Germany to Syria Shipping

Inland leg

From the works gate to Hamburg, Bremerhaven or the Rhine

German machinery is built inland. On this corridor the sea leg only begins after the piece has crossed the country, and that inland move is the part that has to be engineered. Hamburg and Bremerhaven are the German deep-sea gateways. For the Rhine-Ruhr belt the barge from Duisburg down to the Rhine delta ports is the third option alongside road and rail.

The region sets the mode. Works in Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg feed the ports by road and rail. Works in North Rhine-Westphalia load a barge at Duisburg for a container that has time, or a trailer where it does not. Works in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein run straight to the quay.

For a heavy or over-height piece the inland leg governs the whole routing. Bridge classifications, height restrictions and the route permit issued against the specific vehicle decide which port is reachable at all, and they decide the date the machine can leave the works. We settle that before we look at a vessel, not after. Project and heavy cargo and road freight are planned as one movement.

German export file

ATLAS, the export accompanying document and the exit note

A German export consignment is declared through ATLAS, the German customs IT system, on an Ausfuhranmeldung. The declaration produces the Ausfuhrbegleitdokument, the export accompanying document, which carries the movement reference number and travels physically with the goods to the customs office of exit. When that office confirms the departure, ATLAS issues the Ausgangsvermerk, the exit note the exporter keeps as its proof of export.

German exporters care about the exit note because it is what supports their tax position, and a file that never closes leaves the seller exposed long after the goods have arrived in Syria. We make sure the exit is registered against the right declaration when the container leaves Hamburg or Bremerhaven, and we tell the exporter when it has closed.

The certificate of origin is the Ursprungszeugnis, issued by the local Industrie- und Handelskammer, the chamber of industry and commerce for the district where the exporter sits. It is then legalised for Syria together with the commercial invoice. Our customs clearance in Syria page covers what happens once those papers reach the Syrian office.

Export control

BAFA and the classification the manufacturer already knows

Germany's export control authority is the Bundesamt fur Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle, BAFA, and it licenses dual-use goods leaving the country. On a machinery lane this is not an edge case: machine tools, measuring and control equipment, certain pumps, valves and heat exchangers for process plant, and a long list of chemicals sit inside the control lists.

The classification is the manufacturer's to give, and German machine builders hold it as a matter of routine for their own compliance. We ask for it in writing at enquiry stage together with the end use and the end user, screen the consignee, and only then quote. A booking accepted first and screened afterwards is a container that stops at the exit office.

Where a licence is needed, the licence number belongs on the export declaration and the goods do not move before it is issued. We plan the sailing to that fact and not to the ready date the works gives us.

Two cadences

A capital machine ships once, its spares ship forever

The Germany to Syria lane carries two flows that look alike on a booking screen and behave nothing alike in operation. One is a capital machine that ships once: a press, a filling line, a generator set, a mill section, crated and heavy. The other is the stream of spare parts that a Syrian plant orders against that machine for the rest of its life.

The capital piece is planned from the manufacturer's drawing. We take gross and net weights, the dimensions of each crate, the centre of gravity and the lifting points, and only then decide between a flat rack, an open top, a breakbulk stow or a container that the piece will actually fit. Foundation drawings, anchor sets, control cabinets and erection tools ship on the same bill of lading as the machine they belong to, because a control cabinet that arrives on a later vessel stops the installation as completely as a missing press.

The spares flow needs a different discipline. The invoice description has to name the machine and the manufacturer's part number, not an internal warehouse code, because a Syrian examination cannot value a part described only as a component. We hold a Syria-bound spares consolidation open at the load port and close it when the plant's list is complete, so a single urgent item does not travel alone at capital cost.

Crating and conformity

Solid timber crates, heat treatment and the machine's own paperwork

German machine builders crate in solid timber, and wooden packaging, pallets and dunnage crossing an international border must be heat treated and marked to the ISPM 15 standard. On this corridor that applies to very nearly every capital piece, and an unmarked crate is a problem discovered at the destination rather than at the works.

We confirm the marking before collection and photograph it, along with the case numbers and the packing list that maps each crate to what is inside it. Where the manufacturer packs in cases too large to open at examination, the case list is the document that keeps the container moving.

The machine travels with its own documentation: the declaration of conformity, the conformity marking, the technical file and the operating and maintenance manuals. The Syrian buyer needs them to install and run the plant, and an unambiguous technical description makes the customs valuation straightforward instead of contested. Customs clearance is quoted with the freight on this lane.

Air out of Frankfurt

When a stopped plant cannot wait for a vessel

Frankfurt is Germany's principal air cargo gateway and it is where the urgent end of this lane goes. A Syrian plant with a failed bearing, a burnt control board or a cracked die is losing production every day, and the sea leg plus the relay is not the answer to that problem.

We split such orders deliberately. The item that has stopped the line flies; the rest of the parts list follows in the sea consolidation. The air waybill and the sea bill describe different parts of the same order, each with its own invoice, so neither file is confused with the other at the Syrian office. Air freight is quoted with the onward routing and the delivery point named.