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Logistics guides

Shipping from China to the UK and Europe

— Written by operations, not marketing

Every guide here is written by HSIEHSHUN operations staff and reviewed by our commercial team, and each answers a specific question: how costs are built up, where transit times really differ, what customs will ask for, and which charges quotes rarely mention. No filler — only what we handle every day.

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— Knowledge Base
UK Logistics

Shipping to the UK

Cost, Clearance and Delivery into Great Britain

Since Brexit, UK imports follow a different cost structure and a different set of customs requirements from the EU. This section covers the UK specifically.

01
UK Shipping Cost
Five cost segments, line by line
The landed cost of a China–UK shipment splits into five segments. A line-by-line breakdown of the quote, how import VAT is actually calculated, how chargeable weight works, and three charges quotes rarely mention.
COST VAT
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02
UK Transit Time
Port-to-port against door-to-door
FCL 28–35 days, LCL 32–40, air 5–8, rail and road 22–28 — but those are port-to-port. Realistic door-to-door timings, where the extra days go, and the three causes behind most delays.
TIME MODE
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03
UK Customs Documents
A checklist you can work through
How each of the five mandatory documents must be completed: how EORI differs from VAT, why the importer of record decides who can reclaim import VAT, how to write a description that will not be rejected, and the three names that must agree.
EORI DOCS
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04
DDP vs DAP
And why DAP often costs less
Under DAP you clear and pay; under DDP the seller does. But import VAT is only recoverable by whoever is named as importer of record — which is why DAP is often cheaper in real terms for a VAT-registered UK buyer.
TERMS VAT
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Europe Logistics

Shipping to the Continent

Modes, Rail against Sea, and Germany

Europe has enormous inland depth. Ocean lands at a port, rail at an inland hub — and the cost of choosing wrong usually shows up in the European trucking, not the freight rate.

05
Europe Modes
Your postcode decides
A framework across all five modes — ocean FCL and LCL, rail, road and air. What decides the choice is rarely transit time but whether the address is coastal or inland, plus four common mismatches.
MODES EU
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06
Rail vs Sea
When the premium is worth paying
Rail 15–22 days against 25–35 by sea — but terminal-to-terminal cannot be set against port-to-port. How the break-of-gauge transfers drive rail's uncertainty, and the three cases where rail earns its premium.
RAIL COST
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07
China to Germany
Hamburg, Duisburg and LUCID
The two gateways belong to two different modes, not two options. Three ways German import differs from the UK, and the LUCID packaging registration most sellers miss.
DE LUCID
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Amazon FBA

FBA first-leg

First-leg Delivery into Amazon Fulfilment Centres

The hard part of marketplace freight is not the transport. It is the importer of record, the per-country registrations, and the platform's own receiving rules.

08
UK & DE FBA
Two separate operations
Since Brexit the UK and Germany are separate customs territories — one consignment cannot cover both. What each country requires, why Amazon will not be your importer, and the three reasons warehouses reject cartons.
FBA IOR
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Every guide here is written by HSIEHSHUN operations staff and reviewed by our commercial team — only what we handle every day. If there is a topic you want covered, tell us.

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What the guides
can't answer

Send us your commodity description and code, total weight and volume, and destination postcode. We will return an itemised written quotation, with inclusions and exclusions stated separately.

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