Rates, Quotes and Fees for Ocean & Sea Freight Shipping: TopAlpha

Ocean freight should be considered when sending large amounts of freight. Whether you are choosing the shipping method to match your needs or calculating costs, here's your guide.

Ocean Freight Meaning: What Is Ocean Freight?
The ocean freight transport is the shipping of goods by sea in shipping containers.

The most common mode of transport for importers and exporters is ocean freight. Over 90% of all shipping is done by ocean freight and sea freight. There are other modes of international freight transport (courier, standard air freight, express air freight) that are faster, but they are also more expensive. Smaller shipments, and products with high values, are typically sent via these other modes.

Ocean freight can be slow, but air freight can be expensive. Some freight forwarders offer express shipping in such a case. As a result, this service is often faster and less expensive than air freight. By streamlining ocean freight processes, only better ocean services and superior trucking services will be connected.

Why Ship By Sea?
A container can hold 10000 beer bottles! And ocean freight is cheaper. A shipment weighing more than 500 kg should not be sent by air freight. Using this chargeable weight calculator will allow you to determine whether your shipment will be charged based on its actual weight or its dimensional weight for light shipments. Our FBX index provides live rates for international shipping.
The number of restrictions is fewer International law, national law, carrier organization regulations, and individual carrier regulations all play a role in defining and restricting what is considered dangerous for transport. Gases (such as argon) are generally restricted as air freight rather than ocean freight. lamp bulbs), all things flammable (e.g. ), toxic or corrosive items (e.g. batteries), magnetic substances (e.g. ), oxidizers and biochemical products (e.g. chemical medicines), and public health risks (e.g. untanned hides). The Hazardous Material Table has more information.
Ocean freight emits a miniscule amount of CO2 emissions as compared to air freight. By comparison, according to this study, 5000 kilometers of ocean freight can cause 150 kg of carbon dioxide emissions, compared to 6605 kg from air freight.

ocean freight
What Are The Downsides Of Ocean Freight?
Compared to ocean liners, speed planes travel at about 30 times the speed. Airliners cruise at 575 mph, while ocean liners move at 16-18 mph. Thus, it is no surprise that your shipment by air freight will take at least 20 days longer than your shipment by ocean freight.
Port congestion, customs delays, and foul weather generally add more days to sea freight than to air freight. The tracking technology used by air cargo is often far more advanced than that used by ocean freight. The result of this is that ocean freight is more likely to be misplaced than air freight. The situation is especially difficult when the shipment is less than a container load. Digitalization is making ocean freight more reliable.
The chances of ocean freight getting damaged or destroyed are greater than those of air cargo. Ships are more likely to move since they are in transit for longer. You don't need to worry about ocean cargo falling off ships too much. Rather than 10 thousand containers per year being lost in the drink, it's more like 546 out of 120 million movements in a year. Even less likely is piracy. The Horn of Africa, the Gulf of Guinea, and the Malacca Straits are hotspots in recent years.
Ocean Freight Services
Further, sea freight is broken down into two options: full container loads (FCL) and less than container loads (LCL). A LCL consists of several shipments packed into one container. As a result, there will be more paperwork and additional physical work for the forwarder, consolidating multiple shipments into one container before the main transit and de-consolidating the shipments at the destination. This gives LCL three disadvantages:

Shipments in LCL take longer to arrive than those in FCL. It's usually recommended to allow an additional one or two weeks for LCL.
LCL increases the likelihood of damage, misplacement, and loss.
LCL costs more per cubic meter.
Considering the lower shipping rates for full containers, it might be worth using a full container once your shipment is large enough, even if your goods don't fill a full container. LCL to FCL upgrades are typically achieved at a point around 15 cubic meters (the smallest size container is a 20 footer).

Sea Freight Rates per kg
In general, LCL is priced per volume of goods, and not per weight.

You can use the following rules as a guide to selecting the most cost-effective mode for most products:

Shipments over 500 kg are not economically feasible by air.
شركات الشحن البحري العالمية The shipping cost for China-US shipments is approximately $2-$4 / kg, and the shipping will take anywhere from 30-40 days.
Using air freight for a China-US shipment between 150 kg and 500 kg costs about $5-8 per kilo and can take 8-10 days.
A few days faster, but more expensive, is express air freight.
The cost of couriering a package less than 150 kg is economic (express freight).

Costs, rates, and charges associated with ocean and sea freight quotes include:
Here are the items you can expect to see on ocean freight quotes and invoices: