Boiler from China: what approvals are needed before first start-up

A steam boiler in Uzbekistan is classed as equipment operating under excess pressure. The requirements for it are set by the Technical Regulation approved by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 493 of 4 August 2025 (CMR Resolution No. 493). The regulation has applied since 6 February 2026. Under it, before release to the market the boiler undergoes conformity assessment: declaration or certification. The boiler must arrive with a passport, a drawing, a strength calculation, information on the safety devices and instructions, in the state language. Start-up and operation are a separate step: the rules of safe operation are set by the Committee for Industrial, Radiation and Nuclear Safety.

Below is what the regulation itself says. This is not legal advice: before importing, show the contract and the plant's documents to the certification body and to an industrial safety specialist.

Which boilers the regulation covers

The regulation covers boilers that produce steam at a pressure above 0.05 MPa or hot water at a temperature above 110 °C, if the boiler volume is more than 0.002 m³. Any industrial steam boiler falls under this. The same regulation applies to vessels, pipelines, fittings and safety devices under pressure.

Steam boilers are named directly in Appendix 2, in the list of equipment whose conformity is assessed mandatorily. The list gives them together with the HS codes of heading 8402.

Within the regulation, equipment is divided into hazard categories. The category depends on the pressure, the volume and the working medium. The category determines which conformity assessment scheme is applied.

Step 1. Conformity assessment

Conformity of a boiler with the regulation is confirmed in one of two ways.

Declaration. The applicant declares that the boiler complies with the regulation, on the basis of its own evidence or laboratory tests. For a lot or a single boiler the applicant may be the manufacturer, its authorized representative or the seller-importer.

Certification. Conformity is confirmed by a certification body. For a lot and for a single boiler the applicant may again be the importer. One of the schemes allows a lot to be certified even before it is imported into Uzbekistan. In that case the applicant is responsible for taking the samples and delivering them to the certification body.

The procedure for issuing declarations and certificates is set by the provisions approved by CMR Resolution No. 502 of 14 August 2024. Conformity documents received before the regulation came into force remain valid for the term stated in them.

Step 2. Documents the plant supplies with the boiler

The regulation lists the technical documentation to accompany the delivery:

The documentation is presented in the state language and, at the customer's request, with a translation into other languages. The passport may be provided on paper or in electronic form. An electronic passport must be confirmed by a QR code used to check its authenticity.

A separate clause of the regulation lists what the boiler passport must contain: manufacturer, date of manufacture, model, serial number, design service life and resource, design fuel, fuel consumption, burner, design, working and test pressure, steam output, safety devices, level indicators, fittings, automation and protection, pumps, information on welding, inspection and hydraulic tests of the main elements. This list is worth writing into the contract with the plant.

Step 3. Marking

On the boiler or on a metal plate attached to it there must be:

• name, type, make or model;
• working, design and test pressure;
• material;
• manufacturer and its trademark;
• serial number and date of manufacture;
• country of the manufacturer;
• the energy efficiency indicator, for equipment that produces or consumes energy.

If something does not fit on the boiler itself, it may be stated in the operating manual.

Equipment past its service life may not be imported

Resolution No. 493 separately established that from 1 January 2026 the import of pressure equipment whose service life has expired is prohibited. For a used boiler this is the main question: service life is counted by the manufacturer's passport. A new boiler with a passport does not have this problem.

Step 4. Start-up and operation

The regulation concerns design, manufacture, marking and conformity assessment. The rules of safe operation, by its own text, are set by the specially authorized body: the Committee for Industrial, Radiation and Nuclear Safety under the Cabinet of Ministers.

By the same resolution the pressure threshold of 0.05 MPa and the temperature of 110 °C were carried over into the acts on industrial safety of hazardous production facilities, on the procedure for industrial safety expert review, and on permitting procedures through a special electronic system. It follows that a boiler above this threshold falls under them too. These acts themselves are not analyzed in this article. Check the procedure for registration, expert review and admission of personnel with the Committee or with an expert organization before the boiler arrives on site.

Oversight of compliance with the regulation is carried out by the Committee for Industrial, Radiation and Nuclear Safety, the Uzbekistan Agency for Technical Regulation and other authorized bodies.

How we do it

• We select the boiler at the manufacturing plant. The contents of the passport, the calculations and the instructions are agreed with the plant in writing before production.
• The certificate of conformity, the declaration and the import permits are on our side.
• Supervised installation and start-up are led by the manufacturing plant. We arrange the visit of its engineers, interpreting and site access.