Steel export to Iraq — ports, documents, transit time

Two customs territories, one country

An Iraqi order has to state which authority will clear it before anything else is discussed. The Kurdistan Region administers its own customs at Ibrahim Khalil and the federal government administers the rest, and the documents, the duty and the inspection regime differ between them.

For Erbil, Duhok and Sulaymaniyah, goods cross overland at Habur/Ibrahim Khalil after a road run of roughly three to five days from Dilovası. For Baghdad, Basra and the south, the route is either the long overland leg through federal crossings or sea to Umm Qasr via the Gulf, at roughly fifteen to twenty days.

Quoting a single delivered price for Iraq without naming the crossing is how orders go wrong.

Conformity certificate before shipment, not after

Federal Iraq operates a pre-shipment conformity programme: the consignment is inspected and a certificate of conformity issued in the country of export, and material arriving without it faces delay, penalty or rejection at the border. The inspection is arranged before loading, against the standard named in the contract.

That single requirement drives the lead time on an Iraqi order more than production does. We build the inspection window into the schedule and name the standard on the proforma, so the certificate matches what actually ships rather than what was originally quoted.

• Name the standard on the purchase order — EN, ASTM or an Iraqi specification — because the certificate is issued against it.
• Changes to size or grade after inspection invalidate the certificate; a re-inspection costs a week.
• The Kurdistan Region applies its own regime; confirm which one applies before booking the inspection.
• Mill certificates to EN 10204 3.1 are supplied with every consignment regardless of the inspection route.

Payment and the practical realities of the route

Letters of credit through Iraqi banks are workable and slow; advance payment or a mix of advance and balance against documents is more common on trade-sized orders. Whichever is used, the terms should be fixed before the conformity inspection is booked, because an inspection against an unconfirmed order is money spent on a shipment that may not move.

On the road leg, transit time varies with border queues rather than with distance, and a three-day run can become six in a busy week. For project material with a fixed installation date we plan the delivery to arrive early and stage it locally rather than timing it to the day.

What moves well into Iraq

• Sandwich panel and trapezoidal sheet for warehouses, poultry houses and labour accommodation.
• Hollow sections, purlins and light frames for pre-engineered buildings.
• Galvanized pipe for water and structural use, in bundled truck loads.
• Rebar-adjacent structural sections and plate for fabrication shops in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah.
• Guardrail systems and posts for road contracts.