Actually this is a very old post I wrote in 2009, things changed quickly these years, but today when I Occasionally found it in my computer, I decided to post it here as my 1st post on my this very new blog. It is about the shipping fee for chinese merchant shipping merchandises to other countries (eg, USA). I thought this post might be useful for those people who want to buy some produts from chinese merchant or purchase some wholesale for their business. If you are happening bothered by these stuff, this post might be good for you to read.
The are several shipping ways you can choose(or sellers will use) when shipping chinese made items aboard. The most used ones are
EMS (EUB)
Hong Kong POST
China POST
DHL
UPS
US Special Line
….
Here in this post I will introduce the methods of how to calculate shipping fee. Before we getting started, we should know:
- In USA, the shipper will always contact and dealing with delivery companies directly. For example, if they want to send Fedex Order, they will call fedex and pay them the shipping fee. But in China, most shipper and supplier do not deal with shipping company directly. Instead there’s delivery agents between them. Usually the shipping agents are dealing with shipper, and delivery goods to DHL or EMS’s warehouse, and then the shipment was handled.
In this case, even you use the same shipping way, eg EMS, different shippers may quote you different shipping fee. Because their agents are different. Knowing this can explain you why the shipping fee was quoted differently even they use the same shipping way.
- EMS, hong kong post, china post will charge you shipping cost based on Unit weight, but DHL, UPS and other shipping ways will charge shipping cost based on volume(when the volume is larger than weight) or weight(when the weight is larger than volume)
So let’s see how to calculate shipping fee now!
EMS
The Basic fee for EMS is RMB 240. The basic fee means no matter how much weight the package is, at least you will be charged 240.00. And it covers all packages under 0.5KG. If the Package is over 0.5 kg, it will charge RMB 75 for EACH 0.5 KG.(If the exceed weith is not enough for 0.5 kg, it will still count as 0.5 kg)
For example:
0.5kg = 240.00
0.6KG= 240+75=315
0.7kg=240+75=315
………….
1kg=240+75=315
1.2kg=240+75*2=390
1.6kg=240+75*3=465
5.0kg=240+75*9=915
Hong Kong POST
Hong Kong post also charges a basic fee for each shipment. The fee is RMB 13. And they use 0.1 kg as the unit weight, the unit price for each 0.1 kg is about RMB 10.00.
For example:
0.1kg=13+10*1=23
0.2kg=13+10*2=33
0.3kg=13+10*3=43
…………………
1 kg=13+10*10=113
And please keep in mind hong kong post only accept shipment under 2 KG.
China POST
When you need to calculate china post shipping fee, you can just make it half of Hong kong post price. And all done!
DHL
DHL charge shipping cost based on different volume size.
The volume size is calculated as this:
Total volume= long (cm) * Width ( cm) 8 high (cm) / 5000
Eg, if your carton is 40 cm *40 cm *20 cm size, then your volume will be:
40*40*20/5000= 6.4 KGS.
DHL will charge your carton as 6.4 KGS.
For the shipping fee, it will be:
Under 0.5 kg, 140.00 RMB
0.5KG-1 KG: 160 RMB
1-1.5KG: 180RMB
1.5 KG-2 KG: 200 RMB
2-20 KG: 140(basic fee) + (weight KG -0.5)*40= total cost.
For example
15 KG=140+(15-0.5) *40=720
10kg=140+(10-0.5)*40=520
18kg=140+(18-0.5)*40=840
…….
When the carton is over 21 KG, the shipping unit price is no longer 40 RMB, but 35.
So if the weight is 25kg, the cost will be;
25KG=140+(25-0.5)*35=997.5
50KG=140+(50-0.5)*35=1872.5
Fedex and UPS
Fedex and UPS Is way expensive than DHL in china. So more suppliers do not really use them.
So they are not introduced in this post.
Shipping rate for international shippingments changes from time to time. Buers do not really need to konw the exact shipping rate for their orders always, but it is nice to know some basic Algorithm.
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