Braking systems sit on Brazil’s mandatory INMETRO list. Timelines run three to six months, and the delays are almost always paperwork.
Braking components fall inside Brazil’s mandatory INMETRO scope. That makes certification a gate rather than a differentiator: without it the part does not enter the market, whatever it costs. Typical timelines run three to six months for straightforward parts, and nine to twelve where a factory audit applies — and the delays that actually happen are usually paperwork, not testing.
Step one: confirm the NCM code
- Everything starts with the NCM code for the product.
- If you are not certain the part sits on the mandatory list, settle that before anyone talks about testing.
- Get the code wrong and every step after it has to be redone.
Step two: a Brazilian entity approaches an OCP body
- The certificate holder must be a Brazilian legal entity with a CNPJ.
- An overseas manufacturer has to appoint an importer, a distributor or a legal representative to hold it.
- This step decides whether the process can start at all, so it belongs at the beginning — not after the samples are already sitting in a lab.
Step three: samples to ABNT NBR, and an audit if required
- Test reports must come from an RBC-accredited Brazilian laboratory.
- Where an audit applies, it typically looks at raw-material lot records kept for five years, process capability on critical operations, equipment calibration evidence, and training records in Portuguese.
- Rule updates have added further documentary checks over the years, so confirm the file set against the current checklist rather than reusing an old project file.
The three delays that actually happen
- Technical files not officially notarised in Portuguese.
- INMETRO marks not printed in the specified reflective material.
- A document set copied from a previous project and never checked against the current checklist.
- All three are avoidable before the application is filed. That is the entire argument for treating the paperwork stage as a project in its own right.
What we can and cannot do
- We cannot hold the certificate — the holder has to be a Brazilian entity.
- What we can do is have the technical file pack, Portuguese label templates, traceability records and process data ready in advance, so the file stage is not what holds the project up.
- If Brazil is on your roadmap this year, ask for the file pack at quotation stage rather than after the order.