Best Shipment Options when Sourcing from China

There are many considerations one should take when sourcing goods from China, and when it comes to logistics there are many different ways to find the right logistics for you. Choosing the best shipment option is completely dependent on your unique circumstance but this article will give you some helpful tips about what you should consider when getting your goods back home.

 

The primary modes of transportation are air, land, and sea. Each come with unique benefits and it’s often a combination of these shipping methods to get the Chinese sourced goods to your business.

Air is the best bet for the quickest shipment options when sourcing from China obviously because of the distance an airplane can cover is much faster than the other modes of transportation. However, this speed comes at a cost and logistically one must weigh the benefits compared to the cost. Depending on the situation, air shipment could be the best if there are tight deadlines or a tighter control on the security of the sources items are needed because of the tracking which air travel is great at providing. Contrary to this, if the cargo is very heavy, air shipment may be sky high– pun intended.

Land can be divided into two sub-parts: truck or rail. Both are very common in the logistics of shipping products because the final destination is usually not next to the seaport or airport and will need to be transported across land. It also really varies whether it’s a rural or urban delivery area because in remote areas it is more difficult to have trafficked truck routes. When sourcing from China, there is no direction land route the cargo could take, so this mode of transportation must be used in coordination with another mode which complicates the path of travel but is a reality of logistics.

The mode of transportation that is generally the least expensive is by sea and this is the mode most widely used. This is usually because the shipments can take a very long time to deliver their cargos but can carry a massive amount of goods, which drives down the costs. The diversity of cargo that can be shipped by sea is also a major benefit to this mode. Shipping lanes from China to the US are plentiful but things such as inclement weather or nautical conditions can further delay an already slow method of transporting your goods.

While considering each of those shipment options when sourcing from China, there should be some deliberation over the time frame you need your products, the security of your shipment, and usually the biggest factor, the cost. This blog should be a jumping off point into the logistics of sourcing products from China, and you can read about the shipping lanes from China here, or the pre-shipment inspection procedure here.