Used Trucks for Sale in Africa

Why Chinese Trucks Dominate the Africa Truck Market

Across the Africa truck market, used Chinese heavy trucks have become the default choice for construction, mining and logistics fleets — and the reasons are practical, not promotional.

• Price. A used HOWO or SHACMAN 6×4 lands at a fraction of an equivalent Japanese or European unit at the same age. For a contractor in Ghana or Zambia building a fleet of five to ten trucks, that gap decides the deal.
• On-the-ground parts network. The WD615 (HOWO) and WP10 (SHACMAN) engines are everywhere. Importers in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, Accra and Dar es Salaam stock filters, head gaskets, injectors and 12R22.5 tyres off the shelf. When a truck is your daily revenue, you cannot wait three months for a part.
• RHD and LHD from one yard. Most Chinese trucks leave the factory left-hand drive. We do in-house RHD conversion — steering column, pedal box, instrument cluster — so the same batch of trucks supplies right-hand-drive South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia as well as left-hand-drive Nigeria and Ghana.
• Durability on African roads. Reinforced chassis and heavy-duty suspension built for China's rural construction boom translate directly to laterite roads in Uganda, murram tracks in Tanzania and the haul roads of the Copperbelt.

Whether you are buying trucks for Africa as a single unit or a full container, this page links every market hub and product range we run for the continent.

RHD or LHD? The Driving-Side Split Across Africa

The single most important spec question for any truck in Africa is which side it drives on. Get this wrong and the unit cannot be registered. The split runs broadly along colonial trade lines: East and Southern Africa drive on the left and need right-hand-drive (RHD) trucks; most of West Africa drives on the right and uses left-hand-drive (LHD).

Because we convert in-house, you are not limited by what came off the production line. Confirm your drive side when you enquire, and ask for photos of the converted steering column and dashboard before you pay — a proper conversion is mechanical, not cosmetic. For the full picture, read our guide to RHD vs LHD truck conversion.

Which Chinese Brands and Body Types Suit Africa

Not every Chinese truck is the right tool for African work. These are the brands and configurations that actually perform here:

• HOWO (Sinotruk). The longest African track record and the widest parts supply. The WD615.47 371hp engine is what most local mechanics know best. Strong across dump, tractor and tanker. See HOWO 371 and HOWO A7.
• SHACMAN (Shaanxi). WP10.380E3 engine with FAST gearbox — slightly newer design, popular with buyers running mixed fleets. The F3000 and X3000 are the workhorses.
• HOHAN, FAW, Foton, Dongfeng, Sinotruk. Solid value alternatives, particularly for cargo and lighter-duty work.

By body type, the dump truck (tipper) is by far the most-requested category — 6×4 for road construction, 8×4 for mining and quarrying. After that come tractor trucks for the long-haul corridors (Mombasa–Nairobi–Kampala, Dar es Salaam–Lusaka), and tanker trucks for fuel and water haulage. Many African buyers arrive searching for an Isuzu FVZ or a Hino tipper; we do not stock those Japanese brands, but our HOWO and SHACMAN units sit at the same payload class for less money. For an honest side-by-side, read Isuzu vs Chinese trucks and the best Chinese truck brands for Africa.

The Seven Markets We Cover, Port by Port

We run a dedicated hub for each of our seven core African markets. Each accounts for the local driving side, port and the truck types that move best there.

• South Africa — RHD, Durban (plus East London, Cape Town). Mining 8×4 dump trucks and RHD tractor units for long-haul; NRCS documentation handled. Trucks for sale in South Africa.
• Kenya — RHD, Mombasa. Road-damage rules favour 6×4 over 8×4 on public roads; HOWO and SHACMAN tippers for construction. Trucks for sale in Kenya.
• Nigeria — LHD, Apapa/Lagos and Tin Can. High demand for 10-wheeler and 6×4 tippers on road contracts; strong WD615 parts supply in Lagos and Kano. Trucks for sale in Nigeria.
• Tanzania — RHD, Dar es Salaam. Mining and road-building drive bulk orders; both brands handle red-murram roads well. Trucks for sale in Tanzania.
• Uganda — RHD, landlocked and routed through Mombasa. Tippers and mixers for a growing construction sector. Trucks for sale in Uganda.
• Ghana — LHD, Tema and Takoradi. Construction plus gold and bauxite mining drive tipper demand. Trucks for sale in Ghana.
• Zambia — RHD, landlocked and routed through Dar es Salaam or Durban. Copperbelt mining and construction buyers purchase in batches. Trucks for sale in Zambia.

Importing to Africa: Ports, CIF and Transit Time

For first-time importers, CIF (cost, insurance, freight) is the simplest term: we arrange ocean freight and marine insurance to your named port, so you know the landed-at-port cost before you wire anything. The major African ports we ship to are Durban for Southern Africa, Mombasa for Kenya and onward to Uganda, Dar es Salaam for Tanzania and onward to Zambia, and Apapa/Lagos and Tema for West Africa.

Transit time is roughly 20–35 days to East African ports (Mombasa, Dar es Salaam), 25–40 days to West African ports (Apapa, Tema), and 20–30 days to Durban. Landlocked buyers in Uganda and Zambia should budget additional inland trucking or rail time from the discharge port. We provide full documentation for clearance — commercial invoice, packing list, Bill of Lading, Certificate of Origin and an inspection certificate on request.

Duties and clearance rules differ by country, so we do not publish tax figures here — each market hub links to a country-specific import guide. For the two main shipping corridors, see our overviews of shipping trucks to East Africa and shipping trucks to West Africa. The full process — inspection, refurbishment and CIF — is the same one we run on our main used trucks for sale page.