We understand some particular challenges faced in choosing a suitable sea shipping mode. This post will help you decide which one is the most suitable sea shipping type for your next shipping from china or anywhere across the globe.

Most Suitable Sea Shipping Type

Sea freight shipping is a great alternative to Air freight shipping. If you have ever opted for the sea shipping option to transport your shipment from anywhere around the world, the sea freight shipping is a slow alternative to Air freight shipping. Well, that’s just so you know if you never know. Read our other post for more details. 

Regardless of its speed, the mode of shipping actually cost less, compared to the Air-freight shipping. This is why it is a more popular method of shipping from China, India, the US, UK, and across the globe.

Various Types of Sea Freight 

1. FCL Sea Freight Shipping

The FCL sea shipping is one of the most suitable sea freight shipping type. With this type of shipping, an importer may incur a much lower shipping cost compared to the weight of the cargo. 

The Full Container Load (FCL) type of sea freight shipping is advisable where the buyer or importer is shipping goods using the standard 20 ft or 40 ft containers. This is basically important especially when the buyer is not shipping in goods or shipment of less than 20ft container. 

This type of sea shipping requires the buyer to probably rent a whole container for his shipment from anywhere, especially China, Dubai, and other other countries.

With the specialized equipment required in this type of sea shipping, the FCL appears to be a much safer method in terms of cost and convenience amongst other factors. 

2· LCL Sea Freight Shipping from China

You might have come across a situation where a container carries shipments belonging to more than one importer. This is regarded as Less-than-Container Load (LCL) shipping. Unlike the FCL, it is a form of shipping where the importers prefer to share a container with other shippers for the transportation of goods.

LCL is suitable for a small number of goods that can’t fill up a whole container. Your shipment is grouped along with other goods owned by other importers. These are usually goods that are only suitable for less than 20ft containers. So, if you have a small shipment below 20ft, it is not advisable to rent a whole container as it will definitely cost more. In essence, this will be the most suitable sea shipping type for you if you do not have a consignment load that requires a full container.

The process of container multiple goods in one container is regarded as Groupage in Sea Freight shipping. In Air Freight shipping, this mode is regarded as Air Freight Consolidation. The carrier groups or consolidates your goods with another importer transporting to the same destination port as you. This type of sea freight shipping emphasizes and gives mini-importers or businesses with low budget the possibility of shipping from China, Dubai, the US, UK, or anywhere across the globe.

3· Bulk Cargo Ship Sea Freight Shipping

Bulk Cargo Shipping is another most suitable sea shipping type you may consider only if you are shipping items that are loosely shipped or unpackaged. Actually, bulk cargo is a shipping term for items that are shipped loosely and unpackaged as opposed to being shipped in packages or containers. These Items include oil, grain, gravel, coal, and any other type of single commodity goods.

When shipping from China, bulk cargo is stored usually stored in large quantities in a ships hull during transportation rather than been packaged.

4· Out of Gauge Sea Freight Shipping

If you are familiar with terms in Logistics, you would have a good grip on the term OOG. It is fully referred as Out of Gauge. Out of Guage Sea freight (OOG) is a logistics term that refers to sea freight shipping of oversized cargo.

Oversized cargo are trucks, heavy machinery, agricultural equipment, military equipment, tanks, boats, helicopters and so on. They all do not meet the standard shipping dimension and so, are difficult and challenging to transport using standing shipping containers.

It is apparent that since this type of sea freight shipping is not for the 20ft or 40ft containers, or ever possibly suitable for shippers of coals, oil, grain etc, or mini importers, then it obviously fits for shippers of heavy-duty consignments.

They are very expensive to ship due to their weight and size and as much as they may need specialized equipment at the loading, offloading stage or in transporting them, it will carry a correspondingly high cost of shipping altogether.

5· Roll-on Roll-off Sea Freight Shipping from China

This is populy known as RO-RO, which abbreviates for roll-on roll-off. This is another most suitable sea shipping type you may consider if you are transporting wheeled cargo, such as cars, buses, trucks etc.

It is called Roll on Roll off because vehicles are driven directly into (rolled on) and out (rolled out) of the ship via inbuilt stern ramps. This does not require loading and offloading the goods via This helps to reduce the cost and need for loading and to offload the goods using cranes as in the case of containerized cargo.

If you are into the business of importing wheeled cargo, you want to consider RORO as this is the most suitable sea shipping type over container shipping of wheeled cargoes. As per experience, and popular reviews online, we can assure you that Roll on Roll off is a cost-effective sea shipping type you may consider.

While shipping goods in a container may be a most suitable sea shipping type for other forms of shipping, it may definitely not be the most cost-effective for shipping your wheeled cargoes.

Please refer to our previous post on RoRo.

6· Reefer Container Shipping

Have you ever wondered how perishable goods are imported to Nigeria? Maybe no, but here is it. The reefer container sea shipping is the transportation of items that require refrigeration on board. They are used to ship goods of perishable nature such as frozen foods, fruit, vegetables, meat, flowers, pharmaceuticals and any related goods.

The Reefer containers depend on power from power supplied by the container ship and they have a central refrigeration unit that controls this. With this made possible, the generator powered refrigerator connects to the shipping container through the journey. Such that when goods are being transported, the refrigeration unit is typically powered by generators connected to the shipping container during transit.

So, therefore, the most suitable sea shipping type for you is the Reefer Container if you are planning to ship products that require strict maintenance of humidity and temperature levels, during transit.

Let us know what you think at the comment box below, meanwhile,

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Did you find this post useful? Can you think of any other benefits of air freight? Please leave a comment to let us know!