Production lines for Tanzanian manufacturers — supplied, installed, and supported.
CISH delivers complete production lines to Tanzanian manufacturers — sunflower oil pressing and refining, grain milling, and building-materials forming — sourced from China, installed and commissioned in Tanzania, and kept running with spare parts on our own China–Africa supply channel.
The most active manufacturing market we serve.
- Chinese food & beverage machinery imports grew 34.9% in 2024 — and grain-milling equipment (HS 8437) grew 68.4% to US$12.5M, the strongest milling signal in any market we serve. UN Comtrade, 2024 2024 data
- Vessel discharge time at Dar es Salaam has been cut from around 300 hours to under 28 — as stated by the terminal operator following the port concession. Terminal operator statement, 2025 — operator-stated figure
Edible oil is a national priority. Tanzania is Africa's second-largest sunflower producer — sunflower is about 35% of national oilseed output — and edible oil is a standing import-substitution priority.
Where Tanzanian demand actually is.
1 · Sunflower oil — pressing and refining
Cleaning, dehulling, pressing — and the refining train: degumming, neutralising, bleaching, deodorising. Refining is where know-how is genuinely scarce in Tanzania, and where we add the most value: we commission to output and train your team on the full process.
Agricultural processing →2 · Grain milling
Maize and wheat milling lines in the 30–240 tpd class. Milling equipment imports grew 68.4% in 2024 2024 · UN Comtrade — the strongest signal of our six core markets.
Milling lines →3 · Building-materials forming
Block, brick, and dry-mix forming plants — Tanzania's US$14.8M forming market is the largest of our six core markets, backed by the national housing programme and NHC pipeline. Forming plant only: we do not supply crushing or screening.
Building materials →Also active in Tanzania: filling & packaging and plastics processing (US$31.3M of 2024 imports) — see plastics & packaging.
How parts and people reach your floor.
Parts: your part joins our consolidated China–Africa channel — the same movements that carry our continuous equipment trade — shipping into Dar es Salaam, with clearance handled as routine, not as a first-time puzzle. Wear-part kits are specified and priced when you buy the line; common wear items are buffer-stocked in Johannesburg. How the channel works →
People: installation and commissioning are delivered by CISH engineers mobilised from Johannesburg, working with local crews. Day-to-day support runs through our engineers and appointed local agents as the Tanzanian network grows — we describe what exists today honestly, and it grows with every line we hand over.
Remote first: most stoppages are diagnosed remotely against your line's documentation, so the right part and the right person travel once, not twice.
Delivered work: this support model is proven on real lines — a maize milling plant and a hybrid bottling line among them, commissioned from our Johannesburg base. Case studies with numbers →
| Budget bands — Tanzania | |
|---|---|
| Entry food / packaging line (new) | US$150k–400k equipment |
| Mid oilseed / milling line (new) | US$400k–900k equipment |
| Building-materials forming (new) | US$700k–1.5M equipment |
| Upgrade / recovery of existing line | US$60k–250k |
| Landed & installed factor | ×1.25–1.45 on equipment price |
Equipment is typically only 35–55% of total project cost. Why →
Seven stages, Dar es Salaam specifics included.
Consult
Free 30-min call.
Feasibility
Capacity, layout, budget band for your site.
Design
Specification sized to your crop and market.
Source & Build
Factories we buy from weekly; tested before shipping.
Install
Via Dar es Salaam; duty confirmed at quote, in writing.
Commission
Run to agreed output on your product.
Maintain
Training, wear-part kit, parts on the channel.
What we don't do in Tanzania — said plainly: we don't supply mining equipment of any kind. We don't provide financing. We don't pre-quote tariff rates — duty is confirmed line-by-line at quotation. And we won't tell you power is a solved problem: we specify each line for the power that actually reaches your site, standby included where it should be.
What a sunflower oil or maize line costs in Tanzania.
Tanzanian buyers ask in Swahili — bei ya mashine ya kusaga (milling), kukamua (pressing), kukoboa (dehulling) — and often by Chinese model number ("namba 95, 120, 140"). The honest answer is a band, not a namba: a 20 tpd sunflower pressing plant runs US$150–400k in equipment and sells crude to refiners; add the refining train at US$400–900k (50 tpd) and you are in the bottled-oil business, where the margin and the scarce know-how both live. Maize milling runs US$250–400k at 30 t/day and US$700k–1.1M at 60 t/day, mill-plus-packaging.
