Ocean freight refers to the way of transporting goods through sea trade routes. Through it, transporters can easily transport bulky or bulk cargo.
As we all know, this is a complicated process.
However, ocean freight fee to USA is the most cost-effective. Due to its many benefits, sea freight is considered to be one of the most used methods of transporting goods. According to statistics, on a global scale, nearly 90% of imports and exports pass by sea.
What is the difference between ocean freight fee to USA and air freight?
Ocean freight fee to USA are significantly lower than air freight rates. In fact, ocean freight fee to USA can be up to 6 times lower. This has caused shipping services to shift more to sea freight and has caused some losses to the air cargo industry.
Why is ocean freight fee to USA so much cheaper than air freight?
The reason air freight is more expensive than sea freight is that most freight forwarders charge based on the consignment (not specifically carton count and/or weight and/or density), which basically makes air freight expensive (where we import volume compared to sea freight will decrease).
Compared with air freight , sea freight from China to USA has a longer lead time.
Sea freight uses ICOTERMS such as CIF (Cost Insurance and Freight) and FIB (Free On Board) to deliver the goods to their destination, while all air freight arrives at the airport and will be stored in a warehouse (until local truck clearance can be arranged).
Both use Freight Forwarded for customs clearance.
There are two ways of shipping from China to USA:
1. FCL container transportation
This is the most important mode of transportation for international trade goods.
Container transportation has many advantages, such as being conducive to the mechanization of port operations, thereby improving loading and unloading efficiency, greatly shortening the time of ships in port, speeding up the turnover rate of ships, saving packaging costs, reducing cargo damage, and facilitating transportation. Connect different transport routes and vehicles. Door to door by sea etc.
2. Shipping LCL
It means that after the carrier (or agent) accepts the LCL goods consigned by the consignor, it will split the LCL according to the nature and destination of the goods. The goods sent to the same destination are packed in a certain quantity.
From the perspective of actual operation, more than 80% of the LCL freight is carried by CFS to CFS, followed by Door to Door, Door to CFS, and CFS to Door. The main reason is determined by the nature of LCL.
Ocean freight fee to USA per kilogram
With the exception of particularly heavy shipments, most LCLs are priced by volume rather than weight.
For most products, use the following rules of thumb to choose the most cost-effective model:
Shipments weighing more than 500 kg become uneconomical to ship by air.
The sea freight is about 1-2 USD/kg, and it takes about 15-35 days or more for sea freight from China to the United States.
China-US shipments weighing between 150 kg and 500 kg cost about $4-5 per kg and can be shipped economically by air and take about 8-10 days.
Express air freight is a few days faster, but more expensive.
Parcels weighing less than 150 kg can be economically shipped by courier (courier).