6 operating techniques for LCL cargo
1
Consolidate "is the English word for LCL, abbreviated as" console "in international trade and transportation.
2
LCL cargo is generally not accepted by a specific shipping company. Shipping companies only accept booking of full container cargo, rather than directly accepting LCL cargo booking. Only through freight forwarders (some powerful shipping companies through their logistics companies) can LCL cargo be assembled before booking from the shipping company. Almost all LCL cargo is transported through the freight forwarding company's "centralized handling and distribution", The LCL distribution port in East China is basically Shanghai Port. Due to the limitations of cargo sources, general freight forwarders can only book space from several shipping companies and rarely meet the needs of designated shipping companies. Therefore, when dealing with LCL cargo, it is recommended not to accept designated shipping companies as much as possible to avoid being unable to meet the requirements during shipment.
3
When negotiating transactions with customers, special attention should be paid to the relevant transportation terms to avoid the other party discovering that they cannot meet the transportation terms only when handling the shipment after the letter of credit is issued. In daily operations, we often encounter L/C regulations that do not accept bills of lading from freight forwarders for LCL cargo transportation. As the shipping company does not directly accept booking of LCL cargo, the shipping company's ocean bill of lading is issued to the freight forwarder, who then issues HOUSEB/L to the shipper. If L/C regulations do not accept freight forwarder B/L, there is no room for choice during actual transportation processing, which will result in L/C discrepancies. For example, when we were handling transportation, we found a consignment note stating: Goods must be shipped in container on LCL basis and Bill of Lading to evidence the same and to show that all LCL Handling charges, THC and delivery order charges at that port of discharges are prepaid. From the original text of the L/C above, it can be seen that the consignee has transferred all the expenses that should have been borne by him to the shipper, which is due to the lack of detailed negotiations between the shipper and the customer regarding transportation terms during trade negotiations.
4
The billing ton for LCL cargo should strive to be accurate. Before delivering LCL goods, the factory should be required to measure the weight and size of the goods as accurately as possible. When the goods are delivered to the warehouse designated by the freight forwarder for storage, the warehouse will generally re measure and charge based on the re measured size and weight. If the factory changes the packaging, it should be required to notify the factory in a timely manner. Do not wait until the goods are delivered to the freight forwarder's warehouse and feedback the information back through the freight forwarder. Often, time is already tight, and changing the customs declaration documents can easily delay customs declaration or incur expedited customs declaration fees and port clearance fees.
5
Some ports, due to insufficient supply of LCL cargo and high costs, adopt a minimum fee standard for goods with relatively small quantities by freight forwarding companies specializing in LCL. For example, if the minimum starting point is 2 freight tons, that is, if less than 2 freight tons, they will be priced and charged based on 2 freight tons. Therefore, for goods with small cargo volume and biased ports, it is necessary to consider more of these factors when trading to avoid being passive in the future.
6. For some routes and ports that are relatively remote, and customers request to deliver LCL goods to inland points, it is best to consult before signing the contract, and confirm that there are shipping companies and freight forwarding companies that can handle these remote ports, inland points, and related fees before signing the contract.
Summary of common problems with container and container consolidation customs declaration
The same foreign customer buys goods from different suppliers in China and then assembles them into a container to be shipped to the foreign customer. Sometimes two or three companies work together, and sometimes seven or eight companies work together. This is usually the case of container consolidation customs declaration. Please talk about common problems in container consolidation customs declaration.
I Customs declaration methods - agency customs declaration and bill of lading customs declaration
Because customers purchase from 3 to 4 different factories, some foreign customers may choose to purchase from factories without import and export rights in order to be cheaper. Although the price is cheap, there are no customs declaration documents, so they need to pay for customs clearance. So at this point, there will be some suppliers who act as agents for customs clearance, while others need to pay for customs clearance, especially for goods that require inspection. So at this point, it is recommended to combine the goods with documents and the goods with documents into a container, and to combine the goods declared with the purchase order and the goods declared with the purchase order together. Try not to have an AB order, where some agents declare customs and some pay for customs. This means that there are both goods that need to be declared by agents and goods that need to be inspected but cannot be inspected and must be paid for customs. Most ports do not support AB orders, and a few ports in the Pearl River Delta, such as Huangpu, Yantian, and Shekou, support AB orders.
II Destination country
Among the suppliers who need to act as agents for customs declaration, some require tax refunds, some do not require tax refunds for general trade verification, and some require commodity inspection with customs clearance documents. In this case, it is important to note that the destination countries of different suppliers' customs declaration documents must be consistent.
There are often two situations: 1. The information to be refunded is done in detail, stating the true destination country, and the destination country for non refunded small verification is randomly selected. Resulting in different destination countries for customs declaration materials. 2. When going to some inland points such as Russia, the unloading port is Poland, and the railway transfers to Russia. At this time, some people in the customs declaration documents have destination countries written in Poland and some in Russia. Causing inconsistency in the destination country. At this time, the destination country is Russia, and Poland is only the unloading port, not the final destination port.
III value
When consolidating containers, the value of each item is different, for example, there are three companies in total: A USD4W, B USD4W, C, and USD 3W
Their respective value of goods does not exceed 10W, and they do not require export special invoices. However, due to the total value of goods exceeding 10W or 8W (depending on the port), in some ports, value-added tax invoices need to be provided. At this time, because their respective factories do not understand the value of goods from other factories, they may not have sent value-added tax invoices, and re mailing may delay customs clearance time.
When consolidating containers, the value of each item is different, for example, there are three companies in total: A USD14W, B USD4W, C, and USD 3W
The total value of the goods exceeds $10W. Due to A's own exceeding of $10W, A also needs to provide a special export invoice, while others only provide value-added tax invoices.