Apply ×1.25–1.45 landed-and-installed through Dar es Salaam — and note the 2026 change most sites haven't caught up with: the capital-goods VAT deferment was made permanent by the Finance Act 2026, and the TBS PVoC certificate must exist before the ship sails. Both are covered properly in the Tanzania import guide.
All figures USD; seed supply — 5,000–6,000 tonnes a season within trucking distance for a 20 tpd press — decides the project more than the machine price does.
Asked by Tanzanian manufacturers.
Kwa kiwanda kamili — si mashine moja tu: tani 30 kwa siku US$250,000–400,000; tani 60 kwa siku US$700,000–1,100,000 (mashine na ufungashaji). Ongeza takriban 25–45% kwa usafirishaji na usimikaji kupitia Dar es Salaam. Bei zote kwa dola — soma zaidi kwenye mwongozo wa kusaga.
Tunauza mistari kamili ya kukamua na kusafisha (kuanzia US$150,000 kwa tani 20 kwa siku) pamoja na usimikaji, mafunzo na huduma — yote ndani ya mkataba mmoja. Kwa mashine ndogo za "namba 95/120/140", wauzaji wa ndani wanahudumia soko hilo vizuri; sisi tunaanzia pale kiwanda kinapoanzia. Maelezo: mwongozo wa mafuta ya alizeti.
Pressing-only lines typically sit in the US$150k–400k equipment band; adding the refining train (degumming, neutralising, bleaching, deodorising) moves most projects into US$400k–900k. Landed and installed, budget ×1.25–1.45 on equipment. A free feasibility call turns that into a band for your throughput.
On our own consolidated China–Africa channel into Dar es Salaam, then to site. Wear-part kits are specified at purchase and common items buffer-stocked in Johannesburg. Details →
Yes — commissioning to an agreed output on your crop, with your operators trained during run-up, is the core of the offer. Refining know-how is exactly where Tanzanian oil projects stall, and exactly what we bring.
We confirm current tariff treatment line-by-line at quotation and state the duty assumptions in writing. Blanket rates found online are unreliable.
No — no crushing, screening, milling or mine-site machinery. Manufacturing lines only.
No. We publish honest budget bands and support your bank's due diligence with a written feasibility — but the funding is between you and your bank.
Scenarios in Tanzania: which row are you?
The situations we are asked about most in Tanzania, with the realistic tier, the 2026 USD band and the first question that decides the project. The sixteen-country view is at production lines in Africa by country and line.
| Scenario | Line and first tier | The first question we ask | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunflower oil pressing | 20 t/day · US$150–400k; refining 50 t/day 400–900k | Seed supply season and oilcake off-take | Guide |
| Maize milling | 30 t/day · US$250–400k; 60 t/day 700k–1.1M | Meal you can sell per month | Guide |
| Blocks and forming plants | Semi-automatic 120–450k landed; forming plant 700k–1.5M | Cement price and distribution | Guide |
| Bottled water | 2,000–4,000 bph · US$150–400k | Source water analysis | Guide |
| A stopped line | Recovery · US$60–250k | Drawings and controls access | Guide |
Bands are the same ones published on this page and in the sizing guides; machinery is priced in US dollars and the local-currency cost moves with the exchange rate.
Primary sources
- TRA — Value Added Tax (VAT) Deferment on imported capital goods
- TRA — The Finance Act, 2026 (Act Supplement No. 2, 30 June 2026)
- TBS — Imports and Export Control: Pre-shipment Verification of Conformity (PVoC)
- Dar es Salaam terminal operator — press release on record vessel performance (July 2026)
- EAC Secretariat — Press release on the four-band Common External Tariff (CET 2022 bands)
- Ministry of Finance Tanzania — Budget Speech 2026/2027 (publication page)
Planning a line in Tanzania?
Tell us the product and the volume. A CISH engineer replies within two working days with a feasibility view.