How big the field is
For 2025, 1,880 companies in chemicals, plastics, building materials, metallurgy and metal products, machinery, equipment and industrial repair filed financial statements. They have 27,067 employees and sales revenue of 30.1 billion lei. A year earlier there were 1,793. Most of them, 868, are in chemicals, plastics, glass, ceramics and concrete, and 540 in metallurgy and metal products. Automotive components are a different story: 16 companies with 8,742 employees, almost a third of the people in the field.
The average gross monthly wage in the fourth quarter of 2025 ranged from 12,417 lei in electrical equipment manufacturing to 16,962 lei in glass, ceramics, cement and concrete. The manufacturing average was 14,025 lei, and the average for the whole economy 16,355 lei. There are no separate figures for weapons, explosives and pyrotechnics: they are counted together with metal products and chemicals.
What paperwork is required
Only three activities are licensed: weapons and ammunition, explosives and pyrotechnic articles. All three licences are issued by the Public Services Agency, with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Inspectorate for Technical Supervision involved in the checks. No other class in the field requires a licence or a sanitary operating authorisation.
For everything else, the paperwork has three sources. Environmental law requires a permit with no threshold for metal structures and general machining, and above a set volume for plastics, paints and concrete. Installation safety requires registration with the National Inspectorate for Technical Supervision for boilers, pressure vessels and cranes. The product requires a sanitary approval for packaging and tableware that come into contact with food, and a notification to the same inspectorate for construction materials.
The industrial emissions law has two lists. On the list of low-risk activities, which require an environmental permit, metal structures, metal doors and windows, treatment and coating of metals and general machining appear with no capacity threshold. A workshop with one lathe and one welding set therefore needs the same permit as a factory. The list exempts only locksmiths and key-cutting shops. The permit costs 20,000 lei and is issued for six years.
For the other classes, the list sets thresholds. Paints, detergents, packaging and most plastic goods are covered from 500 kg a day, plastic builders’ ware such as PVC windows from 100 m² a day, and concrete, mortar and concrete products from 10 tonnes a day. Machinery, electrical equipment manufacturing and industrial repair are not on the list.
The list of significant-risk activities, which require the integrated environmental permit at 30,000 lei for 12 years, includes foundries producing more than 20 tonnes a day, electroplating and chemical surface treatment lines with vats over 30 m³, glass above 20 tonnes a day, ceramics above 75 tonnes a day, cement, and industrial production of chemical compounds, polymers, paints and explosives.
Potentially hazardous installations
The industrial safety law defines potentially hazardous facilities as places with installations under a pressure above 0.07 MPa or with water above 115 °C, with cranes and other lifting equipment, where hazardous substances are used or where explosives are stored. A factory with a steam boiler, a large compressor or an overhead crane falls into this category. The factory registers in the State Register kept by the National Inspectorate for Technical Supervision, by notification, at the same time as it obtains the building permit. The inspectorate assigns it an identification number within five working days. From then on, the owner must hold civil liability insurance for damage to people, property and the environment.
Companies that make, install, commission, maintain or repair such installations also notify the inspectorate. They work only on registered installations and only with staff holding practising permits or certificates of competence. Welding and non-destructive testing on these installations are done by staff certified by an accredited body.
The Urban Planning and Construction Code places the manufacture of materials and products for construction in the same category as building work. A manufacturer of concrete, paving stones, blocks, PVC windows or metal structures notifies the National Inspectorate for Technical Supervision once, at least ten working days before starting. It declares its teams and production sections, the production manager, its premises and machinery, its company standards, its method statements and the technical approvals for its products. How contractors are entered in the same register is explained on the construction company page.
Some products need a sanitary approval before they can be sold: plastic sheets and films, plastic packaging and closures for food, plastic tableware and household articles, glass containers and tableware, iron or steel tanks, cans and boxes of up to 300 litres, and soaps and detergents. The approval is issued by the National Agency for Public Health, free of charge, on the basis of a sanitary assessment, for three years for series production.
