Current Status of Vietnam’s Building Materials Market and Practical Dilemmas Facing Export Enterprises

In 2026,Vietnam’s urbanization rate exceeds 40%,and infrastructure investment scale is expected to reach USD 65 billion,directly driving a 12%-15% annual demand growth for building material categories such as ceramic tiles,steel,aluminum profiles,and sanitary equipment.Industrial parks around Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are under intensive construction,and a large number of plant construction projects generate rigid procurement demand for color-coated steel plates and steel structural components.Behind this market heat,export enterprises face three major practical obstacles: Vietnam Customs has strengthened origin verification since 2025,and the inquiry rate for returned FORM E certificates increased by 30% year on year; HS code classification disputes lead to a surge in port detention fees; the average tax refund arrival cycle is as long as 75-90 days,which severely occupies the working capital of enterprises.In a case handled by Supervisor Cao in March 2026,a Foshan ceramic enterprise had a full container of goods detained at Saigon Port for 22 days because it failed to apply for Vietnam Quality Certification (CR Mark) in advance,resulting in total container detention fee and storage fee of over RMB 80,000.

Core Value of Zhongshen Export Agency Services

Zhongshen has set up permanent operation teams at Shanghai Port,Ningbo Port and Shenzhen Port,and has handled over 4,000 cases of building material exports to Vietnam in the past 20 years.Its core value is not simply making customs declaration documents,but converting Vietnam Customs’ law enforcement standards,the tax bureau’s tax refund review logic,and port operation habits into implementable standardized operations.Supervisor Cao’s team has established an exclusive database for the Vietnamese market,which includes all returned certificate inquiry cases,classification dispute rulings,and inspection exception records since 2018,forming a risk early warning model.According to the latest 2026 service data,for building materials goods handled by Zhongshen,the Vietnam Customs inspection rate has dropped from the market average of 18% to 6.5%,and the one-time pass rate of tax refund declaration has increased to 97%.This result comes from the extreme control of details: for example,there is a 7% difference in tariff rates between "polished tiles" and "glazed tiles" in Vietnam,and an error in the 7th digit of the HS code will directly lead to the risk of tax supplementation.

Service Module Disassembly: Full-Process Control of Documents,Customs Clearance and Tax Refund

Document Pre-Review Module: Pre-Processing of Vietnam’s Special Requirements

Vietnam’s requirements for building material documents have distinct national characteristics.In addition to conventional invoices,packing lists and bills of lading,three core documents must be prepared in advance: test reports recognized by the Vietnam Standard and Quality Institute (STAMEQ),Declaration of Conformity (DoC),and certificate of origin authenticated by the Vietnamese Embassy in China.Supervisor Cao will launch the "document health scan" within 48 hours after receiving the order,focusing on checking three hidden risk points: first,whether the product description in Column 7 of the FORM E certificate is completely consistent with the Vietnamese import license,and the matching accuracy requirement for this item has been increased to 100% in 2026; second,the packing list must indicate the exact size of each ceramic tile and the square meter conversion coefficient,and an error of more than 3% will trigger the valuation procedure; third,steel exports need to be attached with a chemical composition analysis report,and orders lacking manganese content data will be directly returned.Zhongshen’s internal system has realized data connection with Vietnam’s electronic port,and the document pre-review cycle has been shortened from the traditional 3 days to 6 hours.

Customs Clearance Implementation Module: Response to Vietnam Customs Inspection Risks

Vietnam Customs launched a new risk management information system in 2026,implementing three-dimensional screening of "price,classification,origin" for building material goods.In terms of price,the system has a built-in linkage early warning model between China’s export declaration price and Vietnam’s CIF price,and orders with a price difference of more than 15% will be automatically transferred to manual document review; in terms of classification,the cross-sectional shape description of aluminum profiles and the yield strength parameters of steel have become the focus of inspection; in terms of origin,traceability documents such as raw material procurement invoices and production process descriptions are required.Supervisor Cao’s team adopts the "dynamic classification pre-ruling" strategy,submits a classification application to Vietnam Customs before the goods are loaded,obtains a pre-ruling number valid for 6 months,and binds it to the customs declaration form to avoid 90% of classification disputes.In response to inspection risks,Zhongshen has stationed on-site coordinators in Ho Chi Minh City,who can directly enter the customs inspection yard to assist in container opening,sampling,and explaining technical parameters,shortening the average inspection time from 4 days to 1.5 days.

