What a container shipment from China costs
How the cost of a container is built: which line items scale with volume, which are charged once per shipment, and why one container price does not exist.
Importing a container from China costs, in this guide’s example, USD 49,623.54 door to door for 28 m³ of goods valued at USD 36,000, which leaves the cost at USD 4.31 per sellable unit: 44% above the factory price. There is no single price for “a container”, because the total depends on how the goods are classified and what they are worth, on the route, on the season and on the Incoterm you contract under. What can be explained, and what this guide does, is the structure: thirteen line items, which of them scale with volume and which are billed once per shipment.
Why “the price of a container” has no single answer
Two containers of the same size, on the same route and with the same carrier can cost one twice as much as the other, and the difference is not in the freight. Four variables move the total before anyone talks about rates.
The classification and the value of the goods. Duty, import VAT and the processing fee are calculated on the customs value, not on the volume. A container of accessories valued at USD 36,000 and another of instruments valued at USD 90,000 pay the same freight and very different taxes.
The route. The port of discharge, the surcharges and the transit time change the invoice: a destination with a direct connection does not cost the same as one where the cargo arrives transhipped.
The season. Sea freight rates move week by week and rise at the demand peaks before Chinese New Year and the year-end campaign.
The Incoterm. Incoterms set the scope: a DDP rate includes freight, taxes, clearance and final delivery; an FOB rate ends at the Chinese port; an EXW rate does not even include getting the goods out of the factory. Comparing a DDP against an FOB is not comparing two prices, but two different scopes.
The thirteen line items that make up the cost
No serious quotation comes down to a single figure, because the cost of a container is a sum of thirteen line items with three different behaviours: those that scale with value, those that scale with volume, and those that are paid once per shipment.
| Line item | Who charges it | How it is calculated | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goods | The factory | Unit price × units | Scales with value |
| Agent commission | Your agent | Percentage of the goods value | Scales with value |
| Inspection | Inspector or agent | Per inspector-day, to AQL | Fixed per lot |
| Certification | Laboratory and authority | Per model and per standard | Fixed per reference |
| Inland transport in China | Local carrier | Factory, warehouse and port: per trip | Fixed per shipment |
| Export documentation | China’s customs at exit | Per declaration and certificate of origin | Fixed per shipment |
| Sea freight | Shipping line or freight forwarder | Per container on FCL; per m³ on LCL | Fixed per container, or by volume on LCL |
| Cargo insurance | Insurer | Percentage of the CIF value, with a minimum premium | Scales with value |
| Duty | Destination customs | Percentage of the customs value | Scales with value |
| Customs processing fee | Destination customs | In Mexico, DTA: 8 per thousand on the value of the goods for IGI purposes | Scales with value |
| Destination clearance and final delivery | Customs broker and courier | Per pedimento and per delivery | Fixed per shipment |
| Shrinkage | Nobody invoices it | Units paid for that cannot be sold | Reduces the divisor |
| Cost of tied-up capital | Your bank or your credit line | Capital × annual rate × days ÷ 365 | Scales with time |
The last two appear in no quotation, and they are what make a product that is profitable in the spreadsheet lose money. Shrinkage is paid in units you bought and do not sell; the cost of capital, in interest or in margin you stop generating while the goods are in transit.
What scales with volume and what is paid once per shipment
Of the thirteen line items, only one responds to the physical volume of the shipment: freight, and only on consolidated (LCL) cargo, which is charged per cubic metre. The rest scale with the value of the goods or are paid once per shipment.
They scale with value: goods, agent commission, cargo insurance, duty and the customs processing fee. If you double the value of what goes inside the container, those five lines double.
They are paid once per shipment, whether the container is full or nearly empty: inspection, certification, inland transport in China, export documentation, destination clearance and final delivery.
Freight on a full container is the most important line item of the whole group: it is charged per container, not per cubic metre, so a 20-foot container costs the same with 28 m³ as with 14. Clearance and delivery work the same way: a pedimento costs practically the same for one box as for a container. The fuller the container goes out, the less of those fixed costs falls on each unit.
Full container or consolidated: where the break-even point is
Consolidated cargo (LCL) is charged per cubic metre and a full container (FCL) is charged per container, and the two totals cross at around 15 m³. Below that threshold, cargo consolidation is the better option; above it, the 20-foot container.
