Surat is one of the densest industrial cities in western India, and the plywood demand that flows out of it is unusually varied. On one shift, a packer in Sachin is building a crate for a synthetic-fabric loom heading to Africa. On the next, a fabricator in Hazira is bracing a 12-tonne pressure vessel for ocean freight out of Hazira Port. A few kilometres away, a textile machinery exporter in Pandesara needs ISPM-15 pallets stacked four-high inside a 40-foot container. The Cochin Wood group has been making packing-grade plywood for exactly this kind of mixed-load industrial city since 1986, and this note explains what we ship to Surat, how we route it, and how to decide what your line actually needs.
The Surat industrial picture
Surat does not run on a single industry. Three large clusters drive packing-plywood consumption, and each one buys a slightly different specification.
Hazira industrial area
Hazira is the heavy end of the city. Reliance, L&T Heavy Engineering, Essar Steel (now ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel), ONGC and Shell run plants along the Hazira coast, and the supporting ecosystem of fabricators, valve makers, structural shops and shipyard contractors is where most of Surat's export-crate volume originates. Loads here are heavy and dimensionally awkward — reactors, heat exchangers, distillation columns, large skid packages, drilling equipment. Plywood for this segment has to take fastener pull-out, survive monsoon staging at the port, and not delaminate when the crate is repositioned three or four times before stuffing.
Sachin and Pandesara GIDC
South of the city, the Sachin and Pandesara GIDC estates are dominated by synthetic textile mills, dyeing and processing units, and the textile-machinery and chemical units that supply them. Crating here is lighter in mass but high in count — loom parts, jacquard heads, rapier assemblies, spare modules — and the buyers want consistent thickness and clean edges because crates are stacked and rolled inside the container.
The diamond belt — Mahidharpura, Varachha, Katargam, SDB
Surat polishes roughly 90% of the world's diamonds, and the cluster around Mahidharpura, Varachha, Katargam and the Surat Diamond Bourse runs a parallel demand for cleanroom-grade pallets, machinery crates for laser cutters and planning equipment, and secure containerised flooring for high-value transit. Volumes per crate are small, but specification discipline is tight.
Hazira Port and the export gateway
Adani Hazira and the Essar Hazira terminal handle a meaningful share of western India's project cargo and break-bulk. Anything moving through these gates touches a wooden crate, a pallet, or a piece of dunnage at some point. That is where most of our Surat freight ends up.
What we ship to Surat
We supply three product families to the city, plus sawn timber where the fabricator wants to build runners and skids in-house.
Packing-grade plywood
This is the workhorse for Sachin, Pandesara and the lighter Hazira loads. We make it in the standard range — 6mm, 8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 15mm, 16mm and 18mm — on 8x4 sheets, with rubberwood and commercial hardwood cores. Density and glue line are tuned for crate building: the sheet has to hold a 50mm nail without splitting, take a screw at the edge, and survive a Mumbai monsoon transit without the face veneer lifting.
Okoume-faced plywood
Okoume is a face-veneer option on our packing and BWR grades, and it earns its place on the high-end Surat loads — pharmaceutical machinery from the chemical-zone clients, precision textile heads, and any consignment where the crate itself will be photographed for the consignee. The face is smooth enough to stencil cleanly, and it ages better in tropical port staging than commercial faces.
Crates and packing cases
For fabricators who would rather buy a finished crate than build one, we supply knock-down and assembled cases sized to the load. Typical Surat sizes start at 1200x800 for textile-machinery sub-assemblies and run to custom 6000x2400 cases for Hazira project cargo. Sawn-timber runners — jackwood for the heavier loads, rubberwood for the lighter — are dimensioned to the truck and the container floor.
Pallets and container flooring
Standard four-way entry pallets at 1200x1000 and 1100x1100 are the default for textile machinery and diamond-belt transit. For project cargo through Hazira Port, we ship 18mm packing-grade sheets cut to container-floor dimensions for one-trip dunnage — a common spec for skids that need to slide cleanly during stuffing.
Kochi-to-Surat logistics
Surat sits about 1,700 km from Kochi by road via Mumbai, and the trucking lane is one of the better-developed corridors on the west coast. A 32-foot single-axle covered truck typically clears Kochi to Surat in 4 to 5 days door-to-door, depending on the Mumbai bypass and the monsoon. A 22-foot truck moves faster on smaller orders. For larger, recurring volumes — full-container parcels destined for re-export — we also route via Cochin Port and the Mundra/Hazira coastal shipping leg, which can be more economical for 20-tonne-plus consignments and removes road handling.
| Route | Mode | Typical transit | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kochi – Surat direct | 32-ft road truck | 4 – 5 days | Full truck, single drop |
| Kochi – Mumbai – Surat | 22-ft / part-load | 5 – 7 days | Smaller orders, multi-drop |
| Cochin Port – Hazira Port | Coastal shipping | 7 – 10 days | Heavy recurring volumes |
All rates we quote are ex-factory; GST and transport are billed separately so the buyer keeps visibility on the freight line.
Decision rules — which grade for which Surat load
The choice between packing grade, okoume-faced and shuttering ply is a question of load weight, journey length and what the crate is signalling to the consignee.
- Packing grade, commercial face, 8 – 12mm — default for Sachin and Pandesara textile-machinery crates, diamond-belt machinery transit, and any sub-3-tonne load with a short ocean leg.
- Packing grade, 15 – 18mm — Hazira project cargo, heavy fabrication, anything that needs a structural deck or container floor. 18mm is the workhorse for cases above 5 tonnes.
- Okoume-faced — pharmaceutical and precision-machinery exports from the chemical zone, premium textile heads, anything where the crate face will be inspected at destination.
- Shuttering ply — not a crating product. We supply it to Surat construction projects where the customer also runs a packing line, and want one vendor for both.
For most first-time Surat buyers, we recommend starting with a trial truck of 12mm and 18mm packing grade and adjusting from there once your line foreman sees how it nails and edges.
FAQ
What is the minimum order you ship to Surat?
We prefer full-truck loads — a 32-foot truck holds roughly 28 – 30 tonnes of mixed plywood — because the freight economics are clean. For trial orders and smaller buyers, we consolidate with other Gujarat parcels on a 22-foot truck. Single-pallet orders are not our model.
Can you supply ISPM-15 stamped pallets and crates?
Yes. Pallets and crates for export through Hazira Port can be heat-treated and ISPM-15 stamped at our packing partners. We need consignee-country and dimensions at the quotation stage so the stamp is valid for the destination.
How do you handle thickness tolerance for fabricators who CNC-cut their crates?
Our packing grade is dimensioned at face value above 12mm and the trade-standard "11+" and "17+" tolerance below. Fabricators in Pandesara who run CNC nesting lines usually ask for a fixed-thickness batch — we accommodate that on order sizes of one truck or more, and it gets noted on the PI.
Get a quote for Surat
If you are running a packing line in Hazira, Sachin, Pandesara, the diamond belt, or anywhere else in the Surat industrial area, we can quote a delivered price within a working day. Share your thickness, sheet size, monthly volume and delivery PIN code and we will come back with an ex-factory rate, the freight estimate to Surat, and a transit window. Request a quote or browse the resource hub for spec sheets, grade comparisons, and crating guides used by our Surat buyers.