Shipments, Rates and Charges from TopAlpha Ocean Freight
The time to consider ocean freight comes when you are shipping freight in high volumes. You can find everything you need to know about ocean shipping, from determining the right mode to calculating costs.
Ocean Freight Meaning: What Is Ocean Freight?
The ocean freight transport is the shipping of goods by sea in shipping containers.
Exporters and importers commonly use ocean freight as their main mode of transport. 90 percent of everything is shipped via ocean freight. Other modes of international freight transport (courier, standard air freight, express air freight) are also faster, but more expensive. Smaller shipments, and products with high values, are typically sent via these other modes.
When ocean freight is too slow and air freight is too expensive, some freight forwarders offer express shipping. Faster and less expensive than air freight, this service can be nearly as expedient as air freight. In its system, ocean freight processes are streamlined and only higher-quality trucking services and faster ocean services are used.
Why Ship By Sea?
Value and Capacity One container can hold 10,000 beer bottles! And ocean freight is cheaper. In general, shipments weighing more than 500 kg are too expensive to ship by air. Use this chargeable weight calculator to work out whether you will be charged by actual weight or dimensional weight for your light shipment. Our FBX index contains live international shipping rates.
It is easier to define and restrict what goods are considered dangerous for transportation if the rules of international law, national law, carrier organization regulations, and carrier specific regulations are followed. A greater number of products are restricted as air cargo than ocean freight, including: gases (e. lamp bulbs), all things flammable (e.g. ), toxic or corrosive items (e.g. batteries), magnetic substances (e.g. In addition to speakers, oxidizers, biochemical products (e.g. chemical medicines), and public health risks (e.g. untanned hides). You can find more information in the Hazardous Material Table.
Ocean freight emits much less CO2 than air freight. Using this research as an example, 2 tonnes sent by ocean freight for 5000 kilometers will result in 150 kg of CO2 emissions, versus 6605 kg of CO2 emissions by air freight.
ocean freight
What Are The Downsides Of Ocean Freight?
Ocean liners move at 16-18 mph, compared with passenger jets travelling at about 575 mph. So it's no surprise that shipment by air freight from China to the USA usually takes about 20 days longer than by ocean freight.
Sea freight has a much higher level of reliability due to port congestion, customs delays, and bad weather conditions. The tracking technology for air freight is often more advanced than that for ocean freight. This means ocean freight has a higher likelihood of getting lost compared to air freight. This is particularly true for ocean shipments that are less than a container load. The digitization of ocean freight is making it more reliable.
The risk of damage or destruction of ocean freight is higher than that of air freight. Due to longer transit times and more movement on ships, it is in transit 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 have been hot spots in recent years.
Ocean Freight Services
A full container load (FCL) and a less than container load (LCL) are two additional options in ocean and sea freight services. One container is used for several shipments in LCL. The forwarder will have extra work to do, as there is additional paperwork to process, in addition to physically consolidating the various shipments before transit and de-consolidating them at the other end. 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.
Loss, misplacement, and damage are more likely to occur with LCL.
LCL costs more per cubic meter.
As shipping rates are lower for FCL, it may be worth using a full container once your shipment is large enough, even if you do not intend to fill the container completely. The tipping point for upgrading from LCL to FCL (the smallest container is a 20 footer) is around 15 cubic meters.
Sea Freight Rates per kg
Most LCL shipments are priced by volume of goods, not by weight, with few exceptions.
For most products, these rules of thumb can be used when selecting the most cost-effective method:
When it comes to shipments weighing over 500 kilograms, air freight becomes uneconomic.
The cost of ocean freight is usually $2-4/kg, and a shipment from China to the US typically takes 30-40 days.
Air freight can be an economic choice for China-US shipments between 150 kg and 500 kg, which will take 8-10 days.
الشحن بالسفن It takes a few days less to ship by air freight, but the cost is higher.
If the package weight is less than 150 kg, it can be sent by courier (express freight).
Here are some common ocean and sea freight rates, costs, and charges included in your freight quote:
These items will be included on ocean freight quotes and invoices: