Cargo consolidation from China, several factories, one shipment

It makes sense when each factory is below a full container, and the sum fits LCL or a 20-foot. Then five invoices still exist, but freight and often the customs procedure go as one shipment. That cuts fixed cost per piece.

It does not make sense when one factory is already near a full container. Then a clean FCL is more predictable than waiting for someone else’s goods. It also does not make sense when goods must not travel together: smell, liquid, battery, food, or a heavy frame over carton.

A trial buy from several counters in Yiwu is a common reason. A single-factory lot is not. Do not mix a trial and a seasonal programme in the same container if they have different shop dates.

Each factory has its own purchase order. Consolidation is not an excuse for a shorter spec. Only what was approved arrives at the warehouse.

Cubic metres in a factory quote and cubic metres in the warehouse are not always the same. The arrived carton is measured. If there is more air than on the sample, LCL price rises after, not before. That is why a packing sample goes before the lot.

The slowest factory holds the container. The agreement states how many days the warehouse waits and what happens if one shipment is late: it goes without it, or the date moves for all. We will wait without a date turns cheap LCL into storage.

On sourcing execution above 2,000 USD independent quality control is standard on the goods before they mix with someone else’s. Inspection in Serbia, when the container is already mixed, does not return one bad shipment without touching the rest.

While the sum is small, it stays LCL: you pay your CBM in a shared container, with more handlings. As soon as the sum nears 20 feet, we calculate FCL. It often wins on price and on breakage. Both numbers go into landed cost before factories start sewing or packing.

Sea after shipment is about 35–52 days. Air for samples is not mixed into the same plan as the lot container. The sample must arrive earlier so you can approve the lot, not in the same crate as the lot.

Mode detail is on shipping from China to Serbia. Here the joining rule is: one warehouse, one stacking plan, one date.

Batteries and devices with cells do not enter an ordinary container because space was left. That is said before the carton leaves for the warehouse. Chemicals, smell and food do not sit next to textiles. A heavy frame does not sit over carton with glass.

If the rule does not fit one container, we do two shipments. Two shipments with clean papers are cheaper than one that sits at customs because descriptions do not match, or one in which half the goods are damaged by someone else’s cargo.

A warehouse is not a factory. It does not rework colour, sew or change a chip. If inbound inspection finds scrap, the carton goes back to the factory before it enters the shared plan. That is a day of hold in China instead of a claim in Serbia.

Several factories mean several invoices. The broker can still have one procedure if the goods are in one shipment and papers match. If descriptions, quantities or HS codes differ from the cartons, the procedure stops for all, not only for one factory.

The Serbia China FTA from 1 July 2024 needs a certificate of origin under the rules that apply to those goods. It is not automatic for every line in a mixed container. The sheet uses two scenarios where the code has preference.

Put in the brief how many factories, what each sends, outline volume, whether there is fragile, heavy or batteries, and the date goods must be in the warehouse in Serbia. The answer is a join point, a rule for what travels together and a cost outline per cube or per container.