New suspension and steering parts from Dubai for export

A suspension and steering list is the set of parts between the wheel and the car that wear with every kilometre: control arms, ball joints, tie-rod ends, bushes, stabiliser links, coil and leaf springs, wheel hubs and bearings, and the steering rack and pump. UAE customs data show the size of the flow. In 2023 the UAE reported US$201.6 million of suspension and shock-absorber exports under HS 8708.80 and US$74.0 million of steering exports under 8708.94, out of US$3.92 billion for all vehicle parts. The UAE has filed no later year.

Exports are small against the UAE's own buying. The same UN Comtrade table shows US$317.1 million of suspension imports and US$201.6 million of steering imports, so exports were about 64% and 37% of imports, our arithmetic. That suggests Gulf workshops take a large share of this stock themselves. JETRO's 2022 breakdown adds that Japan supplied 52% of the UAE's steering imports and 25% of its suspension and driveshaft imports, so much of what Dubai holds is Japanese in origin.

Buyers abroad describe the list by fleet, not by part. A Hilux and Land Cruiser 70 workshop, an Isuzu truck fleet and a Hiace operator each need the same axle sets many times over. Business Daily put Isuzu at 47.81% of Kenya's 13,583 new vehicles in 2025, and Best Selling Cars Blog's Kenya table for 2024 gave the Land Cruiser 70 16.5% and the Hiace 12.9%. A quote therefore counts parts per axle and per side, because a pair of arms is two lines, not one.

Kenyan reporting ties bad roads to the suspension directly. The Star wrote on 22 July 2019 that potholes can damage vehicle tyres, wheels and suspension, and on 13 January 2020 it reported matatu operators blocking routes onto the Thika Superhighway over the condition of the Kasarani to Mwiki road, citing frequent breakdowns. We found no published figure for how many months a matatu's arms or joints last, so we quote none. The reporting is enough to explain why these lines are bought again and again.

The vehicles that carry the load are working ones. Hiace vans move commuters, while Hilux, Land Cruiser 70 and Isuzu pickups and trucks do the upcountry and mining work. Best Selling Cars Blog's Uganda summary for 2025, which we saw only as a snippet, has the Hilux and Land Cruiser 70 at 49.7% of new sales between them. Our research notes read the Hiace and the Isuzu truck as the clearest trade-size basket for Kenya and Uganda; that is analyst judgement, not a measured share.

Kenya is where the rule bites hardest. Press reports of the 2019 KEBS list of 17 categories of used wear part name ball joints, tie-rod ends, rack ends and bushes, and KEBS's acting managing director said that anything outside the list is legal. We found no current list, so the categories are as reported. New parts are outside the ban but need a KEBS certificate of conformity before shipment, and the duty on these lines is the 10% band, about 32.8% of CIF value with the fee, levy and VAT added, our arithmetic.

Three other rules touch this family. Mauritius prohibits second-hand MacPherson strut assemblies, ball joints, bearings, shock absorbers, springs and torsion bars. Zimbabwe's CBCA notice lists heading 87.08 without a new or used split, once a consignment passes US$1,000 FOB. Saudi Arabia's SASO regulation names suspension parts among the auto parts that need certificates, and the Saudi importer holds them through SABER. A person on WhatsApp checks which of these applies to your list.

Suspension parts are catalogued by position as much as by model: front or rear, upper or lower, left or right, two-wheel or four-wheel drive. A quote built on the model name alone invites a second round of questions. Send the VIN, the build month and the old part number, with a photograph of the part still on the car where you can take one, and say how many vehicles the list covers so the quantities per axle can be checked.

Springs are described by their shape rather than a number alone. For a leaf spring, tell us how many leaves the old pack has and its eye-to-eye length; for a coil spring, the position on the car and the free height if you can measure it. Some models list a standard and a heavy-duty spring, so say how the vehicle is loaded and photograph any tag or paint mark on the old spring.

