Re: International shipping rates USA -> China?

So the Chinese set the rate that they pay to have the USPS deliver stuff? No

>wonder they often include free shipping!

It's even more insidious than that. The Chinese govt subsidise outgoing postal costs (it's about balance of trade to them) and that makes it even easier to offer free post for China exports.

One electronics parts source elesewhere in Asia (I won't mention the name or country) have sussed this out and use it to their advantage. The greater part of their outgoing is almost invariably padded envelopes and small parcels. These they aggregate into a v.large parcel and send to their agent in China, who breaks the consignment out and re-ships individually with the subsidised China system.

Reply to
who where
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They may do the same sort of thing with shipments to the US. I recently ordered eight 3000mAh NiMH AA cells and four 3600 mAh 18650 Li-Ion cells for a total of $21.55 including shipping, and it arrived via USPS registered

mail. I was surprised that they used registered mail for such a small monetary value. If it is true that all mail after the originating country is handled free, I am quite surprised and it's no wonder that the USPS is going broke.

I can see how easy it would be to circumvent the high cost of sending small parcels by packing them into large parcels and sending them in bulk, perhaps even by cargo ship. You can probably find people in China to do a good job of sorting them out and sending them on via their surface mail system.

I placed my order for the batteries on January 9 and received them January

23, which is just 14 days. That is about right for the processing on both ends and probably 7-8 days by ship.

Recently I inquired about large LiFePO4 batteries from a manufacturer in

China and got a quote for $11,500 for 100 pieces of 100 Ah prismatic cells, and shipping was $390. Such cells are typically 4 kg each so that's a

400 kg shipment, probably by sea with pickup at the port.

In another quote for 100 smaller batteries, a shipment of 33 kg was $285. Air shipping for four pieces via DHL was $24.

Paul

Reply to
P E Schoen

I'm fairly sure that USPS is paid to deliver the goods, just they aren't paid by the sender, but by the senders agent eg: Chinapost.

it seems 400Kg of small batteries would half the price of 400Kg of big batteries.

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Reply to
Jasen Betts

That depends on whether a half-ton of small batteries weighs less than a

half-ton of big ones. :)

There is probably a flat rate plus an additional charge per unit weight.

Paul

Reply to
P E Schoen

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