A quotation for glass carries a price and three letters, and the three letters decide how much of the journey that price covers. EXW, FCA, FOB, CFR, CIF: each moves a different share of the cost and the risk from your side to the seller's. Getting them straight is what makes two quotations comparable, and the six line items between a Chinese factory gate and your warehouse door are what turn a price per thousand into a landed cost per bottle.
What Each Incoterm Moves to the Seller's Side
| Term | Seller covers up to | You cover | Risk passes |
|---|---|---|---|
| EXW | Goods packed and available at the factory gate. | Loading, inland haul, export clearance, terminal, freight, insurance, duty, delivery. | At the factory gate. |
| FCA | Delivery to the named place, cleared for export. | Main carriage, insurance, duty, delivery. | When the carrier takes the goods. |
| FOB | Goods on board the vessel at the named Chinese port. | Sea freight, insurance, destination charges, duty, delivery. | When the goods are on board. |
| CFR | Sea freight to the named destination port. | Insurance, destination charges, duty, delivery. | When the goods are on board at origin. |
| CIF | Sea freight plus minimum-cover insurance to the destination port. | Destination charges, duty, delivery. | When the goods are on board at origin. |
| DAP | Delivery to your named place, not unloaded, duty unpaid. | Import clearance, duty and taxes, unloading. | At your named place. |
| DDP | Delivery to your named place with duty paid. | Unloading. | At your named place. |
Two of those catch people out. Under CFR and CIF the seller pays the freight while the risk sits with you from the moment the goods are on board at origin, so cargo insurance matters even on a term that sounds like it covers you. And CIF's insurance is minimum cover under the Incoterms rules, which is narrower than the all-risks cover most buyers assume they have. SGSBOTTLE has shipped on both terms to 40+ countries since 2013: EXW from the factory gate in Shandong or Jiangsu, FOB from the Chinese port, and the other terms priced on request.
FOB or FCA for a Container of Glass
FOB was written for goods that a crane lifts on board a ship. A container of glass does not work that way: you hand it to the carrier at a terminal days before the vessel loads, and from that moment nobody on your side can control it. That gap is why the International Chamber of Commerce recommends FCA for containerised cargo, with the named place being the terminal or the yard.
In practice most buyers still write FOB, banks still ask for it, and it works because the seller and the forwarder both know what they mean by it. Either term is fine once your insurance starts where your risk starts, and that is the question worth asking your broker rather than which of the two letters to use.
The 6 Line Items Between the Factory Gate and Your Door
| Step | Line item | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Glass and decoration, ex works. | Grade, weight, decoration passes, order volume. |
| 2 | Packing, pallets and inland haul to the Chinese port. | Pack format, pallet count, and the haul from Shandong or Xuzhou to the port. |
| 3 | Export clearance and origin terminal handling. | Documents, terminal tariff, container type. |
| 4 | Sea freight and cargo insurance. | Lane, season, container size, insured value. |
| 5 | Destination terminal, customs entry, duty and import tax. | Your HS classification, market, and origin rules. |
| 6 | Delivery from port to your warehouse, and unloading. | Distance, pallet count, whether you unload bulk by hand. |
Items 1 and 2 are the ones a glass factory prices. Items 3 to 6 belong to your forwarder and your broker, and they are where two quotations that looked identical per thousand end up a long way apart. A landed-cost sheet with all six filled in is a piece of work you do once per lane, and it settles most sourcing arguments afterwards.
Duty, delivery and unloading stay yours on FOB and CIF alike, and they all land in your own warehouse.
Duty, HS Code and the Documents Your Broker Needs
Glass containers for the conveyance or packing of goods classify under heading 7010, with the subheading following capacity and type. The rate depends on your market and on the origin, so your customs broker confirms both before you book, and a classification agreed in advance keeps a container off a hold.
The documents that travel with an SGSBOTTLE shipment cover the entry: the commercial invoice and packing list, the bill of lading, the certificate of origin when your market wants one, and, on request, the food-contact and test documents your compliance desk files, from the ISO 9001 certificate to the SGS lead and cadmium report and the EC 1935/2004 declaration. The loading plan and loading photographs go with them, so what the broker sees on paper matches what the container holds.
Landed Cost per Bottle: Where the Count Comes In
Add the six items, then divide by the bottles that actually fit in the container. That divisor is the part you control at specification stage: about 25,000 bottles of 750 ml (25 oz) in standard shapes fill a 40HC, about 22,000 in irregular ones, and about 60,000 bottles of 12 oz (355 ml). A 500 ml (17 oz) bottle sits between the two. A shape that loads 10 percent better carries a 10 percent smaller freight share on every bottle, for the life of the SKU.
That is the arithmetic behind two quotations that look identical at EXW and differ at your door. The glass price is one line of six, and the other five move with the pack format, the lane and the count.
What Moves Your Landed Cost Most
Four levers, in the order they usually pay. Glass weight, because it moves the glass price and the freight together. NNPB lightweighting on the 7 lines in Shandong takes grams out of your bottle without taking strength. Shape, because a square body nests where a round one wastes the corners of every carton cell. Pack format, because bulk loading fits more glass per box and palletised loading unloads faster at your end. And SKU mix, because a mixed container of food jars, sauce bottles and candle glass saves you a second container and a second set of documents.
With the fill, the market and the pack format you can unload, your quotation comes back with the loading plan attached, so you book freight on a real count instead of a reference figure.