The freight number, honestly stated
Container rates move weekly, so treat any article figure — including ours — as a planning band, not a quote:
| Item | Typical, Aug 2026 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 20ft container, China → Durban | USD 2,100–3,300 | Direct sailings from Shanghai/Shenzhen price best |
| 40ft container, China → Durban | USD 2,500–3,800 | The default box for machinery — better value per cubic metre |
| Transit time | 22–30 days | Shenzhen ~17 days at the fast end; Shanghai/Ningbo ~25; northern ports (Qingdao/Tianjin) can run far longer via transshipment |
| Seasonality | +15–30% | August–November peak; March–June is usually the cheapest window |
| Quote validity | ±2 weeks | Budget on the band, book on a live quote |
Durban is the machinery gateway and generally the most competitive South African port for this trade; Cape Town and Gqeberha quotes typically come in higher for China routings.
What the freight quote doesn't include
- Origin and destination port charges — terminal handling at both ends, documentation fees, and carrier surcharges. Insist on an all-in quote; "ocean freight only" comparisons are how forwarders win business and lose you money.
- Clearing — your clearing agent's fee plus disbursements. Get it quoted per entry, in writing.
- Customs duty — most production machinery under HS Chapter 84 enters at 0%, but specific sub-headings carry 5–15%; check your tariff heading before budgeting zero.
- Import VAT at 15% — levied on customs value plus duty. Reclaimable for VAT-registered manufacturers, but you carry the cash bridge until the refund cycle turns.
- Inland cartage — Durban to Gauteng is a real line item, and a crane truck at site for offloading is another.
- Marine insurance — typically around 1% of cargo value; skipping it on a six-figure machine is a false economy.
Put your own numbers in: our landed cost estimator takes an equipment price and container count and returns the installed project number — freight, duty, VAT, clearing, civils, installation and training included.
Machinery-specific realities
- A production line is rarely one box. An entry line typically ships in two to four 40ft containers; the loading plan — what travels with what, how it's lashed, which crate opens first at site — is engineering, not packing. A bad loading plan turns installation week into archaeology.
- Oversize pieces change the game. Tanks, silos and large frames may need open-top or flat-rack containers, or breakbulk — priced case by case and worth knowing before the design is frozen, because a machine designed to fit standard boxes ships for a fraction of one that doesn't.
- Incoterms decide who owns which risk. FOB plus your own forwarder is the sweet spot for most buyers; the trade-offs are in our Incoterms guide.
- Test before it ships. Freight is the cheapest part of a machinery mistake — a factory acceptance test before the container closes is what makes the whole journey worth taking.
Why we can plan on these numbers
CISH moves industrial equipment out of China continuously — consolidated shipments, established carrier relationships, clearing done as routine rather than adventure. When we quote a delivered line, the freight, clearing and inland legs are our numbers to manage, not your surprises to absorb. That's part of what turnkey delivery means.