Guides / Cost
Payment Terms on a Vietnam Plywood Order
September 21, 2026
Payment terms are part of the price. Ninety days of credit is worth real money, and a thirty percent deposit to a company you cannot verify is a risk with a number attached. Both belong in the comparison, not in the small print.
The three common structures
Telegraphic transfer, deposit and balance. The standard. A deposit starts production, the balance is paid against shipping documents. Common splits are 30 and 70 or 50 and 50 on smaller orders.
Letter of credit. The bank pays against documents that match the credit exactly. It protects both sides, costs fees on both sides and punishes sloppy paperwork. A single wrong word on a bill of lading can stop payment, which is why the document check described in the documents that travel with a plywood container matters more under a letter of credit, not less.
Open account. You pay after delivery, on terms. Mills offer it to buyers with a history, and rarely on a first order.
Tie payments to events, not to dates
The structure that protects you is the one where each payment follows something you can verify:
| Payment | Trigger |
|---|---|
| Deposit | Signed order with the full specification and the approved sample number attached |
| Optional interim | Production photographs or an in line check at an agreed stage |
| Balance | Documents, after an accepted pre shipment inspection report |
That last line is the important one. If the balance falls due before the inspection report is accepted, the inspection is decoration. Write the sequence into the purchase order, as set out in third party inspection.
Before the first payment
Verify the company, not the website:
- Business licence and tax code, and check that the name on them matches the name on the invoice
- Bank account in the company name. A personal account or an account in a third country under another name is a stop sign
- A video call from the factory floor, not from an office
- A reference shipment: ask for a redacted bill of lading from a past export
None of that is unreasonable, and a real exporter produces it in a day.
The fraud that actually happens
The most common loss in this trade is not a bad panel. It is a payment sent to the wrong account.
The pattern: an attacker gets into an email thread, waits for an invoice, and sends a near identical message saying the bank details have changed. The wording is polite, the logo is right and the account is theirs.
Two rules stop it:
- Bank details are verified by voice, on a number you already had, never on a number in the email that announced the change
- Treat any mid order change of bank details as fraud until proven otherwise. Genuine changes are rare and mills expect the check
What to negotiate, and what not to
Worth negotiating: the size of the deposit on a first order, the trigger for the balance, who pays inspection and re inspection, and the remedy when a report fails.
Not worth winning: terms so aggressive that a mid size mill has to fund your order out of its own working capital. A supplier under cash pressure cuts costs somewhere, and the place it cuts is the core or the glue. The price side of that is in what drives the price of Vietnam plywood.
Payment is tied to the other steps of a first order; see the guide to import plywood from Vietnam.
Frequently asked questions
What are normal payment terms for Vietnam plywood?
A telegraphic transfer with a deposit against the order and the balance against shipping documents is the common pattern, often 30 percent and 70 percent. Letters of credit appear on larger orders and with new relationships. Open account happens only after a long history.
Is a deposit safe?
It is an unsecured payment to a company in another country, so it is exactly as safe as the counterparty. Keep it as small as the mill will accept on a first order, tie the balance to documents rather than to promises, and verify the company before you send anything.
Should I use a letter of credit?
It protects both sides and costs bank fees and administration, and it only pays against documents that match exactly. On a first container with a mill you cannot verify, the fee is usually worth it. On a routine repeat order it is often overhead.
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