The paper cup is a product that deceives by its simplicity: paper, a coating and ink. In truth it is a food contact material bought on an exact technical specification, made on a separate tool for every size, and shipped on a calculation that rests on volume rather than weight. The importer who writes to a Chinese factory asking for "12 oz paper cups" and nothing more usually receives goods that leak at the seam, or that will not take the lid he bought from another supplier, or that arrive with a laboratory report his own customs will not accept because it was tested under conditions that bear no resemblance to the way the cup is used.
Two things set this commodity apart, and both should govern your decisions from day one. The first is that it is a food contact material, so its certificate file is a condition of entry rather than a formality, and it belongs in the plan before production rather than after it. The second is that it is bulky and light, so the economics of shipping it are the exact inverse of the economics of heavy goods; the container calculation turns over with it, and the unit of measure becomes the number of cups rather than the tonne. What follows is a practical guide in four parts: the product and its specification, then the certificates and requirements, then the steps of importing from China in order, then the container calculation on which the profitability of the whole deal is settled.
What is the difference between single wall, double wall and ripple wall cups?
The difference lies in the number of paper layers and in the way air is trapped between them, and it bears directly on thermal insulation, on price and on the volume of the shipment. This is the first decision in the specification, because it can change the price by more than double, and it changes the number of cups in a container appreciably.
- Single wall: one coated layer of paper. The cheapest, the lightest and the smallest in volume when nested, and the usual choice for cold drinks, for water and for in-house consumption in offices and restaurants. It will serve for hot drinks provided a paper sleeve is used, or that it is served as two nested cups, because the heat reaches the hand.
- Double wall: a coated inner wall wrapped in a second, separate outer wall of paper glued at the rim and the base, leaving a thin air gap between the two that works as insulation. It needs no sleeve, and its outer surface is smooth and flat, which makes it the better choice for high-quality printing and for brands. It costs some 40 to 70% more than single wall depending on the size, and it takes up more volume because the thickness of the wall increases the nesting distance between cups.
- Ripple wall: its outer layer is corrugated and fluted like corrugated board, so it creates multiple air pockets instead of a single gap. The best insulated of the three and the best to grip, the most expensive, and the bulkiest to ship. It is the usual choice for speciality coffee roasters and for cafés where the cup stays in the customer's hand for a long time.
The practical rule: choose by how long the cup is held and how hot the drink is, not by what looks the more premium. Hot coffee that the customer carries out of the shop deserves a double or a ripple wall, while water, juice and iced drinks need nothing more than a single wall with the right coating. And every extra grade is paid for twice: in the price of the cup, and in the number of cups the container carries.
What sizes do paper cups come in, and how much does each hold?
Size is quoted in US fluid ounces, and one ounce is about 29.6 millilitres. The six sizes below are the ones actually in circulation in Chinese factories, and each has its own tool and its own printing file:
| Size | Approximate capacity | Usual rim diameter | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 oz | about 120 ml | about 62 mm | Espresso · tasting samples · Arabic coffee |
| 6.5 oz | about 190 ml | about 70 mm | Tea · water cooler cups · hospitality |
| 8 oz | about 240 ml | about 80 mm | Cappuccino · the small size in cafés |
| 12 oz | about 355 ml | about 90 mm | Latte · the best-selling medium size |
| 16 oz | about 470 ml | about 90 mm | The large size · iced drinks |
| 22 oz | about 650 ml | about 90 to 98 mm | Juices · large cold drinks |
Note in the third column a detail that saves real money: the 12, 16 and 22 oz sizes usually share roughly one rim diameter, so a single lid serves them all instead of three, and with it the number of stock items and the cost of lid tooling both fall. But this is a common convention rather than a rule, and it varies from one factory to another with the tool — so check the diameter in millimetres in the technical offer, and do not assume it.
A second detail opens a great many disputes: capacity is measured in two different ways. Brim-full capacity is the cup filled to the very top; working capacity is the fill to some 6 to 10 mm below the rim, leaving room for the lid. The difference between the two is 5 to 10%, and a cup sold as "12 oz" may be 12 oz brim-full and 11 oz in practice. Stipulate both the method of measurement and the figure in the contract, because in many markets this is a point that can be pursued at law.
What paper weight (GSM) should I specify?
