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PART 1: Registering, Estimates and Incoterms
Importing in South Africa can be rather intimidating with all the rules and regulations that need to be compiled with. Whether you have been importing and exporting for a while, or are looking at starting a new venture, there are a few important things that you need to know. We’ll start with the basics.
Registering
The first thing that needs to be established when importing into South Africa is whether you are VAT registered. It is highly recommended that you be VAT registered as you can claim the VAT back as a normal trader. You will also need an importers’ code. You can get this by completing the DA 185 as well as the DA185.4A1 form with SARS. The documents can be downloaded from their website: www.sars.gov.za
Estimating your costs
Once you have decided on the goods to import into South Africa, the next step is to cost the product. This is where Tradestream comes in. We are able to give you a pre-shipment landed cost per item (also known as an estimate), to enable you to make better and more informed buying decisions. The minimum information required for an estimate is the item, unit price, quantity, volume or weight, product description, incoterm, expected port of loading and final destination. Buyers/importers can then make buying decisions based on the estimate of the total landed cost.
Decide on a shipping method
The next step when importing is deciding how to ship to South Africa. There are various shipping methods, namely sea freight, air freight, road freight and rail freight. Sea and air freight are the most common shipping methods when importing into South Africa. Rail freight is often used to transport goods around the country, e.g. to Durban or Johannesburg, as well as containers delivered to the depot. When deciding on a shipping method, the most important factor that comes into play is the time line and the cost. Sea freight from Europe takes around 6 weeks to South Africa and from the Far East around 5 weeks to South Africa. Air Freight takes around 1 week due to clearance, consol flights and customs clearance in South Africa.
Incoterms
Incoterms are very important in international commercial transactions and are a series of pre-defined commercial terms. Incoterms basically specify where and when the risk passes from one party to another and clearly communicates the tasks and costs associated with the transportation and delivery of goods. In part 2 of this article, we touch on Sea freight and Air freight as the most popular shipping methods, where we look at the charges involved when importing into South Africa using sea and air freight.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1480337849307{padding-top: 60px !important;}”][vc_column][stm_icon drawing=”yes” icon_position=”icon_position_left” icon_size=”71″ icon_width=”95″ title_font_size=”14″ title_font_weight=”500″ drawing_icon=”stm-projects-done” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Frubiconshipping.com%2Fincoterms-2010%2F|||” icon_color=”#597f9d” title_color=”#597f9d” text_color=”#597f9d” title=”Please click here to view the full list of Incoterms® 2010″][/vc_column][/vc_row]