In cases of high volumes of freight, you should consider ocean freight. You will find all the information you need here, from choosing the right mode for you to calculating costs and transit times.

Ocean Freight Meaning: What Is Ocean Freight?
Shipping containers are used in ocean freight transport.

Exporters and importers commonly use ocean freight as their main mode of transport. In fact, 90% of everything is sent by sea and ocean freight. Other modes of international freight transportation, like courier, air freight, and express air freight, may be faster, but are also more expensive. In general, these other methods are used for smaller shipments, or for products of high value.

For shipments that are too expensive by air or too slow by ocean, some freight forwarders offer express courier services. While less expensive than air freight, this service is often nearly as fast. In order to achieve this, ocean freight processes are streamlined and only connect to faster ocean services, as well as to premium trucking services.

Why Ship By Sea?
One container can hold ten thousand beer bottles! And ocean freight is cheaper. Any shipment weighing more than 500 kg is generally too heavy for air freight. For light shipments, you can use this calculator to find out whether your shipment will be billed by actual weight or dimensional weight. The FBX index provides live shipping rates for international shipments.
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. There are generally more restrictions on air freight than on ocean freight, including: gases (e.g. lamp bulbs), all things flammable (e.g. As a result, items with a corrosive or toxic component (e.g., perfume, Samsung Galaxy Note 7). batteries), magnetic substances (e.g. Public health risks (e.g., speakers, oxidizers, chemical medicines) arise from drivers (e.g., air pollution). untanned hides). The Hazardous Material Table has more information.
As compared with air freight, ocean freight's CO2 emissions are minuscule. 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.


Shipping ocean freight
What Are The Downsides Of Ocean Freight?
There are about 30 times more speed differences between passenger jets and ocean liners. Jets cruise at 575 mph, while slow-steaming ocean liners move at 16-18 mph. Therefore, it is not surprising that a shipment of goods traveling by air freight from China to the US usually takes at least 20 days longer.
There are generally more days spent on ocean freight than on air freight due to port congestion, customs delays, and bad weather conditions. The tracking technology used by air cargo is often far more advanced than that used by ocean freight. So ocean freight is more likely to be misplaced than air freight. The rates are especially high when the shipment is less than a container load. With that said, ocean freight is becoming more reliable due to digitization.
In general, ocean freight is more likely to be damaged or destroyed than air cargo. The reason is the longer transit time, and the fact that ships travel more often. However, you shouldn't be worried about ocean cargo falling off ships. 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. Some recent hotspots have included the Horn of Africa, the Gulf of Guinea, and the Malacca Straits.
Ocean Freight Services
Shipping services by sea can be divided into two categories: a full container load (FCL) and a less than container load (LCL). LCL involves packing several shipments into one container. For the forwarder, it involves more paperwork as well as the physical work of consolidating various shipments into a container before the main transit and de-consolidating those shipments at the other end. This gives LCL three disadvantages:

LCL shipments take longer to deliver than FCL shipments. One or two extra weeks for LCL are typically recommended.
Loss, misplacement, and damage are more likely to occur with LCL.
LCL costs more per cubic meter.
Since FCL shipping rates are lower, you may benefit from using a full container once your shipment is large enough, even if your goods do not fill the entire container. There is around a 15 cubic meter point for upgrading from less than container load to full container load.

Sea Freight Rates per kg
For all but exceptionally heavy goods, most LCL is priced by volume, not by weight.

Use these guidelines for selecting the most cost-effective mode of delivery for most products:

Shipments weighing more than 500 kg are economically unviable via air freight.
Shipments from China to the US take 30-40 days and cost around $2-$4 / kg.
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.
While express air freight is faster, it's also more expensive.


If your packages are lighter than 150 kg, you can go by courier (express freight).

Ocean and sea freight rates and charges you will see in your quote include the following:
On ocean freight quotes and invoices, you should find the following items: