Most experienced customers have their own nominated freight forwarders, who can handle the details of the shipment, so what we need to do is only provide the FOB price. However, if you are a novice in the socks industry, and attempt to find the best way to transport socks from China, we hope this article will give you some useful guidance.
Basic Knowledge of Socks Shipment
The weight and volume are two key points of socks shipment, which determine the price. Different socks or packages are with different parameters. (The actual situation will depend on customers requests)
Now we will take an example:
Socks materials and sizes of packages
- Weight: the weight of a pair of socks is from 60g to 120g.
- There is 250 pair of socks in each box.
- The carton has a volume of 0.072 cubic feet
Normally, these data always be provided by us or depended on customers requests.
When you get the data, you can make the following table based on them:
| Quantity | Weight | Carton | Volume |
| 1 pair | 60 – 120g | ||
| 250 pair | 15 – 30kg | 1 carton | 0.072cbm |
| 2,500 pair | 150 – 300kg | 10 carton | 0.72cmb |
Let's stop for a moment and look at the usual means of transportation:
Courier (Courier Company such as DHL, UPS, FEDEX and so on, which one will be chosen in actual business will depend on the destination.)
- Delivery time: 3-6 days (The goods will be delivered to most countries and regions within 3-6 days, and it is required more time for special places and delivery date)
- Weight: normally, when the weight is less than 150kg, express delivery will be the best choice.
- What kind of goods will be sent by courier: from above example, we can see that the weight of 2500 pair of socks are over 150kg, and it is not suitable to be delivered by courier. We usually only use the courier to send the sample or small orders.
- Other: courier provides door-to-door service without any other payment.
Airfreight
- Delivery time: 4-10 days (The goods will be delivered to most countries and regions within 4-10 days, and it is required more time for special places and delivery date)
- Weight: according to our experience, airfreight is suitable for the cargo with the weight from 200kg to 800kg.
- Other: need to collect the goods from the local airport and must pay the import fees and other service charges as well.
Sea Transportation
- Delivery time: (most of our clients can receive their cargoes within 15 days)
- Weight: if the cargo's volume is over 5cbm, then sea transportation will be the best choice.
- Other: need to collect the cargoes from the port, and must pay the import fees and other service fees as well.
Price calculation
Now we start to calculate the price based on our demands.
- Courier: by weight, 1kg/ $5 to the United States.
- Airfreight: by weight, 1kg/$ 2.5 to the United States.
- Transport fee: by cubic meter (CBM), 1 CBM/ $ 180-220 to the United States.
The following table will give you an intuitive idea of every transport fee:
| Quantity/pairs | Weight/Kg | Volume/CBM | Express cost | Air cost | Sea shipping cost |
| 1 | 0.08 | ~ | US$5.00 | US$2.50 | ~ |
| 250 | 20 | ~ | US$100.00 | US$50.00 | ~ |
| 2,500 | 200 | 0.72 | US$1,000.00 | US$500.00 | US$220.00 |
| 5,000 | 400 | 1.44 | US$2,000.00 | US$1,000.00 | US$330.00 |
| 10,000 | 800 | 2.88 | US$4,000.00 | US$2,000.00 | US$660.00 |
| 20,000 | 1600 | 5.76 | US$8,000.00 | US$4,000.00 | US$1,320.00 |
| 50,000 | 4000 | 14.4 | US$20,000.00 | US$10,000.00 | US$3,300.00 |
| 100,000 | 8000 | 28.8 | US$40,000.00 | US$20,000.00 | US$5,000.00 |
If you compare, you will find that for smaller orders (2000-5000 pairs), the fee of sea transportation is one-third cheaper than that of air freight, and courier cost is the most expensive among these three, so if you have enough time, please choose sea transport.
How to select the means of transportation?
Sample: usually sample, which is with a small quantity, only a few pairs, needs to be delivered quickly, so courier is the best choice.
Regarding small order: airfreight is usually the best choice, if you consider cost and have enough time, then you can choose to ship by sea.
Regarding large order: there is no doubt that the best choice for that is sea transportation.
Hope this article can help you learn more about the transportation of socks, if you have any misunderstandings or confusions, please leave messages or contact us from the e-mail: [email protected]
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