Nepal

Nepal is landlocked between India and China, and it is the only market EMM supplies where the overland route from China is a genuine commercial alternative to sea freight. Most cargo still comes by sea to Kolkata or Haldia and then by rail or road through the Indian border at Birgunj or Biratnagar, which means two customs processes and a transit agreement. But the Rasuwagadhi and Tatopani crossings from Tibet put the Chinese factory within road distance, and for the right consignment - time-critical, moderate weight, high value - that route can be faster and cheaper. We price both and tell you which wins.

Hydropower, and processing what grows

Hydropower is the defining national industry, with the Himalayan river gradients giving Nepal exceptional potential and a long pipeline of run-of-river projects. These buy penstock fabrication, gates and valves, pumps, cranage, cable and switchgear, tunnelling and construction plant, welding and site workshop equipment. Agro-processing is the broad base: rice and maize milling, cardamom drying and grading, tea processing in Ilam, coffee, ginger and turmeric processing, oil expelling, and dairy and chilling plant across the Terai and the hills. Handicraft and carpet manufacture buys washing, drying, shearing and finishing equipment. Cement and construction materials have grown strongly, taking crushing, grinding, kiln and packing plant. Herbal and essential oil extraction from the mid-hills is a small but genuine speciality.

Altitude is the specification issue

Kathmandu sits at 1,400 m, most hill districts are higher, and project sites can be well above 2,500 m. Naturally aspirated diesel engines and air compressors lose a meaningful share of rated output with altitude, and equipment specified at sea level quietly underperforms for its entire life. We derate for the actual site elevation as standard. Access roads to hill sites are narrow and steep, so we check dimensions and consider modular shipping before quoting anything large. Plants here run 400 V three phase, 50 Hz, with 230 V single phase alongside.

Give us the site elevation and the road access, and ask us to compare the Kolkata route against the Tibet route.