A machinery builder in southern Vietnam packed two units into solid wood crates made by a local carpenter and shipped them to Los Angeles. The crates were sound, the bracing was good, and the paperwork was complete — except for one thing. There was no IPPC mark on the wood and no heat-treatment record behind it. Customs released the cargo. Quarantine did not.
The container was held, the crates were treated on the spot and re-marked, and the delay plus the bill came back to the shipper. The same thing happens weekly with rubberwood pallets out of Thailand.
The rule in one line
Solid wood packaging entering the United States must be treated and must carry a visible IPPC mark. Two conditions, not one: a treatment certificate with no mark on the wood fails, and a mark with no treatment behind it fails as well.
| Item | Requirement | Who provides it |
|---|---|---|
| Crates, pallets, dunnage, bracing timber | Treated and marked, every piece | The packaging supplier |
| Plywood, OSB, particle board | Exempt: processed board is not regulated wood | Nobody, but keep the board spec |
| Heat treatment (HT) | Core temperature held at 56°C for 30 minutes | The treatment facility, with a record |
| Methyl bromide (MB) | Still allowed by some destinations, restricted by others | The treatment facility |
Three places this goes wrong
- The bracing that nobody counts. A loose length of timber nailed across a machine is packaging under the rule, and it needs the mark like the crate does.
- Half the packaging is bought. Pallets arrive from a supplier, the crate is built in-house. Both are checked, and only one of them usually has the mark.
- A mark that cannot be read. Stencilled on a batten that can be removed, faded, or stamped over: in practice it is the same as no mark at all.
Vietnam and Thailand, side by side
- Vietnam. The packaging supply is mature: a crate maker with an IPPC registration number will stamp and document the whole set. The risk sits with in-house carpentry, which is exactly the case above.
- Thailand. Rubberwood pallets are everywhere in the furniture trade. The usual failure is a treatment record that belongs to a different batch — the certificate is real, it just is not for this wood.
It is not the same system as ISF or AMS
ISF and AMS carry manifest data to customs. Wood packaging is a quarantine matter, handled by plant health inspectors. Filling in a perfect ISF does nothing for a crate with no mark, and a treated crate does not fix a late ISF. Two systems, two deadlines, both checked.
Five checks before the container is closed
- List every piece of wood in the load: crate, pallet, dunnage, bracing, skid.
- Look at the mark on each piece, not on one sample.
- Get the treatment certificate and match its date and batch to this shipment.
- Photograph the mark legibly, together with the crate corner and the container number.
- Write the wood packaging declaration into the packing list, so the broker sees it before the vessel sails.
A plain note from the desk: quarantine does not read the invoice. It reads the wood. One missing stamp turns a cleared container into a held one.
Send the packing photos and the packaging supplier's certificate on WhatsApp before the next booking, and we will tell you whether the marks will hold at destination — or whether the crates need to be rebuilt.