Germany
Into Germany, the truck beats the ship.
Hotel furniture from Türkiye enters Germany duty-free on an A.TR movement certificate, inside the EU–Türkiye Customs Union — no origin calculation, no EUR.1. By the forwarders' published tables the road leg runs 5–7 days door to door; ONE's 2024 NTX sheet gives Gemlik to Hamburg in 23 days by sea. The entry's real number is import VAT, at the standard rate of 19 per cent and deductible as input tax, and fire performance is quoted against the class the specification names.
We manufacture hotel interiors in Gemlik, Bursa — guestroom casegoods, architectural joinery and upholstery, with soft furnishings and lighting supplied in the same package and installation managed by us on site. For a German project the duty question is already settled: furniture from Türkiye enters duty-free. What actually decides a programme is the road leg, the fire class the specification names, and who files the entry, so those three get the page.
The border, settled
Duty-free on an A.TR
Hotel furniture is industrial goods and moves inside the EU–Türkiye Customs Union on an A.TR movement certificate, raised per consignment, approved by the chamber in Gemlik and vized electronically by Turkish customs. It enters Germany duty-free, wherever the board and the hardware came from.
Free circulation is not origin
An A.TR does not prove the goods are Turkish; it proves they are in free circulation. Where a content rule, a trade-defence exposure or your own onward re-export needs origin, the document is a certificate of origin, and we raise one on request. Ask for origin by name when origin is what you need.
Import VAT is the entry's real number
Duty is zero, so the figure that lands on the entry is Einfuhrumsatzsteuer, German import VAT at the standard rate of 19 per cent. A business importer deducts it as input tax under section 15(1) no. 2 UStG, and a holder of a customs deferment account pays it as late as the 26th day of the second following month under section 21(3a) UStG. (Verified 29 August 2026 against zoll.de and Germany Trade & Invest.)
EUDR from 30 December 2026
The EU deforestation regulation reaches furniture on 30 December 2026. The due-diligence statement is the importer's to lodge, and it cannot be lodged without harvest-plot geolocation for the wood in the product — data that has to come from the manufacturer, so we are building it now. (Verified 5 August 2026 against the Commission's EUDR pages.)
The road leg, in published numbers
By road, 5–7 days door to door
The published transit tables of Turkish forwarders put Germany at 5–7 days from the Marmara region — one table quotes 7–8 — over the Kapıkule crossing and up through the Balkans. The tables are the forwarders' own and undated, and the Kapıkule queue is the single biggest variance, so treat the band as a band.
By sea, on a named sheet
ONE's 2024 published NTX direct transit from Gemlik is 23 days to Hamburg. That is one specific slow loop with Gemlik at the far end; a transhipment routing can be faster, and the transit that goes into your programme comes dated from the forwarder, not from a marketing table.
The Hamburg call is changing
Maersk's SLC Aegean Sea rotation drops Hamburg from week 36 of 2026 and calls Wilhelmshaven instead, first call 6 September 2026, per Maersk's own service notice. Any Gemlik quotation still naming Hamburg as the Maersk discharge port is out of date from September — ours included, if we ever write one.
What the schedule is built on
Containers are loaded in installation sequence and labelled by room number, so the site starts fitting from the first container instead of waiting for the last.
B1 is for the curtains; the chair answers to DIN 66084
A German specification splits where others blur. DIN 4102-1 and its B1 class belong to building products laid or hung over an area: floor coverings, wall linings, textiles such as curtains. Upholstered furniture is not a building product, so no building-authority B1 certificate exists for a chair; the applicable classification is DIN 66084, classes P-a, P-b and P-c, built on the EN 1021 ignition tests and run on the composite as built. Name the class in the specification and the build-up is engineered to meet it, with test evidence produced against the approved composite; substitute the fabric and the evidence lapses. (Verified 29 August 2026, per the published guidance of the accredited testing laboratory Currenta.)
Fire-rated upholstery: how it is actually evidenced →Working language
Correspondence runs in English; Turkish, Arabic and Russian are also working languages on our side. Drawings need no language: send the CAD set and the specification as they are, and the reply comes back in English with the questions numbered.
Who does what at the border
You or your customs agent are the importer of record; we quote DAP to the named place. Union Customs Code article 170(2) requires the declarant to be established in the Union, so the entry legally sits on your side, and we support it with the A.TR, the commercial documents and the answers your broker asks for. We manufacture, export-clear at Gemlik, carry the freight, and manage the installation through to a finished room.
How a German project runs
BOQ and drawings
Your bill of quantities and the architect's drawings, in whatever form they exist.
Standards named up front
Fire class, ignition sources, strength level — fixed before production, because they are build-up decisions.
Model room
Built and approved before the line opens. Eight model rooms are in our showroom in Gemlik.
Production and QC
Under our own production management in Gemlik: machining, veneer, finishing and upholstery in one building.
A.TR and delivery
The certificate raised per consignment, containers sequenced and labelled by room number, DAP to the named place.
Installation
Managed by us on site, through to the punch list.
Common questions
- Do we need a EUR.1 for Germany?
- No. For any EU member state the instrument is an A.TR movement certificate: hotel furniture is industrial goods and moves duty-free inside the EU–Türkiye Customs Union. EUR.1 is for FTA partners outside the Customs Union, such as the UK and the Western Balkans.
- What duty will we pay?
- None — the A.TR settles it. The number that does land at entry is import VAT, at the standard rate of 19 per cent, deductible as input tax by a business importer and payable as late as the 26th of the second following month on a customs deferment account. Your broker will know both mechanics by name.
- How long is the freight leg?
- By road, the forwarders' published tables give 5–7 days door to door from the Marmara region, subject to the Kapıkule queue. By sea, ONE's 2024 published NTX sheet gives Gemlik to Hamburg in 23 days. The number that goes into your programme comes dated from the forwarder for that sailing.
- Can you meet DIN 66084 P-a?
- Name it in the specification and the build-up is engineered to meet it, with test evidence produced against the approved composite. Fire performance belongs to the build-up — this foam, this interliner, this fabric — not to the company, so it is decided at material approval and lapses if the fabric is substituted.
- What are your lead times?
- Set per project against scope and materials, and fixed in the offer together with the delivery date.
Send the BOQ.
A bill of quantities or a drawing set is enough to start. We come back with the scope we cover, the standards we would specify against, and what the first room takes to build.