As important as cost and speed are shipping from China, you also need to consider some key details and the differences between various modes.
regular publication
Sending small sample packs can be profitable by regular mail. Also, importers just starting out might consider this mode to mail directly from the factory to the customer, basically drop shipping.
This process can be set up quickly and avoids having to pay upfront for storage costs. but from a cost perspective, you’ll want to rethink your strategy when sales volumes start to pick up.
express shipping from china to usa uu.
the two great us national courier services. The US, FedEx, and UPS are also popular options for deliveries between China and the US. uu. so are other major international courier services like dhl and tnt.
Like mail, the process is simple: It’s usually easy to find rates online, and no formal quote is needed. and just like the other mode options, most courier companies offer express air shipping options. usa customs uu. applies if the value of the products is more than $800, but customs clearance is much easier than air or sea freight.
Importers who plan to purchase large quantities of stock and use sea or air freight should still arrange a trial shipment by courier before signing a large contract with a supplier. this way tests the waters with product sales. It also helps estimate profitability: the cost of this shipment is an upper bound for ongoing freight costs.
air freight from china to united states
The larger the shipment, the more complex the shipping process will be. there is more to finding space in the hold of an airplane than with regular courier services. and shipments are delivered to a facility where they are first consolidated (packed with other shipments).
This process is repeated in reverse at the other end. The US customs process is also much more complicated than for express freight.
International law, national law, carrier organization regulations and individual carrier regulations all play their part in defining and restricting goods that are considered dangerous for transport.
There are generally more items restricted as air cargo than sea cargo, including: gases (eg light bulbs), anything flammable (eg perfume, samsung galaxy note 7), toxic items or corrosives (eg, batteries), magnetic substances (eg, speakers), oxidizers and biochemicals (eg, chemical drugs), and public health risks (eg, raw hides ).
For more information on shipping hazardous materials, please refer to the Freightos Hazardous Materials table.
fcl and lcl shipping from china to united states
Sea freight generally means containers. but if you don’t have enough material to fill a full 20′ or 40′ container (fcl), it’s usually worth it to ship a less than container load (lcl).
with lcl, multiple shipments are consolidated and packed into a single container. this means more work for the freight forwarder, and not just the physical work of consolidating multiple shipments into one container before main transit and deconsolidating shipments at the other end.
It is more difficult to keep track of a shipment that is one of many in a container than it is to control a container with fcl. And, of course, there is additional paperwork involved and more risk of delay.
for larger lcl shipments it often makes more sense to upgrade to a 20ft container and move to fcl. the turning point is usually around 15 cubic meters. fcl has three big advantages over lcl:
- fcl takes less time to deliver than an lcl shipment. for china-us, lcl usually takes one or two weeks longer.
- there are less chance of damage, misplacement and loss with fcl.
- fcl cost less. For an average shipment, the primary transit cost is typically twice an FCL charge when broken down by cubic meter.