Guide

How to ship explosives internationally

What has to be settled, and in what order, before a Class 1 consignment moves across a border.

Last reviewed 2026-08-28

Read this as orientation, not as authority

This page summarises a regulatory position for planning purposes. It may contain errors or omissions, it is not legal, safety or regulatory advice, and the underlying rules are amended on cycles of their own. Nothing here states what hansa express holds or is approved for. Confirm the current requirement with the competent authority, or ask us about your actual consignment, before you act on it.

Start with the classification, not the route

The instinct on a new shipment is to ask how it will travel. For Class 1 that question cannot be answered yet, and asking it first is the most common way a project loses several weeks.

What is needed first is the UN number, the proper shipping name, the division and compatibility group, and the net explosive quantity. Those four facts decide which vehicles, vessels and aircraft may carry the goods, what they may travel alongside, how much may move in one unit, which routes are open, and which permits will be needed. Until they are known, every downstream answer is provisional.

They should come from the manufacturer or from the classification approval in writing. A description in a purchase order is not a classification, and a classification remembered from a previous shipment of a similar product is not a classification either.

Establish who has to agree before anything moves

An export licence or authorisation from the country of origin, where the goods or the destination require one.
An import permit or licence in the destination country, usually held by the consignee rather than by the shipper.
Transit permits for every country the consignment passes through. These are regularly the binding constraint, and they are the ones most often forgotten because neither commercial party is located there.
Carrier acceptance — a shipping line, airline or haulier that will take the classification, confirmed against the actual UN entry rather than in principle.
Terminal, port or airport acceptance at each handling point, which is a separate decision from the carrier's and made by a different body.
Storage authorisation for any point where the consignment will rest between legs, since licensed magazine capacity is not something that can be arranged at short notice.

Choose the mode against the classification, not the calendar

Sea is the default for volume. It takes the widest range of Class 1 classifications and the largest quantities, and the cost per unit is the lowest available. Its constraints are port and terminal acceptance, segregation against whatever else is booked on the sailing, and a planning horizon measured in weeks.
Road is the default for regional movement and for the first and last legs of almost everything else. Its constraints are per-unit quantity limits, tunnel restriction codes, approved vehicles and trained drivers, and national routing rules.
Rail suits large, repeatable movements between points that both have compliant rail-served facilities, and it removes the tunnel problem. It is poorly suited to a single time-definite consignment.
Air is for small, urgent consignments of a classification that air will accept. Most explosive divisions are forbidden on passenger aircraft, acceptance varies by carrier and by every state on the routing, and charter is sometimes the only way to construct it.
In practice most international explosives movements are multimodal, which means more than one rulebook applies to the same consignment and the handover points are where the plan needs the most attention.

Packaging, marking and the document set

Packaging for Class 1 is tested and approved to a specified design, and the packing instruction that applies comes from the entry itself. Substituting an equivalent-looking box is not an option, and repacking at an intermediate point can invalidate the basis on which the consignment was accepted.

Marking and labelling must match the classification exactly: UN number, proper shipping name, division and compatibility group labels, and the unit placarded for the mode it is on. Where the mode changes, the placarding changes with it.

The document set varies by mode but has a common core: the transport document or dangerous goods declaration, the packing certificate where a container or vehicle is used, commercial and customs documents, and the licences and permits obtained above. Everything must agree with everything else — the single most productive check before a consignment leaves is that the UN number, proper shipping name, quantity and consignee read identically on every document in the file.

What actually sets the lead time

Not the transit. On a typical international Class 1 movement the sailing or the drive is a small and fairly predictable part of the elapsed time. The variable part is approvals, and the binding constraint is usually a transit country rather than the origin or the destination.

Permit timescales vary from a few working days to several weeks depending on the jurisdiction and the classification, and they do not run in parallel by default — an import permit may be needed before a transit permit can be applied for, and a carrier will not confirm acceptance until it can see what has been granted.

The single most useful thing a shipper can do is disclose the route early, including the intended transit points, rather than only the two ends. That is what allows the permit sequence to be started in the right order instead of discovered in the wrong one.

Common questions

How far in advance should an international explosives shipment be started?

Further ahead than the transit time suggests, because approvals rather than movement set the schedule. Permit timescales range from a few working days to several weeks by jurisdiction, and they often have to run in sequence rather than in parallel. Bring us the route as soon as it is known, even if the cargo details are still being confirmed, so the permit sequence can be started in the right order.

What information is needed to quote an international explosives movement?

The UN number and proper shipping name if known, the division and compatibility group, the net explosive quantity, the packaging details, gross weight and dimensions, the two ends of the lane, any intended transit points, and the target date. If a cargo detail is still open, say so rather than guessing — we would rather tell you what the lane needs than quote against a figure that changes.

Who is responsible for obtaining the import permit?

In most jurisdictions the import permit or licence is held by the consignee, not the shipper, because it is an authorisation to receive and possess rather than to send. That makes it a dependency outside the shipper's direct control, which is why it should be confirmed as held — not as applied for — before the movement is scheduled.

Why do transit countries matter so much?

Because each one applies its own explosives law to goods passing through, and neither the shipper nor the consignee is established there to manage it. Transit permits are commonly the longest lead item on an international Class 1 movement, and they are the item most often left out of an initial plan that names only an origin and a destination.

Can detonators travel with the charges they initiate?

Usually not in the same consignment, and never as an assumption. Compatibility groups B and D are separated by default across ADR, RID and the IMDG Code, with limited exceptions. Where both must arrive together the movement is generally planned as two consignments timed to converge.

Sources and verification

Planning a movement like this?

Send the cargo, the two ends of the lane and the date. If we cannot move it ourselves we will tell you who can — same day.

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