If you are going to start mini importation business in Nigeria, you will need to know the shipping cost from China to Nigeria, so as to enable you to make proper financial planning.
Read: How To Start a Mini Importation Business In Nigeria
The Chinese economy is the largest economy in the world and the biggest manufacturing and trading nation in the world.
Sometimes referred to as the world’s factory, it is the one-stop-shop for several nations across the world for products.
Being a large-scale exporter comes with a lot of benefits as exportation makes up 40% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Products (G.D.P), meaning the exportation of goods generates a whole lot of revenue for the Chinese government.
This revenue in turn is used for further development of the production industry and the nation as a whole.
China has a good trading relationship with a lot of countries. Therefore Chinese manufactured goods are purchased by countries from all around the world; one of its biggest customers is Nigeria.
Nigeria is largely an importing country and depends on a nation like China for goods.
I could bet you have at least one Chinese product to boast of.
Goods from China are in high demand in Nigeria mainly because of their pocket-friendly prices. They are also in high demand because they are readily available, common, easier to maintain and spare parts are easy to get.
Chinese companies also have offices in Nigeria to ensure maximum customer satisfaction.
Being established that Nigeria imports a lot of goods from China, it is also important to understand how these goods are moved from China to Nigeria, 6164 miles apart.
It is understood that we’re in the 21st century, where transportation is easier than it has ever been.
Even with this ease in transportation, shipment of goods from China to Nigeria is not always straightforward.
There are so many factors that contribute to unease in shipping or transporting goods from China to Nigeria.
The contributing factors include:
- Time taken to get to Nigeria
- Shipping cost from China to Nigeria
- Customs clearance
These factors should be considered before shipping your goods from China.
With these factors come various procedures depending on the method of freight shipping from China to Nigeria.
It is generally best to employ the services of a shipping or courier agency.
One of the initials considerations is the transit route which is usually influenced by price even though factors like time taken to freight the goods should not be neglected.
If time is taken into consideration, cargo services that transport goods by air are the best bet over their counterparts that transport goods by sea.
How Long Does It Take To Ship From China To Nigeria
The time efficiency of air transport is undeniably better than sea transport as it takes less than a week to transport your goods from China to Nigeria but sea transport takes about 45 days to cover the same route at the same time of departure.
If the price is to be considered, the cheapest method of shipping from China to Nigeria is using the China or Hong Kong Post service.
It would take a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of 5 weeks for your goods to get to you in Nigeria.
It is mostly used for small scale shipping and you can track your goods while they are in transit from China.
It however comes with its disadvantages as tracking is most times slow. Packages also get lost in transit and are hard to find.
Express Post is another method of shipping when the cost of shipping from China to Nigeria is considered.
It is a little more expensive but faster than using China or Hong Kong Post.
Express Post involves the use of courier companies like UPS, DHL, and FedEx.
If you are using any of these courier services, you should expect delivery to be made in 2 to 5 working days.
Courier companies like FedEx and DHL have a very good reputation in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, especially DHL.
They provide door to door services and their minimum package weight is 1 kilogram while their maximum package weight is 30000 kilograms.
Most cargo companies employ air freight when transporting goods from China to Nigeria.
This is however dependent on the size of the goods being shipped and takes 2 to 10 days to get to Nigeria.
It is advisable to use air freight if the goods being shipped weigh more than 250 kilograms.
With air freight, the cargo companies play no part in helping you handle documentation and customs clearance.
This could be a very stressful process especially if you are new to importing.
Handling customs clearance and documentation could be handled by customs brokers if any legitimate one can be found.
Sea freight is also used in importing goods from China to Nigeria, especially very large goods. It is cheaper than using air freight but it’s not uncommon for you to expect the goods to arrive in Nigeria in about 2 months from the day it is shipped from China.
Planning or importing ahead of time is advisable if you’re employing the services of companies that use sea freight.
You can either take care of the documentation and clearance by yourself or pay your cargo company to do so for you.
If you pay your cargo company to take care of the processes, you have to keep in touch with their representative to ensure the smooth running of the shipping.
Using sea freight, you could also give instructions for your goods to be delivered directly to you by your Chinese supplier, giving your port of destination a ‘CIF’ status or your facility address a ‘DAP’ status.
Cost, Insurance and Freight (C.I.F) is an expense paid by the seller to cover costs, insurance, and freight while the goods are in transit while Delivery At Place (D.A.P) is an international term used when the seller agrees to cover the cost of any loss that occurs while moving the goods to a specific location.
This costs more but saves a lot of stress.
The cost of freight from China to Nigeria includes a Custom clearance fee which could be as low as $5.2 per kilogram.
Shipping Cost From China To Nigeria
The cost of shipping goods from China to Nigeria are:
- 1 to 2 kilograms – Minimum Invoice – $15
- 3 to 5 kilograms – Freight and Clearing – $7
- 6 to 45 kilograms – Freight and Clearing – $6.8
- 46 to 100 kilograms – Freight and Clearing – $6.4
- 101 to 300 kilograms – Freight and Clearing – $6.3
- 301 to 500 kilograms – Freight and Clearing – $5.7
- 501 to 1000 kilograms – Freight and Clearing – $5.5
- 1000 to 3000 kilograms – Freight and Clearing – $5.2 per kilogram.
Steps to be taken during shipping of goods from China to Nigeria involve taking note of the warehouse shipping address of the Chinese cargo company.
When your package arrives at the warehouse, it is reweighed and packaged for shipping to Nigeria.
The company then ships it out to Nigeria and should be expected to arrive in Nigeria within 1 week or 3, depending on the type of shipping you use.
With all things put in place, clearing goods from the Lagos port by the Nigerian customs should take about 24 to 48 hours.
Disturbing matters, specifically the congestion at the Apapa port in Lagos -Nigeria’s main seaport – has made shipping from China down to Nigeria just one half of the job and expenses.
Financial Times of London reports that the cost of trucking a container from the Apapa port to the Lagos mainland is now as much as $4,000 which is exactly the cost of shipping the same container from China to the Apapa port.
The distance between Apapa port and the Lagos mainland is just 20 kilometers compared to the 12000 nautical miles from China.
This is caused by bribery and decaying infrastructure which the Nigerian government should do well to address and ensure importers are protected from additional costs.