Paper weight is measured in grams per square metre, and in paper cups it ranges between about 170 and 350 gsm depending on the type and the size. It is the number that separates a cup that holds together from a cup that goes soft in the hand two minutes after the hot water is poured, and it is also the first thing a supplier quietly reduces when you press on price — so write it into the contract as an explicit figure.
The approximate figures usual in Chinese production: small cups of 4 to 6.5 oz are made from paper of 170 to 200 gsm, 8 oz from 200 to 230, 12 oz from 230 to 280, and 16 and 22 oz from 280 to 320. Double wall and ripple wall are built on an inner wall in the region of 200 to 250 gsm with an outer wrap of 200 to 300 added to it, so the two weights together reach the top of the range. And add two items many people overlook: the weight of the bottom paper, which is cut from a separate reel and is usually specified a little heavier than the wall because it carries the pressure of the liquid, and the type of pulp: virgin wood pulp paper, not recycled paper, because recycled paper is not accepted for direct food contact under most regimes.
And the simple practical test when you examine the sample: fill the cup with water at 90 degrees Celsius, leave it ten minutes, then hold it by the middle. A sound cup stays firm, does not soften and does not swell at the seam, and shows no trace of moisture on its base.
What is the difference between PE and PLA coating, and when is each one needed?
Both are a thin layer extruded onto the paper to stop the liquid passing through; the difference is that PE is polyethylene of petroleum origin and does not biodegrade, while PLA is polylactic acid made from plant starch and breaks down in industrial composting. The thickness of the layer in both cases is usually between 12 and 20 gsm.
- PE — polyethylene: the prevailing choice in Chinese factories. Cheap, thermally stable up to somewhere near 95 degrees Celsius, easy to seal, with a long shelf life that stands up to warehouse heat and humidity. Its only drawback is environmental: a cup coated with it does not degrade and is hard to recycle in ordinary paper streams, because separating the layer needs special processing.
- PLA — polylactic acid: called for when the market or the brand requires a compostable product. It costs some 20 to 40% more than PE, its heat resistance is lower — it begins to soften near 85 degrees Celsius, so it does not suit every very hot drink — and its shelf life is shorter and is affected by heat and high humidity, a point widely neglected in Gulf markets where warehouses are hot. And do not declare a cup "compostable" without a certificate of conformity to a standard such as EN 13432 or ASTM D6400, because the claim without the certificate exposes you to marketing liability in a good many markets.
And one decision matters more than the type of coating itself: single-sided or double-sided coating? Coating on the inner face only is enough for hot drinks, and it leaves the outer face as bare paper, which takes ink well and gives a feel that is not plastic. Cold and iced drinks, though, need coating on both sides, because condensation on the outer surface wets the paper, so the cup softens, the seam comes apart and the print smears. This is a recurring mistake: an importer buys a cup coated on the inside only and sells it to a juice bar, and the cup comes back to him with the complaint that "the cups go soft in the customer's hand" — and the problem is not the paper but the missing coated face.
How do I match the lid to the rim of the cup?
A lid is matched by rim diameter in millimetres, not by size in ounces, and by the type of rim curl, not by a general description. This is one of the points at which a deal most often turns against its owner, especially when the cups are bought from one factory and the lids from another.
The rim curl is the top edge of the cup folded outwards in a cylindrical roll. It does three jobs: it gives the rim the stiffness that stops the cup buckling, it stops liquid seeping out of the cut edge of the paper, and it forms the bead the lid locks onto. When the roll comes out irregular, or flattened, or narrower than the specification — which happens when the machine is set to a speed beyond its capacity, or when the paper is lighter than required — the lid pops off, or leaks, or will not seat at all. So make the measurement of the rim curl, and a test of fitting and removing the lid, an explicit item in the pre-shipment inspection.
As for the lids, the types in circulation are the plain flat lid, the drinking lid with a raised spout for hot drinks, the dome lid for cream-topped drinks, and the lid with a straw hole for cold drinks. Their materials are PP, PS or PET, along with CPLA in compostable lines. And two practical points: ask for PP rather than polystyrene wherever you can, because many markets have restricted polystyrene in single-use packaging materials; and ask for an actual fitting sample — cups and lids from the same batch, assembled in front of you on video — not a table saying the diameter is 90 mm in both documents.
How much does printing cost, and how does it affect the minimum order quantity?
Cups are printed by dry offset on a cylinder, printing plates are made for every colour and every size, and their cost is paid once and loaded onto the first order. The figure usually quoted is around USD 50 to 150 per colour per size, and it varies between factories and with the fineness of the design.
