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You have approved the quote, the parts are machined, and your supplier sends you a photo of neatly packed boxes. Now what? For many first-time buyers, arranging the trip from a factory floor in Shenzhen to a warehouse in Ohio or Bavaria is the most confusing part of the whole order. The good news: once you break it into decisions — shipping terms, transport mode, packaging, documents, and customs — the process is very manageable. This guide walks through each step, with the differences between the US and Europe flagged along the way.
Shipping starts at the quotation stage, not at the factory gate. The Incoterm written on your order decides who pays for — and who is responsible for — every leg of the journey. The five terms you will meet most often with Chinese suppliers are:
A practical rule of thumb: choose DDP or DAP for samples and small urgent batches where simplicity matters more than cost, and move to FOB with your own freight forwarder once order volumes grow. Always cite the version in writing, for example "FOB Shenzhen (Incoterms 2020)".
CNC turned parts are dense — a small box of steel shafts can easily weigh 30 kg. That makes weight, not volume, the usual cost driver. Your three realistic options:
| Method | Typical transit time | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Express courier (DHL, FedEx, UPS) | About 3–7 days door to door | Prototypes, samples, and batches up to roughly 100 kg |
| Air freight | About 5–12 days airport to airport, plus clearance and final delivery | Mid-size urgent orders, roughly 100–500 kg |
| Sea freight (LCL or FCL) | Roughly 2–3 weeks to the US West Coast, 3–5 weeks to the US East Coast and Northern Europe, port to port | Production orders above a few hundred kilos or a couple of cubic meters |
LCL (less than container load) lets you share container space and is the default for most small and medium machining orders. FCL (a full 20- or 40-foot container) only makes sense for large recurring programs. If your timeline is flexible, sea freight cuts per-kilo cost dramatically; if you are bridging a production gap, air freight costs several times more per kilo but saves two to four weeks. Ask your supplier or forwarder to quote both so you can see the real premium for speed.
A container crossing the Pacific is a humid, vibrating environment, and turned parts have exactly the features that suffer most: ground diameters, fine threads, and sealing faces. Standard bubble wrap in a cardboard box is not enough for a month at sea. Before the order ships, confirm in writing that your supplier will use:
An experienced cnc turning supplier treats this as standard export practice rather than an extra, but it is still worth listing your requirements on the purchase order.
Most customs delays trace back to paperwork, not inspections. A typical shipment of machined parts needs:
United States. Commercial shipments require a formal customs entry, usually filed by a licensed customs broker, plus an importer bond (single-entry or continuous). On top of the standard duty rate for your HS code, many Chinese-origin goods carry additional Section 301 tariffs — commonly 25% on affected lists — so confirm the full duty stack with your broker before you price the job. Duties are calculated on the customs value, which is another reason FOB keeps your landed cost lower than CIF: freight and insurance are not added to the dutiable base.
Europe. You need an EORI number to import into the EU — a one-time registration that costs nothing. Import duty follows the TARIC rate for your HS code, and import VAT (set by each member state, typically in the 19–25% range) is charged on the goods value plus freight and duty; VAT-registered businesses can usually reclaim it. The United Kingdom runs its own system with UK Global Tariff rates and 20% import VAT, so treat the UK and EU as separate destinations. Machined components themselves do not need CE marking — that applies to machinery and regulated products, not to loose parts — but your customs broker should confirm this for your specific product.
Whichever side of the Atlantic you are on, budget for the broker's fee and destination handling charges on every shipment; they are small compared with duties, but they surprise first-time importers who assumed "freight paid" meant "all costs paid".
Carrier liability for lost or damaged ocean cargo is limited by international convention to amounts that rarely cover the real value of precision parts. All-risk marine cargo insurance is inexpensive — usually a small fraction of one percent of the cargo value — and worth buying on every shipment over a few thousand dollars. Under CIF the seller buys insurance, but often only minimum cover, so check what is actually insured. Finally, make sure you receive the tracking or bill of lading number the day the shipment moves, and diary the estimated arrival so your broker can pre-clear documents while the cargo is still on the water.
Arranging shipping from a Chinese machining supplier is a sequence of ordinary decisions, not a mystery. Lock in the right Incoterm, match the transport mode to your weight and deadline, insist on proper export packaging, and let a customs broker confirm the paperwork before the cargo moves. Do these things and the logistics leg becomes the most predictable part of your order.
It also helps to work with a supplier that ships to the US and Europe every week. ANOK Precision Manufacturing is an ISO 9001:2015-certified china cnc turning specialist and cnc turning parts manufacturer in Shenzhen, running nearly 15 turning machines with tolerances down to ±0.002 mm. The team packs parts for ocean transit as standard, prepares full export documentation, and quotes EXW, FOB, CIF, or DAP to fit how you want to manage freight. Send your drawings to info@anok-machining.com for a quote — shipping plan included.