Anyone placing electrical and electronic equipment, batteries or vehicles on the market falls under extended producer responsibility: they are entered on the Environment Agency’s list and finance the collection and recycling of the products once they become waste. How collective schemes work is explained on the waste and recycling page.
Free economic zones and industrial parks
Free economic zones no longer take new manufacturers. Companies registered as residents from 1 January 2024 may carry out wholesale trade in the zone and the activities that support it, and with an authorisation from the Customs Service they may use the inward processing procedure. Residents registered by 31 December 2023 continue industrial production until 1 January 2034, as long as this does not go beyond the life of their zone. They pay half the income tax rate on their export production and three quarters on the rest of their activity in the zone. Those that have invested at least one million dollars in fixed assets or in the zone’s infrastructure are exempt from income tax on export income for three years, and those that have invested five million or more, for five years. Residents are chosen through a competitive selection, and the contract with the zone administration is concluded for the whole period of activity. How inward processing works for a factory using a foreign client’s materials is shown on the clothing, textiles and footwear page.
Industrial parks work differently. The resident signs a contract with the managing company, which selects it. For state or municipal land and buildings it pays reduced rent, between 30% and 50% of the standard rate. It may buy the land under its buildings at the normative price once its production buildings are in operation, except in category C parks, and it is subject only to joint, scheduled inspections. The town hall may waive the fees for the planning certificate and the building permit. The Tax Code sets no reduced tax rate for industrial park residents.
Weapons and ammunition
Civilian weapons and ammunition are produced, repaired, imported and sold only by licensed gunsmiths. The licence is issued by the Public Services Agency for five years, and for import and trade only to a legal entity. The fee depends on the activity: 20,000 lei for production, 5,000 lei for repair and 10,000 lei for import and trade. A manufacturer needs production premises, separate storage for weapons and for ammunition, primers and powders, approved production lines and at least one employee with education in the field. All employees are vetted through the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the premises undergo an inspection visit within ten days at most.
Since 1 July 2026, weapons and ammunition made in Moldova carry unique, clear and permanent identification markings applied during manufacture: the manufacturer or brand, the country or place of manufacture, the serial number and, where applicable, the year and the model. Shooting ranges have their own authorisation from the police, explained on the sport, culture and entertainment page.
Explosives and pyrotechnic articles
Since October 2024, explosives for civil use have had their own law. Production, storage, trade, import, export and work with explosives are carried out only by a legal entity licensed by the Public Services Agency. The licence has no expiry and costs 3,250 lei, and the application is examined within 20 working days. The company must have compliant storage, transport for dangerous goods, its own or under contract, and at least one shotfirer on staff. Every five years it resubmits its documents to the National Inspectorate for Technical Supervision. To buy and store explosives, the company also needs a permit from the same inspectorate, free of charge, for 36 months.
Pyrotechnic articles have their own licence, also from the Public Services Agency, with no expiry and a fee of 3,250 lei. It covers the production, import, storage and sale of fireworks and professional fireworks displays. The applicant must employ at least one authorised pyrotechnician, and its premises are checked by the fire safety supervision body. Bangers are banned. Articles in categories F1, F2, F3, T1 and P1 are sold freely to anyone aged 18 or over. Those in categories F4, T2 and P2 are used only by authorised pyrotechnicians. A shop may hold at most 300 kg of articles in the free categories, and professional articles may be kept only in a storage facility checked in advance by the fire safety supervision body.
For a factory or workshop, the usual form is an SRL, which pays 12% income tax and whose liability is limited to the company’s own assets. For explosives and for the import and trade of weapons, the law leaves no other option: the licence is granted only to a legal entity.
We handle the choice of CAEM codes, the articles of association, the filing with the Public Services Agency and the opening of the bank account. We prepare the licence applications for weapons, explosives or pyrotechnic articles, the notifications to the National Inspectorate for Technical Supervision, the application to the Customs Service for an inward processing authorisation and the export paperwork. For a foreign company we register a Moldovan company or a free economic zone resident. We can take over the accounting from the first month. What each service includes is on the corporate services page.
