When UK based freight forwarder Mercator was established in the early 1990s, we specialised in importing rugs from India and Nepal. Today, our team still facilitates several customers with importing rugs from India, Turkey and Nepal via air and sea freight.
Our import team regularly handles full and part container loads of rugs for import into the UK. Of those imports, there is a mix of EXW, FOB and CFR incoterms. As freight rates fluctuate, we are being increasingly asked by our customers to quote and handle the sea freight element of the import process.
We recently handled a less than container load (LCL) importing rugs from India into the UK. The rugs were rolled and secured to pallets for shipping from India to the UK – rugs are traditionally rolled for shipping to maintain the integrity of the construction.
This shipment was arranged with the shipper (the supplier at origin) in India as FOB – free on board, whereby the shipper arranges export customs clearance, the transport of goods to the port and loading onto an agreed vessel for sea freight shipping to the UK.
Mercator’s import team took control of the cargo at this point, dealing with the sea freight to the UK, UK import customs clearance, import VAT & duty calculation and payment to HMRC, devan at the destination warehouse, and onward delivery to our customer’s door in the UK.
Shipping from India to the UK typically takes around 20 days port to port, however, this does not take into account any delays due to global events such as the Red Sea / Suez diversion which can add up to 20 days extra to the transit time. LCL shipments take longer than full container loads because the goods are required to arrive several days in advance of the sailing date for loading into the shared shipping container. Once the shipping container has arrived at the destination warehouse (in this case in the UK), there will be a few days to add for unloading before your LCL shipment can be collected on another vehicle for delivery to your door.
If you are shipping a few rugs, are in a hurry, or the rugs are of high value, then we find our customers prefer to use an air freight option which takes a matter of days.
Contact our import team today to get a quote for importing rugs from India, Nepal or Turkey. You can call our team on (+44) 02392 756 575, email sales@mercatorcargo.co.uk or complete the form below and someone will be in touch.
