How to import car parts from Dubai to DR Congo (Kinshasa)

Kinshasa's garages and parts dealers buy the whole repair range: filters, brake pads and shoes, shock absorbers, steering and suspension joints, water pumps and radiators, gasket and timing sets, lamps and body panels. The DR Congo checks those imports before they sail. The US Commerce Department's guide, last published in February 2026, names Bureau Veritas, through its BIVAC unit, as the authorised pre-shipment inspector for imports worth USD 2,500 or more, under an agreement with the customs directorate, the DGDA, and the OCC, the Office Congolais de Contrôle.

The inspection checks that quality, quantity and value match the pro forma invoice and meet international standards. The exporter gives BIVAC an invoice describing the goods in detail and a statement accepting inspection. After verification, BIVAC issues a certificate of validation carrying the supplier's invoice number, the bill of lading number, the container count, the import licence number and the confirmed quantity, and that certificate fixes the CIF value, which the customs directorate cannot change afterwards.

We found no Congolese rule on second-hand vehicle parts; our research turned up only a 2017 decree on imported vehicles, and Kinshasa's car sellers, the ACP news agency reported, sell without any warranty. Our quotes for the DR Congo are new parts only, each in its maker's box with a brand and part number that the BIVAC inspector can match line by line to the invoice under inspection.

The US guide gives the DR Congo's applied customs duty as running from 5% on necessities to 20% on finished products, with luxury goods charged more, and VAT at 16% on most imports. It prints no rate for vehicle parts heading by heading, so this page does not either. Your clearing agent reads the rate for each HS code from the current tariff, and the CIF value on the BIVAC certificate is the base the duty is worked out on.

The OCC charges 2% of the FOB value on inspected imports, the same guide says, and pays BIVAC 0.75% of FOB out of it for the inspection. Imports below USD 2,500 FOB are exempt from pre-shipment inspection, but the bank licence, the clearing agent and the freight cost the same whatever the order's size, so a container of filters and suspension parts carries those costs far more lightly than a carton.

The order of steps matters in the DR Congo. The importer first takes our invoice to an authorised commercial bank to obtain an import licence, then submits the licence to BIVAC, which gives it a code and passes it to its office in the exporting country. Only then is the inspection booked. Pre-customs formalities at Kinshasa, Matadi, Boma, Lubumbashi, Goma and Kisangani run on the GUICE electronic single window, the US guide adds.

The OCC and the DGDA require every document in French. We quote and answer on WhatsApp in English, and on request we write the commercial invoice and packing list in French; ask for it when you send the list, and pass on any wording your Kinshasa clearing agent needs. Part numbers, HS codes, quantities and values read the same in both languages, which is why every one of our invoice lines carries all four.

The rest of the file is ordinary. The Dubai Chamber's certificate of origin, which the US guide says is often requested, names the country where each part was made, such as Japan, Korea or Germany, not the UAE. Your agent supplies the bill of lading or air waybill, whose number goes on the BIVAC certificate, and the guide also lists an insurance certificate among the documents customs expects to see.

Your cargo agent collects the packed order in Dubai and chooses the route. By sea the gateway is Matadi, the country's chief port, on the Congo River 148 km from its mouth. The river limits it: the port's maximum draft is 8.2 metres, so larger ships transfer cargo at Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo, and work on a deep-sea port at Banana, on the coast, began in 2022. From Matadi the main road crosses the Matadi Bridge, and a 366 km railway runs to Kinshasa.

Air suits compact, urgent lines such as sensors, gasket kits and lamps. We give no transit times or freight figures for the DR Congo, because we found none we would stand behind, and sea freight from Jebel Ali has depended in 2026 on the Strait of Hormuz, where container traffic was close to a standstill in early September. Ask your agent which UAE port its sailing leaves from and whether it calls at Pointe-Noire on the way.

We do not quote for the eastern provinces. M23 rebels announced the capture of Goma on 27 January 2025 and took Bukavu by mid-February; The EastAfrican reported Goma airport and many banks in the captured areas still closed in October 2025, and a Uganda Revenue Authority memo reported that March had halted clearance of goods bound for Goma and Bukavu. Orders for North or South Kivu are refused, whichever corridor an agent proposes.

A person confirms how to pay on WhatsApp once the quote is agreed. In the DR Congo payment and paperwork are tied together: the bank that issues the import licence works from our invoice, and BIVAC then checks the goods against it, so the pro forma has to be final before any money moves. Ask for it early, check the importer's name, the totals and the HS codes, and give your bank and your clearing agent the same copy.

Kinshasa's car trade has felt a cash squeeze. A seller told ACP in January 2024 that money no longer circulates as before, and daily sales at the points the agency surveyed had halved, from four vehicles to two. Plan the payment around your bank's timetable for the licence, and treat any message that changes bank details, from a new number, an email or a go-between, as false until it is confirmed in the chat you opened from this page.

The DR Congo drives on the right, with left-hand-drive cars under its road code, and Kinshasa's imports come from several markets. A seller told ACP his stock came from Dubai and Europe, and the agency's report also names the US, Asia and Japan; a 2023 Le360 report found resale points on Boulevard Triomphal and Boulevard Sendwe selling cars straight from Belgium, France and the US. A Gulf-specification lamp, bumper or mirror fits a car first sold in the Gulf.

The other origins need the VIN. A European or US-market version of the same model can carry different lamps, bumpers, cooling parts and emissions sensors from the Gulf one, and right-hand-drive vehicles do appear in the DR Congo, mostly reported in the east, where sources disagree on the rule. Send the VIN for every body, lighting and steering line, and we quote the part number that matches the market the car was first built for.

No public source breaks the Congolese fleet down by make, and the DR Congo does not report its parts imports reliably to UN Comtrade, so the UAE's side is the best measure. The UAE reported USD 38.5 million of vehicle-part exports to the DR Congo in 2023, 98.6% of it re-exports, which made the country its 22nd-largest parts destination and its largest in Central Africa. ACP's January 2024 report cites more than 400,000 vehicles of all categories in Kinshasa as long ago as 2017.

When a Kinshasa car was first sold in the Gulf, the matching new parts sit on UAE distributors' shelves, and we quote its filters, brake and suspension parts, cooling parts and lamps by VIN. European and American cars are quoted by part number where a UAE line carries the part, and the person quoting says so plainly when none does. Japanese-market cars are checked for steering side and market before anything side-specific is priced.

For a trader restocking a Kinshasa shop, the grade decides the margin. On 3 November 2026 Toyota's genuine water pump for the 1GR-FE V6, part 16100-39456, cost AED 397 on Dubai shelves including VAT, while pumps from GMB and NPW, two aftermarket makers, cost AED 229 and AED 214. We quote quality aftermarket and OE-brand first and price genuine on any line you ask for, so one list can carry two grades of the same part.

We take your list, match each line to the VIN or the old part number, source it across UAE distributors and aftermarket ranges, and quote it with the grade and brand named. For BIVAC we supply the detailed invoice the inspector works from; your agent books the inspection itself, and its cost is not in our quote. Then we pack to your agent's instructions for sea or air and hand the order over in Dubai.

Your side starts at the bank. The importer obtains the licence, has the clearing agent put any other papers into French, files through the single window, and pays duty, VAT and the OCC fee. Your agent books the freight to Matadi or Kinshasa and, after the load leaves, passes us the UAE exit papers, without which an export collected in Dubai is charged 5% UAE VAT.