Freight and customs glossary for China importers

Booking and documents

• Arrival notice — the carrier's or forwarder's notice that cargo is arriving, listing the charges due before release.
• Air waybill (AWB) — the air freight equivalent of a bill of lading. It's a receipt and contract of carriage, but not a document of title.
• Bill of lading (B/L) — the carrier's receipt for ocean cargo, the contract of carriage, and, in its original form, the document of title.
• Booking confirmation — confirms space on a specific vessel or flight, with cut-off dates.
• Commercial invoice — the supplier's invoice showing what was sold, for how much and to whom. US Customs bases duty on it.
• Consignee — the party the goods are shipped to.
• Delivery order (D/O) — authorises a trucker to collect cargo from a terminal or warehouse.
• House bill of lading (HBL) — a bill of lading issued by a forwarder or NVOCC to its own customer. The carrier issues a master bill (MBL) to the forwarder.
• Packing list — itemises cartons, contents, dimensions and weights.
• Sea waybill — a non-negotiable alternative to a bill of lading. The named consignee can collect the cargo without presenting a document.
• Shipper — the party sending the goods, usually your supplier.
• Telex release — the original bill of lading is surrendered at origin and the carrier releases the cargo at destination without paper originals.

Ocean freight

• Blank sailing — a scheduled voyage cancelled by the carrier, usually when demand is low. Cargo moves to the next sailing.
• CBM — cubic metre, the unit for measuring cargo volume. One CBM is 1 m × 1 m × 1 m.
• CFS (container freight station) — a warehouse where LCL cargo is consolidated before sailing or separated after arrival.
• Cut-off — the deadline for cargo, documents or VGM to reach the terminal for a particular sailing.
• Deconsolidation — unloading a shared LCL container at destination and separating each shipper's goods.
• ETA / ETD — estimated time of arrival / departure.
• FCL (full container load) — booking a whole container for one shipper's goods.
• Intermodal / IPI — moving a container by sea and then rail on a single booking, for example China to Chicago via Los Angeles.
• LCL (less than container load) — sharing container space with other shippers and paying for the volume used.
• NVOCC — a non-vessel-operating common carrier: a company that issues its own bills of lading and sells ocean transport without operating ships.
• Rolled cargo — cargo bumped from its booked vessel to a later one, often because the ship is overbooked.
• Transhipment — moving a container from one vessel to another at an intermediate port.
• VGM (verified gross mass) — the certified total weight of a packed container, required before it can be loaded on a ship.

Air freight

• Chargeable weight — the weight you're billed for: the greater of the actual weight and the volumetric weight. See the CBM calculator.
• Dangerous goods (DG) — cargo regulated for transport safety, including lithium batteries, aerosols and many chemicals.
• Volumetric (dimensional) weight — length × width × height divided by a factor: 6,000 for air freight, 5,000 for most express services (in centimetres and kilograms).
• Weight break — rate tiers that get cheaper per kilogram as the shipment gets heavier, such as +45, +100 and +300 kg.

Customs and compliance

• CBP — U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency that clears imports.
• Country of origin — where goods were made or substantially transformed. It decides which duties and tariffs apply.
• Customs bond — a guarantee to CBP that duties and fees will be paid. Required for formal entries.
• Customs broker — a party licensed by CBP to file customs entries for importers.
• De minimis — the threshold below which goods enter duty-free. It no longer applies to goods from China.
• Entry (CBP 3461) / entry summary (CBP 7501) — the filings that release goods from Customs and declare the duty owed.
• Exam — a CBP inspection, from an X-ray scan to a full unloading at an examination station.
• Formal entry — the full customs entry process, generally required for commercial shipments valued over $2,500.
• HTS code — the 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule classification that sets the duty rate. See HTS codes and tariffs.
• Importer of record (IOR) — the party legally responsible for the import and for paying duty.
• In-bond — moving goods inland under CBP control before they're cleared, for example to clear at Chicago instead of Los Angeles.
• ISF (Importer Security Filing, "10+2") — data on an ocean shipment that must reach CBP 24 hours before loading.
• Section 301 tariffs — additional tariffs on many Chinese-made goods, on top of normal duty.

Charges and fees

• BAF (bunker adjustment factor) — a fuel surcharge on ocean freight.
• Chassis fee — rental of the trailer frame a container sits on for trucking in the US.
• Demurrage — a charge for leaving a full container at the terminal beyond the free time.
• Detention — a charge for keeping the carrier's container outside the terminal beyond the free time, until it's returned empty.
• Free time — the number of days allowed before demurrage or detention starts.
• HMF (Harbor Maintenance Fee) — 0.125% of the value of ocean imports.
• MPF (Merchandise Processing Fee) — a CBP fee based on a small percentage of value, with a minimum and maximum per entry.
• PSS (peak season surcharge) — an extra charge carriers add during high-demand periods.
• THC (terminal handling charge) — the cost of handling a container at the port, charged at both origin and destination.

For how these add up on a real shipment, see China to USA shipping cost. For the paperwork itself, see the import documents checklist.