A steering rack is the one line on this page that carries the steering side. Left-hand-drive Gulf stock holds racks for cars whose wheel sits on the left; a right-hand-drive car in Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe or Mauritius needs the rack built for the other side, with its own part number. We quote that number as a new part from distributors and aftermarket lines, and leave the line off the list where it cannot be had in the quantity you ask. Our page on right-hand-drive buyers lists the other side-specific parts.

Pumps follow the same rule in practice. A pump is matched by engine code and the number on its label, and a rack by steering side, VIN and the number cast on its housing. We do not assume a left-hand-drive part will transfer; we ask for the number and quote against it. If a right-hand number cannot be found new, a person tells you before anything is collected, so no left-hand rack ends up in a right-hand buyer's carton by default.

On a suspension quote, Genuine is the carmaker's own part in its own box. OE-brand is a part from a maker that also supplies the carmaker, sold under its own name. Lemförder and TRW are the chassis and steering names we class as OE-brand. Both belong to the German group ZF, which took a majority holding in Lemförder in 1984 and agreed to buy TRW for US$13.5 billion in 2014. A ZF trade release carried by Road Safety UAE on 28 October 2024 lists Lemförder, Sachs and TRW in its aftermarket range.

555 is the brand of Sankei Industry, a Japanese maker of suspension and steering parts for original-equipment and aftermarket customers, according to its trade listings. Our UAE price notes file 555 with the quality aftermarket names beside CTR and GMB, and we found no source reading it as an OE supplier to a named carmaker, so a 555 line is quoted as Quality aftermarket with the brand and number written on it.

We measured no suspension part in Dubai. The two parts we did price, on 3 November 2026 with 5% VAT included, were a Toyota front pad set and a water pump for the 1GR-FE engine. There genuine cost 1.5 to 1.8 times a Japanese brake brand's pads and 1.7 to 1.9 times the aftermarket pumps. Treat that as a planning guide for arms and joints, never as a quote; a person prices each suspension line on its own number.

Wheel bearings are declared under HS 8482, and that heading is the reason for the question. The UK's Russia common high priority list, last updated on 8 August 2024, names ball, tapered roller, spherical roller and cylindrical roller bearings in its Tier 3B. A US Treasury action in December 2023 designated two Turkish motor-vehicle firms for bearings. Hub units and bearings are ordinary fleet parts for a Hilux or an Isuzu, but the heading draws attention that a coil spring does not.

Our policy is plain. We do not supply Russia, Belarus or any other refused destination, and we do not quote bearings or hubs for goods that will move on to one. A person asks where the vehicles run and who will fit the parts before a bearing line is priced, and an answer that does not hold together ends the quote. That is also why we want the VIN with every hub request.

Bearings sit on the used-parts lists of two buyers too. Kenya's reported 17 categories name bearings, and Mauritius prohibits second-hand ones, so those markets order new. Kenya charges 10% on bearings under 8482.10 and 8482.20, the same band as suspension and steering.

Gas-charged shock absorbers stay out of export quotes. Air carriers can treat a gas-charged damper as a pressurised article and ask for dangerous-goods handling, and the source we found for this is low in confidence, so we leave them off rather than risk a refused booking. Springs, bushes, mounts, stabiliser links, arms and the rest of the suspension are quoted, and your agent still needs to know what is in each box before it books.

Weight and shape drive the pack. Leaf springs are long and heavy, coil springs bulky, bushes and links small and light. Mixed on one pallet they bill at volume rather than weight, so ask your agent which divisor it uses before you decide the load. Leave bushes, joints and links in their sealed bags inside the maker's box; the bag and the box carry the number we quote against, and your agent can check each carton against the packing list.

Send one message per vehicle family, or a list pasted into the chat. For each car give the make, model, year and VIN. Then list each line by position and side, with the quantity, the grade you prefer and the old part number if one shows. Add the country the goods will be imported into and the name of your cargo agent, because Kenya, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia each treat this family differently.

The reply lists each line with its grade, brand and number, and flags any line a distributor cannot supply at your quantity, so you can drop or swap it before anything is collected. A person confirms how to pay in the same chat. Your agent then collects in Dubai against a commercial invoice, a packing list and any certificate your country asks for.