Consolidation bills a minimum per shipment — usually the equivalent of 1 m³ even if you ship less — and applies a rate per m³ well above the effective cost per m³ of a full container, because the consolidator spreads its fixed costs across a small base. On FCL those same costs are spread across 28 m³. The LCL total rises in a straight line with each cubic metre while the FCL total stays flat, and the two lines cross.
That crossing point is not a universal figure: it depends on the route, the destination port, the shipping line, the season and local surcharges. Ask for it calculated for your specific shipment instead of applying it as a fixed rule.
A 20-foot container has about 33.1 m³ of internal volume and a payload of around 28.3 t; a 40-foot container has about 67.5 m³ and around 26.7 t. The 40-foot has twice the volume but not twice the payload in weight, so dense cargo — ceramics, glass, liquids, hardware — runs out of weight before volume. And in cost it does not cost twice as much either, because much of the invoice is charged per shipment and not per cubic metre: the cost per m³ falls as you go up in size, provided the cargo is not weight-limited.
Worked example: 28 m³ in a 20-foot container
Premise: 12,000 units at USD 3.00 ex-works, 28 m³, 20-foot container, destination Mexico City, estimated shrinkage of 4%. That leaves 11,520 sellable units, which are the divisor for every line item.
| Line item | USD | USD per sellable unit |
|---|---|---|
| Goods (12,000 × 3.00) | 36,000.00 | 3.1250 |
| Agent commission (6%) | 2,160.00 | 0.1875 |
| Pre-shipment AQL inspection | 299.00 | 0.0260 |
| Container loading supervision | 199.00 | 0.0173 |
| Inland transport in China | 380.00 | 0.0330 |
| Export documentation | 150.00 | 0.0130 |
| Sea freight FCL 20-foot (illustrative figure) | 1,900.00 | 0.1649 |
| Cargo insurance | 160.00 | 0.0139 |
| Import duty (15% in the example) | 5,709.00 | 0.4956 |
| DTA (8 per thousand) | 288.00 | 0.0250 |
| Destination clearance and final delivery | 480.00 | 0.0417 |
| Cost of tied-up capital (70 days at 24%) | 1,898.54 | 0.1648 |
| Total landed cost | 49,623.54 | 4.3077 |
The USD 1,900 freight figure is an example amount so that the table can be read, not a published rate: replace it with the current quotation for your shipment. The 15% duty is applied to the customs value, which in the example is USD 38,060 — 36,000 of goods plus 1,900 of freight and 160 of insurance; the DTA is applied to the value of the goods. The 24% annual rate and the 70 days of transit are also assumptions: use the rate for your tariff heading, the real cost of your credit line and the actual transit time of your route. The 6% commission corresponds to the published bands of 8% down to 5% by monthly volume.
Import VAT is not in the table, and that is deliberate. It is calculated on the customs value plus the DTA and the other duties, at the general 16% rate: in this example that would be about USD 7,049. If you import with your RFC it is creditable; if you import on DDP through a third party as the registered importer, you do not receive an import invoice in your name and you do not credit it.
The same container, half full
A half-full container costs around 54% of a full one but delivers half the goods, and that is why the cost per unit rises. With 14 m³ instead of 28, the goods, the commission, the insurance, the duty and the DTA fall because there is less value inside; what does not fall is the block of line items billed per shipment.
| Item | Container with 28 m³ | Container with 14 m³ |
|---|---|---|
| Units produced | 12,000 | 6,000 |
| Sellable units (4% shrinkage) | 11,520 | 5,760 |
| Line items billed per shipment | USD 3,408.00 | USD 3,408.00 |
| Total landed cost | USD 49,623.54 | USD 26,925.90 |
| Cost per sellable unit | USD 4.3077 | USD 4.6746 |
The USD 3,408 of freight, inspection, loading supervision, inland transport, documentation, clearance and delivery are identical in the two columns. Spread across 11,520 units they are USD 0.30 per unit; across 5,760, they are 0.59. That difference of almost USD 0.30 per unit does not depend on the product, the supplier or the factory price: it depends only on how full you made the container.
