Importing from China

With an increasing demand for low cost goods, more and more businesses are choosing factories in China as their preferred place of manufacture. With thousands of factories available across China manufacturing various products, companies are spoilt for choice when it comes to selecting their preferred Chinese supplier. This is a massive benefit to business, as the factories compete against each other to reduce prices and secure the business. Whilst choosing the right supplier is paramount, likewise you want to ensure that you are dealing with a Chinese company that are familiar with the shipping process and understand what is required to export goods from China.

Most suppliers in China will quote a UK company an FOB price (Free On Board), which basically means that the supplier will make the goods available to a freight forwarder that you nominate. The supplier will manfacture the goods according to your instructions and will also be responsible for communicating with the freight forwarder and informing them once the goods are ready for despatch. As you are purchasing the goods under FOB terms, you will need to arrange for a freight forwarder to handle the shipping of your goods by sea freight from China to the UK. Usually when an FOB price is quoted, this will be quoted with a place associated with it, for example FOB Shenzhen, FOB Shanghai, FOB Qingdao etc. this means that the freight forwarder will know they have to quote you for shipping from that location to the UK.

Whilst this is easily arranged, many suppliers in China will try to convince you to purchase the goods under different terms. This is because they want to try and appoint their own freight forwarder as it will make the shipping process cheaper for the supplier, but not necessarily for the importer in the UK. More often than not it is never the case and whilst they will provide you with seriously cheap freight charges from China to the UK seaport, sometimes even saying the freight is “Free of Charge”, is when the real problems start once the goods arrive at the UK port.

Assuming you have used the supplier’s preferred freight company for the shipping of your goods and the shipment is shortly due to arrive at UK port, you will receive via the post or email a “Notification of Arrival” from the UK freight company whom will be handling the container arriving with your shipment inside of it. The freight company will then advise you of the UK arrival charges to pay, which to some companies come as a massive shock – as they were led to believe by their Chinese supplier, that the freight cost was inclusive of delivery to their warehouse/office. Many do not realise how much the UK arrival charges can amount to and do not budget for this when conducting their research on product cost and shipping cost. Depending on the cube (size) of the shipment you are importing, will determine the UK arrival charges you are expected to pay the UK freight company, alongside any fees for the customs clearance and delivery of the shipment.

In our opinion we would always recommend appointing a UK freight forwarder when importing from china, so you are fully aware of all charges involved prior to the goods arriving into the UK. This will allow you complete control of the shipping costs and you can budget accordingly, without having the unexpected surprise of additional (sometimes substantial) costs you were unaware of.

If your company is interested in importing from China and would like some advice and assistance on how best to proceed, you can contact First Point Freight Limited today. We provide import shipping services from all major areas of China and offer sea freight and air freight services. For more information please feel free to contact us today on 0843 289 2747 or request an online quotation.