If you have goods to be imported from China and the volume of the goods is just several cubic meters and the delivery time is not tight, sea LCL (less than container load) is a common mode of transportation. Freight is an important part of the cost of imported goods. If you know the breakdown LCL expenses, it will help you to accurately calculate the total import cost.
For sea LCL transportation, the logistics points involved are as follows:

1.Cargo is loaded for dispatch at factory warehouse

2. cargos are assembled at loading port warehouse

3. Cargo loaded into full container

4.the container is unpacked and distributed at destination warehouse

5.Final deliveries to different customers

Accordingly, the freight consists of the following:

1. Delivery fee of goods from the factory to the agent warehouse at the port of departure

This cost should be judged clearly, whether it is included in the quotation or borne by yourself. This mainly depends on the Incoterms used in the contract: if it is FOB, the exporter shall bear the expenses; if it is EXW, the importer shall bear the expenses, so it is very necessary for you to choose the appropriate port of departure according to the geographical location of the factory. The biggest ports in China are Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Qingdao, Xiamen, Dalian, Guangzhou, etc. You can consult the factory or freight forwarder company, or you can search directly from Google map to find the nearest port so as to save cost.

 2. Cost of agent warehouse at the port of departure

 (1) Warehousing fee at loading port

When delivered to the agent warehouse at the port of departure, the goods have to undergo the operation of warehouse entry, for which the warehousing fee will be charged usually at 3 to 4 USD per freight ton. So how to calculate the freight ton? It is to compare the volume tons and the weight tons of the goods, and take the bigger one as the freight ton (volume tons = cubic meters * 1)

E.g.If the cargo is 1.5 cubic meters and the physical weight is 1400KGS, then the volume weight is 1.5 tons which is bigger than 1400KGS, the physical weight. Then the warehousing fee will be calculated according to the volume weight. However, if the physical weight is 1800kgs, the warehousing fee is calculated as 1.8 tons.

 (2) CFS fee

CFS (Container freight station) refers to the cost of loading goods to the container and moving to the port yard. It is generally charged according to the freight tons, varying from 5-7usd per ton.

 (3) DOC fee

This is the cost of issuing B / L documents at the port of departure, and generally ranges from 30 to 50 USD.

 (4) Export custom formality declaration fee

This is the customs declaration fee for export goods, and generally ranges from 20 to 50 USD.

3. LCL sea freight

It’s self-explaining, which means the sea freight from China’s port of departure to your country’s port of destination. It is usually allocated to your goods according to the volume.

 4. Destination port charges

There will be charges after container transportation to the destination port, including dthc and ddoc. In addition, LCL is a collection of goods from many importers, and needs to undergo such operations as Switch Bill, which will also generate some other LCL specific costs.

 5. Warehouse fee at the destination port

The LCL goods finally arrive at the warehouse of the destination port, and can only be picked up after the importer completes the customs clearance and taxes payment. The warehouse cost will be incurred during these operations.

These basically include all the cost of LCL transportation. However, special attention should be paid to the incomplete quotation of some forwarders. When you request for a quotation of LCL service from China to your national port, you will often be informed that the freight is 0 or even 10 USD / m3 or more can be refunded. At this time, it’s necessary to know that you can’t suppose that the goods can be transported to your beautiful hometown from far away China for free of charge. As can be seen from the breakdown cost above, the total cost of LCL service is the sum of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

To avoid such hidden charges, it’s advisable to choose an LCL service provider from China which provides transparent and comprehensive LCL quotations. In order to facilitate his business, some agents will transfer the expenses in Item 3 to items 4 and 5. At the same time, he will only report the cost of item 3, and then the LCL shipping fee will be 0 or even negative. But when you pick up the goods, the destination agent will charge you more port charges and warehouse charges. In order to avoid this situation, when requesting for quotation, you’d better ask about all the above 1-5 expenses, and the sum is your total freight cost.