Like Tree1Likes
  • 1 Post By PDLM

Shipping to Hong Kong

Closed Thread
  1. #1

    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Wan Chai
    Posts
    41

    Shipping to Hong Kong

    I've lived in Hong Kong for a around 18 months now, but I'm due to start studying again later in the year and I need to get several (around 6) boxes of books shipped over from the UK.

    After a cursory glance around the internet, it seems that most companies are more concerned with large-scale house moves rather than just small shipments like this.

    Does anyone know of a good company to contact about this? And does anyone have any experience of how much a shipment like this is likely to cost? I guess it amounts to around 200-250 books in total ... But god knows how much that weighs ...

    Cheers all!


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    23,205
    SevenSeas Worldwide would be good for this I guess. Online quotes at their site. They shipped a few boxes of stuff for me in the other direction very efficiently.
    NickWebber likes this.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Wan Chai
    Posts
    41

    Thanks for that PDLM! From just going through their online quote system it'll cost around 185 sterling for 6 boxes of books. About what I thought it would be, and seems to be a very easy door-to-door service ...


  4. #4

    We used Seven Seas a couple of years ago from London to HK. It was very reasonable. Couple of hundred quid for a about 10 boxes of miscellaneuous every day type stuff e.g. clothes, shoes, books, dvds, etc. Took about 2 months as far as I recall. As books are about the heaviest thing you can ship you may have to pay a bit more. I seem to recall they had a limit for how much each box could weigh, but once the Seven Seas guy picked it up he was not too concerned. Actually, the guy could not have cared less but maybe thats an anomaly.

    We were moving from London to Toronto with a bit of a stopover in HK in between. It was a hell of a lot cheaper shipping boxes from London to Toronto through HK than going straight to Toronto. HK being right by the sea and being a massive port has something to do with it I would think.

    Last edited by Char Siu King; 17-03-2010 at 01:20 AM.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Posts
    279
    Quote Originally Posted by Char Siu King:
    We used Seven Seas a couple of years ago from London to HK. It was very reasonable. Couple of hundred quid for a about 10 boxes of miscellaneuous every day type stuff e.g. clothes, shoes, books, dvds, etc. Took about 2 months as far as I recall. As books are about the heaviest thing you can ship you may have to pay a bit more. I seem to recall they had a limit for how much each box could weigh, but once the Seven Seas guy picked it up he was not too concerned. Actually, the guy could not have cared less but maybe thats an anomaly.
    i think the weight limit is 30kg / box. they always recommend you to order more boxes when you first place your order coz if you require more boxes later, they will charge you another 10 quid or something for the delivery.

    also, if you work full time, it is best to call them up to arrange a saturday collection, as the sat slot is not always available
    online.

    before the actual delivery day, the local handling agent will give you a call to confirm the add and should you need to change the add last minute, the local agent is happy to do it for you without any additional charge.

    my 8 boxes arrrived after 6 weeks (from London)!!!

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Wan Chai
    Posts
    41

    thanks very much everyone. all very helpful information. yes, the limit is 30kg to hk, so i'll just order a stack of boxes and see how far it gets me! it looks like insurance is pretty expensive though. did any of you folks actually buy insurance as well?


  7. #7

    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    23,205

    I didn't on the grounds that stuff was either irreplaceable or affordable to replace. On average you'll always pay more for insurance than you'll get back (otherwise insurance companies wouldn't be viable businesses).


  8. #8

    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    TST and Macau
    Posts
    1,487
    Quote Originally Posted by PDLM:
    I didn't on the grounds that stuff was either irreplaceable or affordable to replace. On average you'll always pay more for insurance than you'll get back (otherwise insurance companies wouldn't be viable businesses).
    Did you know, that if you ship by sea freight (FCL, I am not sure who is responsible with LCL) and the ship sinks or has a fire, you have to pay for the damage of the ship partially if not insured. I'd insure everything shipped by sea. It only costs about 0.3% of the value if normal merchandize.

    By the way, I checked those rates of seven seas. They look very high to me unless you need air freight. If time is no issue, I'd try to contact a forwarder to get a quote for LCL (Less than Container Load = combined contrainer).

    An example: The sea freight for a 20 ft. Container from Hamburg to HK costs only a fraction of the sea freight than in the other direction, because many containers go empty. I had a 20 ft. container (Capacity around 30 cbm) door to door from near Frankfurt to Macau (Significantly more expensive than to HK) for around 2000 Euros. For LCL forwarders normally charge a minimum of 1 cbm or 1000 Kg. Worth to get a quote if you get near that volume/weight. I'd guess the price per cbm/metric-ton double of the relative FCL cost, say around 130 Euros, Plus the local trucking charges in HK which are at a minimum of about 500-600 HK$.

    Detailed quotes will only be given by the forwarders for a real life example with volume and weight, since rates change almost on a daily basis (but not that much).
    Last edited by hktraveller; 21-03-2010 at 02:20 AM.

  9. #9

    Join Date
    May 2010
    Posts
    12

    @ hktraveller
    Since we need to ship our whole household from Berlin to Hongkong I´m very interested in which company you used? The quotes we got so far are around 3000 EUR per 8cbm. Which sounds a lot more than what you paid. If you could help me out that would be great.
    Thanks
    Teresa


  10. #10

    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    TST and Macau
    Posts
    1,487
    Quote Originally Posted by teschka:
    @ hktraveller
    Since we need to ship our whole household from Berlin to Hongkong I´m very interested in which company you used? The quotes we got so far are around 3000 EUR per 8cbm. Which sounds a lot more than what you paid. If you could help me out that would be great.
    Thanks
    Teresa
    If you speak German, ask this question on Außenhandel, Incoterms, Zollbestimmungen - Forum: Trademind.de There are several shipping companies' representatives on there. I used DHL sea freight 3 years ago. Since this is so long ago, you would need to do a new comparison of prices. 3000 Euros is too high. But if it is door to door and includes movers to pack and unpack everything, that price could be possible I believe.