From this comes an important rule: every size is a separate printing file. A four-colour design across three sizes means twelve cylinders, not four, and changing the size later is not a small amendment but a new manufacturing file. So fix the sizes you will print on before you spend anything on plates.
And three technical notes that spare you many rounds of revision. The first is that colours are specified by Pantone numbers directly rather than by four-colour separation, because dry offset prints spot colours, and the common limit is six colours on a single machine. The second is that there is a no-print zone at the top edge of some 5 to 7 mm, because it is folded into the rim curl, and a strip at the base, because that is a gluing and folding area — so design on the factory's flat die line, not on a rectangle of your own. The third is that PE-coated paper alters the appearance of the ink slightly compared with plain paper, so ask for a proof on real printed cups rather than a digital image or a print on flat paper, and keep a signed approved cup with you as the reference for comparison at inspection.
And if you are building a brand on these cups, look over what relates to that in the guide to private label, OEM and ODM, and the guide to packaging, labelling and barcode requirements, because the data on the outer carton has requirements of its own, separate from the cup itself.
What is the minimum order quantity (MOQ) for paper cups?
The usual minimum in Chinese factories is 50,000 to 100,000 cups per size and per design, and the figure varies from one factory to another and with the complexity. Some factories come down to 25,000 cups for a common size with a simple design or with no printing, and some will not start below 100,000 when the colours multiply or the wall is double.
The reason is operational rather than obstinate: a cup forming line runs at somewhere between 75 and 150 cups a minute, and setting the machine up for a new design consumes paper, ink and technician time before the first acceptable cup comes off. So a small batch costs more to set up than it is worth, and the factory does not refuse it out of ill will but because it loses money on it. You will therefore find factories more flexible on one size in a large quantity than on five sizes in small quantities — a negotiating fact worth using. For the detail of this subject see the guide to minimum order quantity and how to negotiate it.
And note a practical distinction: plain white cups, or cups with a ready-made generic design, are usually available from stock at a far lower minimum, because the factory produces them all year round for many customers. So if you are testing the market, or serving customers who do not ask for a brand, start with plain cups and postpone printing until demand settles.
What certificates are required to import paper cups?
The basis is a food contact test report from an accredited third-party laboratory — SGS or Intertek or their equivalent — covering the standards of your target market, together with the usual shipping documents and whatever conformity certificates the countries of arrival require. A paper cup is not paper in the eyes of the regulators; it is a material in contact with food at an elevated temperature, and that raises the bar of what is asked.
| Certificate or standard | Issued by or its reference | Which market requires it |
|---|---|---|
| Food contact test report | Third-party laboratory: SGS · Intertek · BV · TÜV | Required in practice in every market, and everything after it builds on it |
| FDA 21 CFR | A US reference — testing is carried out against it at an accredited laboratory | The United States, and accepted as a supporting reference in other markets |
| LFGB | The German food and consumer goods act | Germany and Europe, and often asked for in Gulf tenders |
| EC 1935/2004 | The general European framework for food contact materials | The European Union — with a declaration of conformity (DoC) |
| EU 10/2011 | The European regulation on plastics in contact with food | The European Union — it concerns the PE or PLA coating layer |
| GB 4806.8 and GB 4806.7 | The Chinese national standard for food contact materials | China — and the factory must comply with it in its home market in any case |
| SABER, the certificate of conformity and the shipment certificate | The Saudi Standards Organisation through the SABER platform | Saudi Arabia — for each shipment separately |
| Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) | The Saudi authority competent for food contact materials | Saudi Arabia — according to the classification of the product and its intended purpose |
| ECAS / ESMA | The Emirati conformity assessment scheme | The United Arab Emirates — and a quality mark may be required for some categories |
| GSO Gulf standards | The GCC Standardisation Organisation | The Gulf states — the adopted technical reference |
| EN 13432 or ASTM D6400 | Standards for compostability in industrial composting | Needed only if you claim the cup is compostable |
| ISO 22000 or BRCGS Packaging | A management system certificate held by the factory | Not usually demanded at customs, but an indicator of discipline when choosing a factory |
And three items inside the report itself are what separate a useful document from a worthless one:
Migration testing is the heart of the food contact file. Two kinds are measured: overall migration — the total of what transfers from the cup into the food simulant, with a European limit of 10 mg per square decimetre or 60 mg per kilogram of simulant — and specific migration for named substances. What matters in practice is that the test conditions must match the conditions of use: a hot coffee cup is tested with water at an elevated temperature for a defined period, not at room temperature. A report tested under conditions gentler than your actual use is a report that is sound in form and useless in fact. Read the test conditions page in the report, not the results page alone.
