Sea freight
The price of a container moves. We take the day rate from a forwarder when we calculate, and say how long the figure holds.
The price
What the price is made of.
A room package is not a furniture price. Between the factory gate in Foshan and a furnished room in the Nordics sit some fifteen separate items. Here they are, and what makes them move.
We cost every project from factory price to finished room, item by item. That is why we can say why a figure looks the way it does, and what happens to it if something changes. These items are in every calculation we make.
In China
- Goods from the factory
- The price the factory sets, delivered to the quay in Shenzhen. It is the only item most people think about, and it is far from the whole cost.
- Packaging
- Factory packaging is often enough for a lorry but not for a sea crossing and a reload. Where it is not enough we repack.
- Transport and loading in China
- Foshan to the port in Shenzhen. Either straight from the factory into a container, or by way of our own warehouse where the goods are received, checked and reloaded.
- Quality control
- An approved sample before the run starts, an inspection during production and a final check before anything leaves China. Those are days on site, and they cost.
Freight and import
- Sea freight
- Paid by the container, not by the piece. What a container costs changes through the year and sometimes within a quarter.
- Cargo insurance
- A small item, although anyone without it when a container takes on water will disagree that it was small.
- Duty
- Different rates for different groups of goods. Furniture is often zero, mattresses and lighting higher, textiles higher still. The commodity code a product lands on decides the rate.
- Customs broker and port charges
- Import declaration and terminal handling, per container.
- Transport to the delivery address
- From the port to the address. The run up through the country is not free, and it is worth comparing which port the container should go to.
- Unloading on site
- The usual arrangement is a lorry with a trailer, where the receiver unloads with a wheel loader or a forklift. Where that is not possible it can be bought in, and then it appears here. We establish which applies before we calculate.
Project
- Project management
- The time it takes to run the project, in Sweden and in China. It exists whether or not it appears on a quotation.
- Sample room
- One room is furnished and approved before the run starts. It is the cheapest place to find a mistake.
- Claims reserve
- Something arrives damaged. It should be costed before it happens, not argued about afterwards.
- Currency exchange and bank charges
- The factory is paid in dollars and you pay in kronor. Somewhere in between sits a fee.
Volume does more than people expect
Freight is paid by the container, not by the bed. A container that sails half full costs the same as a full one, which makes air the most expensive cargo there is. That is why the cost per room falls as the count rises, and why it is worth knowing early whether it is thirty rooms or three hundred.
Packed volume per piece works the same way. A bed delivered assembled takes up considerably more space than the same bed in parts, and the difference shows on the freight line long before it shows anywhere else. That is why we cost packed volume per item, and ask the factory for it in the request for quotation.
What moves the most
Three items account for almost all the uncertainty in a calculation. We say which they are rather than hiding them in a margin.
The exchange rate
Between quotation and payment the rate has time to move. We calculate with a buffer and tell you how large it is.
Customs classification
The commodity code a product lands on decides the rate, and borderline cases exist. We check the code before we give a figure.
What we need in order to calculate
You do not need all of it. But the more of this that exists, the closer to reality the first figure lands.
- How many rooms, and how many room types differ from each other
- What a room should contain
- Where it is to be delivered, and how you can unload on site
- When it needs to be in place
- Whether the delivery should come at once or in stages
- Whether anything needs storing before people move in
What is not included unless you ask
- Assembly on site
- Some furniture arrives assembled, some in parts with instructions and a bag of fittings in the carton. Which applies depends on the type and the specification, and is settled before you order. The assembly work on site is not part of what we undertake.
- VAT
- Every figure we give is excluding VAT. This is business between companies.
- Building work and fixed electrics
- Flooring, walls and fixed lighting sit outside. We can propose them, but we do not procure them.
Have a project coming up?
Tell us what needs furnishing, roughly how much and when. We will come back with questions or a first proposal.