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Bring Premium Value to Your Brand with a Trusted Custom Packaging Manufacturer
When you buy packaging from overseas factories, reading the quotation sheet can sometimes feel like trying to crack a secret code. Next to the price per unit, you will always see three-letter abbreviations like EXW, FOB, CIF, or DDP.
These are not just random letters; they are Incoterms (International Commercial Terms). Essentially, these rules define exactly who pays for the ocean freight, who handles the messy customs paperwork, and who is responsible if a container gets damaged during a storm.
Choosing the wrong shipping term can accidentally double your final bill with hidden port fees. Let’s break down the 4 most common shipping terms in simple, plain English so you can pick the safest and most cost-effective option for your business.
First of all, EXW means the factory simply manufactures your goods and packs them into cartons. After that, their job is completely done. As the buyer, you must arrange for a truck to pick up the shipment directly from the factory’s loading dock.
Who pays for what? You pay for everything—domestic trucking in the sourcing country, export customs clearance, ocean freight, import duties, and final delivery to your warehouse.
The biggest risk: If the truck driver drops your brand-new custom paper boxes right outside the factory gates, the loss is 100% on you.
Generally speaking, we only recommend EXW if you already have a highly trusted freight forwarder with a local warehouse in China who can consolidate multiple shipments for you.
Next, FOB is the most popular term used by professional global buyers. Under FOB, your packaging box supplier pays for all the local expenses until the cargo safely passes over the ship’s rail at the designated departure port (like Ningbo or Shenzhen).
The supplier’s job: The factory pays for local trucking, handles export customs clearance, and pays all Chinese port documentation fees.
Your job: Once the container is loaded onto the vessel, you take over. You pay for the ocean freight, cargo insurance, and import customs at your destination port.
FOB gives you excellent control over your shipping schedule because you get to choose your own shipping line and negotiate your own ocean freight rates.
If you do not want to manage the international shipping yourself, CIF might sound like a very tempting option. Here, the manufacturer pays to ship the goods all the way to your nearest destination port and even buys a basic cargo insurance policy for the journey.
However, CIF comes with a massive hidden trap that surprises many beginner buyers. While the initial quote looks cheap, destination ports often charge massive, unexpected “handling and offloading fees” before they let you take your cardboard shipping boxes home.
Therefore, if you choose CIF, always make sure you have a local broker who can check the true destination destination port fees in advance.
Finally, if you want a completely hands-off experience where you don’t have to deal with customs brokers, bonds, or tax paperwork, DDP is the absolute best choice.
Under DDP, the manufacturer handles every single detail of the journey. They produce the goods, clear Chinese customs, pay for the sea or air freight, handle the import customs clearance in your country, pay the import duties/taxes, and deliver the boxes right to your office or Amazon FBA warehouse.
You simply pay one all-inclusive price up front, sign for the delivery when the truck arrives, and focus entirely on selling your products.
To help you make a quick decision for your next project, here is a simple breakdown of how responsibility shifts based on the term you pick:
Fortunately, selecting the perfect substrate for your custom run is incredibly simple when you analyze the visual and mechanical properties. Refer to our factory matrix below to select your ideal structural base:
The factory floor
The departure port ship rail
The departure port ship rail
Your actual delivery address
Navigating international shipping laws should never stand in the way of getting world-class packaging for your brand.
Gerun Packaging is more than just a premium factory for custom packaging manufacturing—we are your full-service supply chain partner. With over 20 years of international trade experience, we maintain strong partnerships with top global shipping lines.
Whether you want to use your own forwarder under FOB terms, or prefer the complete peace of mind of a DDP door-to-door delivery, our team handles all the heavy lifting. We also offer free cargo consolidation and heavy-duty pallet wrapping at our facility to guarantee your boxes arrive in flawless condition. Contact Gerun Packaging today to get a transparent, all-inclusive shipping quote!
Tel：+86 13723475723
Add：building 10, zone 14th, taoyuanju, xixiang street, Bao'an district, Shenzhen, 518126, China
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