Heavy metals: lead, cadmium, mercury and hexavalent chromium, whose source is usually the printing inks and pigments rather than the paper. The European limit generally recognised in packaging materials is that the four together must not exceed 100 parts per million. Stipulate the test explicitly, and do not assume that the food contact report covers it automatically.
Low-migration inks: this is a point most importers overlook. Cups are nested inside one another after printing, so the printed outer face of one cup touches the inner face of the cup next to it, and traces of ink can transfer by contact (set-off) to the surface the consumer drinks from. So stipulate low-migration inks free of mineral solvents, and ask for a sensory or odour test — a cup absorbs smells, and a cup that smells of solvent ruins the coffee before anyone drinks it. And add to that a statement that the product is free of fluorinated PFAS compounds, which many markets have restricted in paper packaging materials.
As for the shipping documents, they are the usual ones: the commercial invoice, the packing list, the bill of lading and the certificate of origin issued by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) or by Chinese customs, together with a wood packaging treatment statement under ISPM 15 if wooden pallets are used — or a "no wood" statement if the cartons are shipped floor-loaded, which is the common practice with this commodity because pallets eat into the volume, and volume is the scarce resource here. The detail of the Gulf schemes is in the guide to product certificates: SASO, SABER and ECAS, and the detail of the documentary file is in the guide to import documents and customs clearance.
Under which HS code are paper cups classified?
Here a caveat is needed, and it is a professional caveat rather than an evasion. The common heading for paper cups is 4823.69, within the group of "trays, dishes, plates, cups and the like, of paper or paperboard", and it is what you see on most Chinese factory invoices. Even so, some may be classified under 4819, which covers paper packing containers, depending on the description of the product, its form and its declared purpose; and plastic lids, if imported as a separate invoice line, usually fall under an entirely different heading in Chapter 39 rather than with the cups.
The final say on classification rests with the customs of the country of arrival, not with the supplier and not with what is written on the Chinese invoice. And the difference is not a formality: the rate of duty may differ, and with it the requirement for the conformity certificate itself. So send a full technical description — the wall type, the size, the coating type, the intended use, and whether the lids are in the shipment with the cups — to your customs broker in the country of arrival and ask for the heading to be confirmed before booking, not after the container arrives. And if the value of the shipment is large, ask for an advance customs ruling where the system allows one. The figures above are for guidance and orientation, not to be relied on in a customs declaration.
What are the steps to import paper cups from China, step by step?
Ten steps in their correct order, and the order itself is part of the value — for what importers lose most on is putting one step before another, and above all putting the booking before the approval of the sample:
- Set the specification before you write to any factory. Put on paper: the size in ounces, the capacity in millilitres and how it is measured, the wall type, the paper weight for the wall and for the bottom, the coating type and which faces it covers, the rim diameter, the colours by Pantone number, and the quantity per size. Whoever opens with "how much is it?" receives the price of the lowest possible specification.
- Find the Chinese factory and tell it apart from the trader. The paper cup production clusters in China are well known: Zhejiang (Wenzhou and Yiwu), the largest cluster for paper tableware; Guangdong (Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan), the closest to the southern export outlets; and Fujian, Jiangsu and Shandong. Ask for the Chinese business licence and check its scope of activity, ask about the number of forming lines and their capacity, and ask for photographs of the printing, forming and packing lines. A trader is no evil in itself, but knowing who you are dealing with is a condition of any serious negotiation — and the detail of that is in the guide to how to find a trusted Chinese supplier.
- Ask for a standard sample first, then a pre-production sample with your own design printed. The standard sample (a cup from the factory's ordinary production) settles the quality of the paper, the forming and the seam. The pre-production sample is real cups with your design printed on the same line, and production does not begin until you have approved them in writing and kept a signed copy with you. This step alone prevents the most frequent disputes.
- Test food contact compliance and ask for the reports. Fix the standard your market requires, send a sample to a third-party laboratory in China, and check that the test conditions match your use, and that the report is in the name of the factory that will actually produce for you rather than in the name of a sister company.
