Cheapest way to ship small packages circa 12kg from China

gstack

Hi
I am interested in importing some goods from China .
I have a particular product in mind , have obtained samples from a number of companies am happy to go with one company and want to make a couple of small transactions with them to test the waters so to speak as to quality of goods received, transit times etc.

. I have followed a few of the many threads on here that Recommend FOB etc .
I am basically looking to ship 1 or 2 , 12 kg boxes with dimensions 47x31x38 .
Value of contents is approx 100 dollars .
DHL/TNT etc are looking for 400 plus to ship it !
Surely there is a cheaper way to do it , I am conscious that it is just one or two boxes but I dont want to import a container load without testing the supplier with a smaller order first.
Time taken is not that big a consideration really .
Can anyone give a recommendation ?
Basically if it costs me much more than 100 dollars to ship , by the time I add VAT and whatever Duty there isnt going to be a lot of margin left when I sell it .
If thats the case so be it , better to find out now I suppose .

All advice appreciated.
G

gstack

If there is a thread which details anything like this , would someone mind pointing me there as I didnt see it when I was searching this forum .

G

RUDOLF289

gstack wrote: »

Hi
I am interested in importing some goods from China .
I have a particular product in mind , have obtained samples from a number of companies am happy to go with one company and want to make a couple of small transactions with them to test the waters so to speak as to quality of goods received, transit times etc.

. I have followed a few of the many threads on here that Recommend FOB etc .
I am basically looking to ship 1 or 2 , 12 kg boxes with dimensions 47x31x38 .
Value of contents is approx 100 dollars .
DHL/TNT etc are looking for 400 plus to ship it !
Surely there is a cheaper way to do it , I am conscious that it is just one or two boxes but I dont want to import a container load without testing the supplier with a smaller order first.
Time taken is not that big a consideration really .
Can anyone give a recommendation ?
Basically if it costs me much more than 100 dollars to ship , by the time I add VAT and whatever Duty there isnt going to be a lot of margin left when I sell it .
If thats the case so be it , better to find out now I suppose .

All advice appreciated.
G

Good afternoon,

One exception to the FOB rule is for small parcels, like the one you are looking at. Unless you have a significant discount with one of the courier companies, it will be expensive to ship from China on a "freight collect" basis.

In this case it would be better to ask your supplier to arrange shipping. I would expect that he could ship 12 kgs for around Us$ 7.50 per kg.

Hope this helps

Cheers,
Rudolf289

getsome

Unless you do a lot of shipping with DHL or TNT, you wont get any discounts, better off using Irish freight forwarder or ask supplier who should have big discounts to organise shipping.

Rowela

What Rudolf said, for small packages ask the shipper to organise the shipping door to door and include the cost in your final payment to them. They should be able to give you a much better price as they will have business accounts with the major couriers, TNT/DHL etc.

gstack

Rudolf / Rowela
Thanks very much for your replies , youve been very helpful.
I am presuming I will still have to pay Import VAT and Duty , will the courier usually collect on Delivery ?

Thanks again
G

Rowela

I actually got a sample yesterday from China. It was a box about half the size of yours, shipping cost was USD55. The shipper declared it as a "sample only - Total value USD10" so there was no duty or tax on it.

You dont have to pay VAT on anything under €22 or duty on anything under €150 for online orders.

You can get your commodity code and rate of duty on on the Taric website for future shipments. I cant post links as Im a new member.

Just google Taric and put in your item into the advanced search.