Nowadays, the majority of sea freight shipments entering European ports come from the Asian region. And there is a good reason for that. The prices of almost all raw materials, goods and products over there are lower than here. At the same time, the quality is getting better and better and is now often at the same time as European and American goods.

When deciding to buy goods from a producer from Asia, say China, there are two options for transportation:

1) EXW expiration:

• You and the seller agree on shipping the goods via sea freight with the Incoterm EXW Hong Kong.

• You commission ECL Kontor GmbH to take over the entire transport from the seller's door to your door and thus have all services from one source.

• ECL Kontor GmbH collects the goods from the seller in China and brings them to the port of departure.

• At the port of departure, the goods are prepared for export (including all paperwork for customs clearance), loaded into a container and loaded onto the ship.

• After the container arrives in Hamburg, we pick it up at the arrival terminal and clear the goods contained in it.

• At your request, we will then deliver the container as a whole or unload it for storage or partial delivery

• You will receive a single invoice from us at the end of the whole process.

2) FOB process:

• You and the seller agree on shipping the goods via sea freight with the Incoterm FOB Hong Kong.

• The seller books a complete container with the shipping company of his choice

• The purchased goods are loaded into the container in China, which is then loaded onto the booked ship at the port of departure.

• After payment of the agreed purchase price, the seller or his bank will send you the commercial documents and the B/L (goods document of the container).

• You approach ECL Kontor GmbH with these documents, with the request to take over the import of this shipment for you.

• We contact the respective shipping company and pay the necessary sea freight and handling invoices for you.

• After arrival of the container in Hamburg we pick it up at the arrival terminal and clear the contained goods through customs

• At your request we will deliver the container as a whole or unload it for storage or partial delivery.

• At the end of the whole process you will receive a single invoice for the whole transaction from us.

There are no limits to what goods can be shipped by sea freight. Meanwhile, there are various container models that can load goods of almost all dimensions. For oversized goods or bulk cargo by sea freight, there are special ships for this.