- Settle the proforma invoice and the delivery and payment terms. Agree the delivery term precisely, and staged payment terms rather than a single advance payment, and look over safe payment methods with Chinese factories. And state the full specification in the invoice, not merely "paper cups".
- Make the cylinders and approve the colour proof. Once the artwork file is approved on the factory's flat die line, the plates are made and a proof is printed on real cups. Compare it in daylight and under shop lighting, approve it in writing, and keep the approved cup, because it is the reference for the inspection later on.
- Production and packing. Cups are nested inside one another in columns of 50 as a rule (25 for the large sizes), each column is wrapped in a plastic sleeve, and the columns are then packed in cartons holding a thousand cups for the small sizes and 500 for the large. Ask for the carton dimensions, its gross weight and the number of cups in it in writing in the offer, because your whole container calculation rests on these figures and on nothing else.
- Pre-shipment inspection. An in-factory inspection before loading on the AQL method, and here it includes items particular to this commodity: a leak test, filling the cup with hot water and standing it on blotting paper for a defined period and checking that the seam and the base show no trace of any kind; measuring the rim curl and fitting and removing the lid; measuring the actual capacity by the agreed method; matching the print against the approved cup rather than against a photograph; the sensory odour test; and counting the cups in the carton. See the method in pre-shipment inspection and acceptance levels and how to read an inspection report.
- Booking, loading and export from the Chinese port. Choose the port of loading nearest the factory: Yantian, Shekou or Nansha for Guangdong factories, Ningbo or Shanghai for Zhejiang and Jiangsu factories, Qingdao for Shandong and Xiamen for Fujian. Book a 40ft high cube container, and watch the cartons being stacked to the roof, because every gap left is a direct loss with this commodity.
- Documents, shipping and clearance at the port of destination. Match the invoice, the packing list, the bill of lading and the certificate of origin against one another literally in the description of the goods, the number of cartons, the number of cups and the net and gross weights. A single figure that differs between two documents opens a review file that costs storage and delay worth more than the error itself.
How many cups does a 40ft high cube container hold?
Between about 250,000 cups for the large sizes and two million cups for the small ones, and the constraint here is volume, not weight. This is the most important operational point in this whole commodity: the paper cup is bulky and light, so the container fills up by volume with a very large margin of its permitted weight payload still unused.
These are indicative estimates for a 40ft high cube (40HQ) with single wall cups:
| Size | Approximate number of cups in a 40HQ | Approximate total weight |
|---|---|---|
| 4 oz | 1.5 to 2 million cups | about 6 to 8 tonnes |
| 6.5 oz | 1.1 to 1.4 million cups | about 6 to 8 tonnes |
| 8 oz | 700,000 to 900,000 cups | about 6 to 8 tonnes |
| 12 oz | 450,000 to 600,000 cups | about 6 to 9 tonnes |
| 16 oz | 350,000 to 450,000 cups | about 6 to 9 tonnes |
| 22 oz | 250,000 to 350,000 cups | about 6 to 9 tonnes |
And these figures are indicative, for orientation and not for contracting. The actual number depends on the size, on the height of the cup and its nesting distance with the cup above it, on the wall type — double wall and ripple wall lower the number by something like a quarter to a third, because the thickness of the wall spaces the nested cups apart — and on the carton dimensions and how efficiently they are stacked inside the container. The one reliable rule: calculate from the actual carton dimensions and the number of cups in it as given by the factory, and do not rely on a general estimate.
And read the last column of the table with attention: a container filled to the last cubic centimetre weighs no more than about 9 tonnes, while its permitted weight payload is close to 26 to 28 tonnes. You are therefore using about a third of the weight capacity and all of the volume capacity. That is why the 40ft high cube is the natural choice rather than a 20ft container: the high cube has about 30 centimetres more internal height than the standard, so it gives you about 12% more volume for a small difference in freight, while a 20ft gives you less than half the volume for more than half the cost. And the viability of a deal is measured here by the number of cups, not by the tonne, so the landed price per cup is the only figure that concerns you.
Nothing shows this idea more clearly than setting it against its exact opposite: in importing marble powder from China the commodity is dense and heavy, so the container reaches its weight limit with a great deal of empty space left in it, and for that reason the 20ft container is the economic choice there and the deal is measured by the tonne. Here it is exactly the reverse: the commodity is light and bulky, so the container reaches its volume limit well before its weight limit, the 40ft high cube is the choice, and the deal is measured by the number of cups. Both commodities are exported from China and shipped in containers, and the rule in both is one and the same despite the opposite outcome: work out which of the two limits you reach first, weight or volume, and build the choice of container on that. And for a comparison of container types and sizes see the container guide: full and part container loads.
