How to send merchandise by sea?

In the mind of many entrepreneurs, ocean shipping is the most economical way to send merchandise. We can say that is the truth, but in fact, especially, it is for transportation high volume merchandise. This article will teach you something basic about maritime cargo, for example, how to know if your merchandise is appropriate to be shipped by maritime cargo or not, so you will have more security to bring merchandise by sea.

Maritime cargo process
1. Obtain the weight and cubic meter data of the merchandise from the supplier.

If the volume is less than 0.5 cubic meter (CBM) and it is not heavy (less than 100 kilos), it is better to send the merchandise by international courier (DHL, FEDEX, UPS), since the minimum volume in ocean shipping is 1 CBM. Although it is less than 1 CBM, the freight is charged according to the minimum unit (1 CBM). So, there is no advantage to shipping low-volume merchandise by sea with the similar cost as sending it by courier and longer transit time.

If the merchandise has 1 to 15 CBM, it can be sent by consolidated load (LCL-Less than Container Load). Larger volume merchandise will be shipped by full container (FCL-Full container Load).

2. Having a good logistics agent to handle your cargo in China is important. They handle the load with the supplier. And it's good that you know the process:

1) The supplier gives the reservation document (shipping order), in which he must fill in the information of the shipper, consignee, notify party, description of merchandise (name, HS code, quantity of packages, weight, cubic meter, marks, port of origin and destination).

2) The logistics agent requests the shipment from the shipping company with that reservation document.

3) The shipping company approves and gives the shipping order.

4) The supplier can pick up the container at the port with the shipping order. They load the container and return it to the port.

5) The supplier makes the export declaration in the customs system and awaits the customs approval. That can take a few hours to a day.

6) If the export declaration is approved by customs and there are no other problems, the container can be loaded onto the ship and awaited departure according to the agreed date.

7) The entire process takes 4 days to a week, so importers must find a logistics agent to handle it when the merchandise is almost ready so as not to waste more time. And they must anticipate the time that is taken in this process and should not think that the merchandise can be sent out from the port on any ship once it is ready.

8) Consolidated cargo shipping has a similar process, but the logistics agent usually asks the suppliers to deliver the merchandise to their warehouse and they do the consolidation and do other work for the cargo.


3.When the container arrives at the port of destination, importers must ask their customs agent to do the nationalization procedures and organize the transport from the port to the place of destination. Besides the freight, port expenses, nationalization expenses and land freight from port to destination are also parts of import expenses.