Market Background and Common Difficulties of Imported Art Paint

In the first half of 2026,the value of art paint imported through Shanghai Port increased by 15% year on year,with high-end art paint from Italy and Spain accounting for over 60% of the total.This type of paint,with environmental friendliness and decorative effect as its core selling points,is highly popular in the domestic high-end decoration market,but many traders often encounter obstacles during import.

Ms.Luo,head of a trading company in Hangzhou,faced difficulties importing a batch of Italian art paint at the end of last year: the REACH report provided by the supplier did not clearly indicate the content of SVHC,and the goods were required to undergo supplementary testing by the commodity inspection authority at Shanghai Port after arrival.This not only delayed the delivery schedule by 10 days,but also incurred nearly 30,000 yuan in container detention fees.Similar problems are not isolated cases.Art paint is classified as a fine chemical product,and its import must comply with the regulations of the country of origin,Chinese national standards,and customs supervision requirements simultaneously.Any omission in any link may lead to the risk of cargo return.

Core Role of Zhongshen in Import Agency

As a Shanghai-based enterprise with over 20 years of experience in import agency,Zhongshen has established a full-process service system covering from document pre-audit to subsequent tax refund in response to the characteristics of art paint import.Its core values lie in early intervention to control compliance risks,coordination with port resources to shorten customs clearance cycles,and preventing enterprises from making mistakes due to lack of experience.

Taking Ms.Luo’s case as an example,Ms.He,Head of the Import Department at Zhongshen,contacted her foreign supplier 10 days in advance to review the validity of the REACH report.After identifying the problem,she immediately assisted in supplementing detailed data from a third-party testing institution,and finally enabled the goods to clear customs smoothly,helping Ms.Luo avoid nearly 50,000 yuan in potential losses.

Breakdown of Full-Process Agency for Imported Art Paint

1.Document Pre-audit and Origin Compliance Stage

Document pre-audit for art paint is the first checkpoint for import,and compliance requirements vary greatly for different origins:

• EUorigin(Italy,Spain):CEcertification(latestversionwithinvalidityperiodrequiredin2026)andREACHSVHCtestreport(clearlyindicatingthatthecontentofall191SVHCsislowerthan0.1%)arerequired
• SoutheastAsiaorigin(Thailand,Malaysia):FORMEcertificateoforigin(forpreferentialtariff)andingredientanalysisform(CASnumbermustmatchtheChinesenationalstandarddatabase)arerequired
• Generalrequirements:Chineselabelsmustbemarkedwith"importedpaintrecordnumber","hazardoussubstancelimit"andinstructionforuseinadvance,andfalsepublicitystatementssuchas"medicaluse"and"foodcontact"areprohibited

Key support from Zhongshen: Ms.He’s team will review all documents 15 days in advance.For CE certification from EU suppliers,they will check the qualification of the certification body (certifications from some small institutions are no longer recognized by customs in 2026); for Chinese labels,they will check each item against the national standard GB 18582-2020 to avoid rejection by commodity inspection due to label problems.

2.Port Customs Declaration and Ingredient Testing Stage

Art paint is classified as a "chemical product" under customs supervision,and the following specific requirements should be noted when declaring customs:

Mr.Ye,Specialist of the Customs Declaration Department at Zhongshen,introduced that the sampling rate for art paint at Shanghai Port was increased to 20% in 2026.However,by preparing sample retention in advance and coordinating with the green channel of testing institutions,Zhongshen can shorten the testing cycle from the conventional 7 days to 4 days,avoiding cargo detention.

3.Commodity Inspection Release and Warehousing Connection Stage

The warehousing link after release must meet the storage requirements for chemical products:

• Thewarehousemustbeequippedwithexplosion-proofandventilationfacilities,andthegroundmustbetreatedwithanti-seepagemeasures
• Thegoodsmustberegisteredforwarehousingwithin7days,otherwisecustomscontainerdetentionfeeswillbeincurred
• Samplesmustberetainedfor3monthsforsubsequentrandominspection

Support from Zhongshen: The warehouse in Shanghai Free Trade Zone managed by Supervisor Fan,Manager of the Warehousing Department,has the qualification for chemical product storage and can provide 24-hour warehousing services.At the same time,it will assist customers in completing the registration procedures for customs supervised warehouses to avoid expenses caused by overdue storage.For example,in March 2026,after a batch of Spanish art paint belonging to a Suzhou-based customer was released,Supervisor Fan’s team completed the warehousing on the same day,saving 12,000 yuan in container detention fees.

Case Sharing: How to Avoid Import Risks

At the end of 2025,Ms.Luo’s Hangzhou-based company planned to import a batch of high-end Italian art paint for the decoration project of a domestic five-star hotel.Ms.He from Zhongshen found during document pre-audit that the REACH report provided by the supplier only marked "SVHC content meets requirements",without clearly listing the test data of specific substances.

Ms.He immediately contacted the supplier,assisted in connecting with a third-party testing institution recognized by the EU,and supplemented the detailed test report for 191 SVHCs,all of which were lower than 0.1%.At the same time,for the expression of "environmental protection grade" on the Chinese label,Ms.He’s team revised it to "compliant with GB 18582-2020 standard" against the national standard,avoiding the risk of false publicity.

Finally,the whole process from document pre-audit to release of this batch of goods only took 12 days,8 days shorter than Ms.Luo’s expectation.It successfully caught up with the hotel’s decoration schedule,helping her avoid about 200,000 yuan in breach of contract losses.

Summary: Value of Professional Agency

Compliance requirements for imported art paint continue to be upgraded in 2026.If enterprises import by themselves,they not only need to spend a lot of time learning regulations,but also may face risks such as cargo return and fines due to lack of experience.With over 20 years of industry experience,Zhongshen has established a full-process service system for the import characteristics of art paint:

• Pre-auditdocumentsinadvancetocontrolorigincompliancerisks
• Coordinatewithportresourcestoshortencustomsclearanceandtestingcycles
• Providecompliantwarehousingservicestoavoidlossesinlogisticscosts

For enterprises that want to enter the imported art paint market,choosing a professional agency can not only improve import efficiency,but also effectively reduce compliance risks,which is the key to achieving stable profits.