Can paper cups be imported in less than a full container load?
In practice, no. Importing paper cups from China is not economically viable below a full container load (FCL) at the very least, and a 40ft high cube is better still. Anything less than that — groupage (LCL) or small quantities — raises the landed cost per cup until the deal loses its meaning, and you find yourself selling above the local market price.
And these are real reasons, not a bare assertion:
- Groupage is charged by the cubic metre. And cups are a commodity whose whole character is large volume and light weight, so a consignment weighing one tonne may occupy eight cubic metres or more. The price of a cubic metre in LCL is far higher than the share of the same cubic metre inside a full container, so the commodity that suffers most from groupage is exactly the light, bulky one.
- Fixed charges do not shrink as the shipment shrinks. Port handling, documentation fees, the clearance fee, inspection and inland transport are items that are all but fixed however small the quantity. In a full container they are spread over hundreds of thousands of cups; in a small shipment they are spread over a few thousand — and the difference in the share borne by each cup is a multiple, not a margin.
- The cost of the plates is paid once whatever the size of the order. If you pay six hundred dollars for the cylinders of your design and then order 20,000 cups, you have loaded three cents onto every cup from the plates alone — a very appreciable proportion of the price of a cup. The same sum spread over 600,000 cups becomes a tenth of a cent and is barely felt.
- The minimum order quantity is already close to a container load. 50,000 to 100,000 cups are figures that fall within the range of a single container or a large part of it. And going below the minimum is either refused by the factory, or accepted at a penal unit price that swallows the whole margin of importing.
Which is why we say it plainly: whoever needs less than a container is better served buying from a local distributor than importing directly. The distributor bought by the container and spread his fixed costs over it, so his price to you on a small quantity will be better than your own price as an importer, and it comes with goods on hand, with no forty-day wait and no specification risk. Direct importing becomes the right choice when your annual consumption reaches a container or more, or when you need a design of your own brand that nobody supplies locally. And before you decide, work out the real landed cost item by item and divide it by the number of cups — because the figure that comes out, not the factory price, is what you will be comparing against the distributor's price.
Alshumul's role in importing paper cups
Alshumul Commercial Services is an import and export company based in Guangzhou — that is, inside one of the largest clusters for paper cup production and printing in China, and close to the southern export ports. What it takes on is the whole Chinese end:
- Sourcing and verifying factories: mapping the cup factories in Guangdong, Zhejiang and elsewhere, telling a genuine factory from a trader, verifying the business licence, the scope of activity and that the bank account name matches, and visiting the forming and printing lines on site.
- Sample management: drawing standard samples from several factories and sending them to you for comparison, then following the pre-production sample with your design printed through to written approval, and keeping the approved cup as the reference for inspection.
- Food contact testing and certificates: fixing the standard your market requires, arranging the test at a third-party laboratory in China, reviewing the test conditions in the report rather than its result alone, and arranging the certificate of origin, the shipping documents and the conformity requirements of the country of arrival.
- Negotiating specification and price: drafting the specification as numbers in the contract — the size, the capacity and how it is measured, the paper weight for the wall and the bottom, the coating type and which faces it covers, the rim diameter and the Pantone colours — and negotiating the price per cup, staged payment terms and the cost of the plates.
- Pre-shipment inspection: an in-factory inspection on the AQL method covering the leak test, the rim curl, fitting and removing the lid, the actual capacity, matching the print against the approved cup and the sensory test, with a photographic report and supervision of the container stuffing.
- Booking, export and follow-up: choosing the port of loading best suited to the factory's location, calculating the load by volume rather than by weight, watching the loading through until the container is full, and following the shipment to arrival and clearance at the port of destination.
The practical benefit is that you deal with a single party responsible for the whole Chinese end, so you do not find yourself between a factory that says the specification is fine and a shipment that arrives with cups that leak, with nobody in between having stood on the production line or opened the laboratory report. If you want to go deeper into verifying the factory itself, see factory audit: what it is and why, for the detail of pre-shipment inspection see pre-shipment inspection and acceptance levels, and to work out the landed cost before pricing see the real cost of importing from China.
