alexandria and Damietta serve containerised trade on the Mediterranean coast, Port Said sits at the northern entrance of the Suez Canal, and Ain Sokhna serves Red Sea arrivals from the Gulf and Asia. MIDTRANS clears and delivers inland from each of them.
United Arab Emirates and Jebel Ali
The MIDTRANS head office in Deira, Port Saeed works Jebel Ali Port and the Dubai airports, consolidating supplier cargo into single movements towards Syria, Egypt and the wider region.
Re-export from Jebel Ali Free Zone is the movement of goods that arrived into the free zone from abroad and then leave the United Arab Emirates again for another country without entering United Arab Emirates domestic customs territory. Goods held inside the free zone stay outside the local duty regime. MIDTRANS files the export declaration, books the onward sea, land or air leg and issues the new transport document.
MIDTRANS moves sea cargo through Jebel Ali Port in Dubai, the main container gateway of the United Arab Emirates, and moves air cargo through Dubai International Airport and Al Maktoum International Airport. Overland departures towards the Gulf, Iraq, Jordan and Syria load in Dubai. The MIDTRANS head office in Deira, Port Saeed coordinates booking, customs clearance and warehousing across all of them.
MIDTRANS stores and consolidates commercial cargo in the Jebel Ali area, receiving goods from several suppliers, checking marks and quantities against the packing lists and loading them into one container for a single destination. Consolidation and cross stuffing let a buyer combine purchases from different United Arab Emirates suppliers into one sea or land movement to Syria or Egypt under one set of documents.
Cargo leaving the United Arab Emirates for Egypt moves by sea from Jebel Ali to Alexandria, Damietta, Port Said or Ain Sokhna, or by air into Cairo. Cargo leaving the United Arab Emirates for Syria moves by sea to Latakia or Tartous, or overland by truck through the Gulf and Jordan. MIDTRANS books the transport leg and clears customs at both ends of the corridor.
Syria
Sea cargo for Syria arrives at Latakia and Tartous. The MIDTRANS office in Damascus files the declaration, follows release at the port and arranges the truck movement to the delivery address.
MIDTRANS moves sea cargo into Syria through the ports of Latakia and Tartous on the Mediterranean coast, and delivers inland to Damascus and other Syrian cities. Latakia and Tartous both take containerised and breakbulk cargo. The MIDTRANS office in Damascus files the import declaration, follows inspection and release at the port and arranges the truck movement to the final delivery address.
Cargo landed at Latakia or Tartous is cleared through Syrian customs at the port and then trucked inland to Damascus by road. MIDTRANS arranges the customs declaration, the port handling, the container release and the domestic truck leg as one movement, and delivers to the consignee address or to a MIDTRANS facility. Empty container return to the shipping line is handled in the same operation.
MIDTRANS moves commercial and industrial cargo to Syria from China, Turkey and Europe as well as from the United Arab Emirates and the wider Gulf. Chinese and European cargo travels by sea to Latakia or Tartous, either direct or through a transhipment hub. Turkish cargo travels overland by truck or by short sea. MIDTRANS clears the goods in Syria and delivers to Damascus.
Sea freight suits full containers, machinery, raw materials and volume trade cargo moving to Syria, discharging at Latakia or Tartous. Land freight suits regional cargo from Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and the Gulf and delivers straight to the consignee address. Air freight suits light, urgent or high value consignments such as spare parts and instruments. MIDTRANS operates all three modes into Syria.
Documents and customs
Clearance stands on documents that describe the cargo exactly. MIDTRANS checks the invoice, packing list, origin certificate and classification against the goods before the shipment departs.
MIDTRANS clears customs itself in Syria and the United Arab Emirates. The same MIDTRANS team that books the freight prepares and files the customs declaration, presents the document set to the authority, follows inspection and settles duties and charges for the account of the importer. Customs clearance is handled in-house in these two markets rather than passed to an outside party. In Egypt, clearance is carried out by licensed Egyptian customs brokers that MIDTRANS appoints and supervises, and the same team follows the file.
An international commercial shipment needs a commercial invoice, a packing list, a transport document and a certificate of origin. The transport document is a bill of lading for sea freight, an air waybill for air freight or a CMR consignment note for road freight. Regulated goods add health, conformity or dangerous goods paperwork. MIDTRANS checks the set against the cargo before departure so the declaration matches what ships.
An HS code is the Harmonized System tariff classification number that identifies a product in customs systems worldwide. Customs authorities use the HS code to set the duty rate, apply taxes and decide whether import permits, standards certificates or restrictions apply. A classification that does not fit the product produces the wrong duty and can hold the consignment. MIDTRANS reviews the classification against the goods description before filing.
A certificate of origin is the document stating the country where goods were produced or manufactured, issued by a chamber of commerce or another authorised body in the exporting country. Customs authorities use the certificate of origin to apply preferential tariff rates under trade agreements, to enforce origin-based restrictions and to verify the invoice. Missing or inconsistent origin documents delay clearance at the port of entry.
Customs delays follow from documents that do not match the cargo: a vague goods description, a classification that does not fit the product, weights or quantities that differ between the invoice and the packing list, a missing certificate of origin, or, for Egypt, an ACID record that disagrees with the shipping documents. MIDTRANS checks these points before departure instead of at the port of entry.
Working with us
A MIDTRANS quotation covers the transport leg and the customs leg together. The route, the cargo detail and the readiness date are the inputs that turn a request into a priced movement.
A freight quotation needs the origin and destination addresses, the freight mode, the commodity description, the gross weight, the volume or the dimensions of each package, the package count and packaging type, the container type for full container loads, the cargo readiness date and the Incoterm. Dangerous goods also need the UN classification. MIDTRANS prices the transport leg and the customs leg from that information.
A quotation request is submitted through the MIDTRANS quote form on the website, by WhatsApp, or by contacting the Dubai or Damascus office directly. MIDTRANS answers with the freight rate, the customs clearance scope and the document requirements for that route. A request that already carries the commodity, weight, volume, origin, destination and readiness date is priced without a second exchange.
Transit time is set by the freight mode, the routing and the customs step at each end. A sea movement runs on the sailing schedule of the vessel plus port handling and clearance, a land movement runs on the trucking distance plus border processing, and an air movement runs on the flight schedule. MIDTRANS confirms the transit time for a specific origin, destination and sailing at quotation.
MIDTRANS shipments are tracked through the tracking page on the MIDTRANS website using the booking or bill of lading reference, and through the MIDTRANS operations desks in Dubai and Damascus. Tracking covers departure from origin, the transport leg, arrival at the destination port or airport, the customs clearance step and the final delivery to the consignee address.
Send the origin, the destination, the commodity, the weight and the volume, and MIDTRANS answers with the freight rate, the customs clearance scope and the document set for that route.
International Shipping & Customs Assistant