IV LCL quantity
Generally speaking, the number of consolidated containers in a cabinet does not exceed 8, and in some places, it is 4. If a supplier has purchased from more than ten factories and all of them have customs declaration documents, then more than ten customs declaration documents need to be consolidated together for customs declaration. Generally, customs support does not exceed 8.
V The difference between tax refund and non refund
Three suppliers, two require tax refunds, and one does not. The total value of the goods exceeds 10W. Previously, only two factories with tax refunds were required to provide value-added tax invoices and export special invoices. Now, on the original basis, factories without tax refunds are also required to provide export special invoices.
VI Door sealing issue
Due to the large number of goods, it is best to remember what goods are loaded at your doorstep to prevent confusion during customs declaration and inspection.
VII How many cabinets to assemble
Sometimes the supplier has a large quantity of goods and may need to load 2 containers.
1. At this time, it is important to pay attention to loading the goods of the same company into a container, and not to load container A into multiple compartments and container B into multiple compartments. If the container cannot be fully loaded, it is necessary to separate the two containers and make an additional copy of the customs declaration documents.
2. Commodity inspection should correspond, for example, ABC three companies, A company has 70 cubic meters, B company has 18 cubic meters, and C company has 8 cubic meters. There are 50 cubic meters in large cabinets for A, 18 cubic meters in B, and 20 cubic meters in small cabinets for A and 8 cubic meters in C. When conducting inspection, A needs to conduct two inspections.
3. Do you want to report it separately or separately. During the customs clearance process, one container was inspected and the other was not inspected, as it was connected to the container and neither container could be loaded onto the ship. When reporting separately, those who have inspected can continue to inspect and wait for the next water. Those who have been released can board the ship.
Which is the higher cost of full container shipping compared to LCL?
Full and LCL
In container transportation business, we refer to goods that meet the "four ones" conditions of one container, one exporter, one consignee, and one destination port as full container cargo. However, if one of the three items of a container, exporter, consignee, and destination port is exported to two or more destinations, it is defined as LCL cargo.
The transportation costs of LCL and FCL vary greatly in terms of procedures, time, and expenses. The relationship between the two is not simply a simple addition and sum like "1+1=2, 1+2=3", but rather a strange "inequality" like "1+1>2, 1+2>3".
LCL cargo has more complex customs clearance procedures and takes longer than FCL cargo
Firstly, the entire container of goods exactly meets the minimum unit for customs inspection, sealing, and release in both exporting and importing countries. As long as the documents submitted by the exporter and importer are reasonable, legal, and complete, the export and import customs will quickly clear and release the goods after completing relevant procedures and collecting relevant taxes. And LCL cargo wouldn't be so simple and fast. As long as there is a mistake in the documents of one shipment of goods in the container, the export customs will not release the goods. Because the export customs must seal the containers before allowing them to leave the country. Therefore, if any goods in the same container do not pass customs, it will inevitably affect the timely export and transportation of other goods.
Secondly, LCL goods are not as extensive and flexible as FCL goods. It requires transportation companies to recruit and reasonably match various conditions such as loading port, destination port, delivery time, variety, volume, weight of goods, etc., which are suitable for export goods to be loaded into the same container. These requirements are very difficult to implement and require a relatively long time. If the transportation company that the shipper is shipping is not strong in terms of operational capabilities, then the transportation time of the goods will be delayed even longer.
Thirdly, in general, full container goods can be directly shipped at mainland ports, while LCL goods are only suitable for delivery at developed coastal ports due to the relatively limited supply of goods from mainland China and the relatively large number of coastal sources. This will undoubtedly add many additional troubles to the exporter. According to relevant regulations of the Chinese government, exported goods must pass the inspection of the commodity inspection bureau in the place of production and the place of export declaration. If the goods are declared for export locally within the jurisdiction of the province (autonomous region, municipality) where they are produced, a batch of goods only needs to undergo one commodity inspection. Otherwise, if it is a customs declaration from another place, a batch of legally inspected export goods must go through two inspections before the customs can release them.
LCL cargo costs more than FCL cargo
Under normal circumstances, the transportation and miscellaneous fees for full container cargo in sea freight generally include freight, transportation surcharges, and port miscellaneous fees. The freight and transportation surcharges for LCL and FCL should be the same, with the difference only in the cost of assembling and unpacking the transported goods at the loading port and the destination port.
Reasonably, these two fees should not be too high. However, due to the varying levels of labor costs among countries and regions around the world, and the fact that exporters have little or no knowledge of those specific differences, it is reasonable to add a certain proportion of LCL, unboxing, and storage fees to the overall cost of transportation and miscellaneous expenses for LCL cargo compared to FCL cargo. However, in order for carriers to earn higher profits, Often, using the method of "fuzziness", the quotation does not specify what items are charged and how much, but simply generalizes the amount charged per ton based on which type of goods are transported to which destination port. Port miscellaneous fees are also temporarily quoted and the amount is the same. The carrier has no obligation to explain, and the shipper has no room for bargaining. The amount charged depends on the specific situation.
In addition, it should also be noted that in import and export commodity trade, the larger the quantity and total value of each transaction, the lower the transaction cost. Conversely, the smaller the quantity and total value, the higher the transaction cost.
Compared to full container cargo, the quantity and total value of LCL cargo are generally relatively small. Therefore, from this perspective, the transaction cost of LCL cargo is definitely higher than that of full container cargo. This is because the cost and mailing fee of the transaction samples, communication fees such as fax and telephone, notification fees for letters of credit, customs clearance fees for import and export goods, and certificate of origin processing fees are all charged based on the number of copies rather than the size of the transaction amount. When these business expenses are ultimately allocated to transaction costs, the unit cost with large transaction volume will have a smaller share, while the unit cost with small transaction volume will have a larger share. We should be aware of this.