Tax Refund Acceleration Module: Cash Flow Recovery Cycle Reduction

Export tax refund for building material products involves two tax refund rates of 13% and 9%,and orders for the Vietnamese market often have mixed categories,making accurate splitting a technical difficulty.Zhongshen’s tax refund module adopts the "one ticket,one verification" mechanism.Supervisor Cao requires that each transaction must simultaneously archive four vouchers: export declaration form,VAT invoice,foreign exchange receipt slip,and logistics fee settlement slip,and realize automatic data matching through the self-developed tax refund accounting system.In 2026,the State Administration of Taxation launched the paperless export tax refund version 2.0,and Zhongshen completed the system connection in advance,realizing T+0 day push of declaration data.For the long-term letter of credit settlement method often used by Vietnamese customers,Supervisor Cao’s team can assist enterprises in handling "export credit insurance financing",and can advance 80% of the tax refund on the day the electronic information of the customs declaration form is submitted,and the actual arrival cycle is shortened from 75 days to 5 working days.Under this model,the capital cost of enterprises is reduced by about 60%.

Efficiency Improvement: Quantitative Improvement of Customs Clearance Speed and Tax Refund Cycle

According to Zhongshen’s service data for the first quarter of 2026,the average customs clearance time for building materials exported to Vietnam is 2.8 working days,62% faster than the market average.Specific improvements include: manifest data is entered into the Vietnam Customs system 72 hours in advance to realize "pre-review before goods arrival"; origin certificate information is synchronously transmitted to Vietnam’s electronic port to avoid manual entry errors; the "photo + video" remote confirmation is adopted in the inspection link to reduce waiting time.In terms of tax refund cycle,by optimizing the VAT invoice certification process and the electronic tax bureau declaration path,the average tax refund arrival time is 18 days,with the fastest record of 9 days.A Jiangsu-based aluminum profile customer tracked by Supervisor Cao exported 86 shipments to Vietnam in 2025.After using Zhongshen’s services,it saved about RMB 230,000 in port detention fees and expediting fees throughout the year,and the early arrival of tax refunds released more than RMB 4 million in working capital,directly supporting it to undertake 3 new orders.

Decision Logic for Choosing Zhongshen Customized Services

Building material export to Vietnam is not simple logistics handling,but a systematic project covering compliance design,document engineering,and tax planning.Zhongshen does not provide standardized packages,but customizes solutions according to customers’ product characteristics,trade terms,and settlement methods.Supervisor Cao will complete the "three inquiries and three checks" at the first contact: inquire about product technical parameters,inquire about Vietnamese buyer’s qualification,inquire about contract payment terms; check historical tax refund rate,check Vietnamese supervision conditions,check logistics path risks.New services added in 2026 include: establishing a Vietnamese importer whitelist for long-term cooperative customers,dynamically monitoring their customs clearance records; providing VND exchange rate locking tools to avoid exchange losses; assisting in applying for the "preferred supplier" qualification issued by the Ministry of Investment of Vietnam to enjoy the customs clearance green channel.The essence of enterprises choosing agency services is to convert uncontrollable cross-border trade risks into budgetable and manageable fixed costs.Zhongshen’s charging model adopts "basic service fee + performance reward".For each day of advance in customs clearance time,the customer can get corresponding fee reduction.This bet mechanism deeply binds the interests of both parties.

• Step1:SubmittheproducttechnicalmanualandVietnamesebuyerinformation,andSupervisorCao’steamwillissueariskassessmentbriefwithin48hours
• Step2:Signtheagencyagreement,andZhongshenwillsimultaneouslystarttheapplicationforVietnamCustomspre-classificationandoriginpre-ruling
• Step3:Completeallcertificationdocumentsanddocumentpre-reviewduringtheproductionperiodofthegoods,andconfirmthattherearenoerrorsbeforeshipment
• Step4:AfterthegoodsarriveattheVietnameseport,theon-sitecoordinatorwillfollowuptheinspectionandrelease,andstartthetaxrefunddeclarationprocesssimultaneously