What changes by destination: Mexico, Argentina and Brazil
The block of taxes and clearance does not behave the same way in the three markets, and in all three the requirement of who may import is a prior condition, not a formality that is settled when the cargo arrives.
| Destination | Who may import | What is paid on the customs value |
|---|---|---|
| Mexico | RFC and registration in the padrón de importadores; clearance is filed by the importer, its legal representative accredited before the SAT or an agente aduanal | Duty by TIGIE tariff heading, DTA of 8 per thousand and 16% VAT. The December 2025 decree raised 1,463 tariff headings to rates of 5% to 50% for countries without a treaty, in force until 31 December 2026 |
| Argentina | Active CUIT and registration in the DGA importers and exporters register; the despachante de aduana is mandatory | Duty on the CIF value, VAT and income-tax perception. Since General Resolution 5651/2025 there is no longer a mandatory advance declaration |
| Brazil | Brazilian CNPJ and authorisation in the RADAR at Siscomex, in Limited or Unlimited mode according to the estimated financial capacity | Cascade: Import Tax by NCM, IPI, PIS and COFINS on imports, the Siscomex fee, AFRMM of 8% of long-haul sea freight and state ICMS calculated por dentro; the tax reform in transition coexists with the previous regime until 2033 |
In all three cases, the line item that decides the cost per unit is the same: duty and VAT are calculated on the customs value, which includes freight and insurance. Expensive freight makes the taxes more expensive too: transport is paid for twice.
How to bring the cost per unit down without lowering quality
The cost per unit of a container is reduced through five levers that do not touch the product: filling the container, reducing packaging volume, shipping outside peak season, consolidating several suppliers into the same shipment and not shipping defective units.
Fill the container. It is the biggest lever and the cheapest. If your cargo does not reach 28 m³, consider waiting for another order to join it rather than shipping half a container.
Reduce the packaging volume. Replacing oversized boxes and grouping units reduces the billable volume; on light, bulky product the reduction is usually between 20% and 40%. It is done at the origin warehouse, before shipping, and it affects both freight and taxes.
Ship in low season. Sea freight rates rise at demand peaks. If your product has no fixed date, moving the shipment by a few weeks can save money without touching the product.
Consolidate several suppliers into the same container. If you buy from four factories, each sends to the Shenzhen warehouse and one single shipment goes out with one freight charge, one customs entry and one delivery instead of four.
Discard defective units at origin. A defective unit that ships takes up volume, pays freight and pays taxes, and then does not sell.
The four mistakes that make a container expensive
| Mistake | What it costs | How to correct it |
|---|---|---|
| Closing the load with the container half full because the date was fixed | The fixed costs per shipment are spread across fewer units and the cost per unit rises | Set the date from the volume, not the volume from the date; delaying the shipment a few weeks is usually cheaper than the penalty per unit |
| Counting units produced and not sellable units | All the fixed cost is divided across more units than exist and the cost per unit is underestimated | Apply a shrinkage rate of 3% to 5% in consumer electronics and divide by sellable units |
| Comparing a DDP rate against an FOB rate | FOB ends at the Chinese port; DDP includes freight, taxes, clearance and delivery, and often another registered importer | Always compare the same Incoterm and the same door-to-door scope |
| Amortising tooling across a single container | A one-off cost spread across the units of the first shipment can make a profitable product look unviable | Amortise across the units you expect to sell from that investment, not across the ones you are buying |
How to request the quotation so it is a number and not a range
A container quotation becomes a number when you have three pieces of data: what the goods are and how they are classified, how much value they carry, and how many cubic metres they take up with their real packaging. Without all three, any agent can only give you a range, and ranges are no use for setting a selling price.
Add the exact destination, whether you want clearance and taxes included or only as far as the Chinese port, and whether the cargo contains a lithium battery or requires mandatory certification at destination: all three change the route, the lead time and the block of fixed line items.
Freight is the only line item that cannot be published and the only one that can be verified. Ask for it at cost, with the carrier’s name and its original quotation, and check that it is freight billed at cost; MeliPrep invoices it that way, with no markup, and hands over the factory invoice without a surcharge. The rest of the structure — the thirteen line items, which scale and which do not — is the same for your shipment as for any other, and it is what is worth being clear about before asking for the first price.