Shipping parts to Shenzhen

Actually Hangzhou, I discover, if that makes any difference.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I think we use UPS. (The office staff hates shipping overseas.) I don't know any of the details.

George H.

Any customs worries and that sort of stuff?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

DHL was our preference (well at least 8 years ago) to ship stuff overseas; they were extremely reliable at getting stuff just about anywhere on the planet in the agreed-upon time. Saudi Arabia, China, Sarajevo, Ukraine, Iran, no problem at all. Only time we ever encountered problems with undeliverable packages/sketchy customs authorities was certain Latin American countries like Brazil and Honduras.

The customs forms for say China are super-easy and you can fill it all out online in about 5 minutes. Iran and Sarajevo were slightly more complicated but at least for the stuff we were selling (audio equipment) there was never a problem

Oh yes! I just talked to Lisa, UPS helps with that sort of thing and has a bunch of forms we have to fill out. I assume other shipping companies are similar.

George h.

I was shipping to Mexico and found the US forms to be a PITA. I was using Fedex and had to come up with ID a number (don't recall the term they used for it) for the boards I was shipping. Basically I was swearing I was in compliance with all export regulations of which the most daunting was the ITAR. Fed Ex would handle filing the form for $10 which was a bargain. I could do it myself on a government web site, which was a huge PITA. I never knew for sure I was doing anything right and may ultimately go to jail someday.

I believe you can get these numbers from the part manufacturers, but if you are shipping blank boards of your design you will need to find a number from the government list. Good luck!

Do they have a web site? I'd like to know more about them.

We ship things by DHL; they are the experts and charge only a little more than FedEx. We do not even consider UPS or USPS Global Express Guaranteed (GXG).

I believe you are looking for these. WRT simple electronic items:

1. ECCN number (export commodity control number): EAR99

1. Schedule B Trade Number: 9032.89.3000 Tables are on the web.

Yeah, all that. Trying to pick a number for any given product is an arbitrary exercise. I don't recall which of these is required for the export forms. I'm pretty sure there is very little enforcement but it can be used to prosecute someone after the fact. I seem to recall the EAR99 number was used for items not otherwise requiring a classification number. How do you know if you can use that or not?

I suppose there is a business model somewhere that helps small businesses with this sort of thing, but I never found it.

Shipping Incoterms DDP (delivered duty paid) is also a good idea so that the received does not have to deal with the duties and stuff. Carrier takes care of those and invoices the sender.

This might help:

I remember also having to get a letter that the items were not for resale to satisfy some IRS requirement.