What is the shipping cost?

Shipping cost is where otherwise profitable sourcing deals go to die. You negotiate a great unit price, feel good about your margins, and then the freight quote arrives and wipes out everything you saved. The phrase 运费是多少 (yùnfèi shì duōshao) is how you prevent that from happening as a surprise — but asking it effectively means understanding the Chinese freight ecosystem and the distinction between the different shipping modes that the supplier might quote you.

Chinese suppliers think about shipping in three distinct categories, and the words matter. 海运 (hǎiyùn — sea freight) is for bulk orders, containers, and cost-sensitive shipments where time is not critical. 空运 (kōngyùn — air freight) is for faster shipments that are too large for courier but too urgent for sea. 快递 (kuàidì — express courier) is for samples, small orders, and anything that fits in a few boxes and needs to move fast via DHL, FedEx, UPS, or SF Express. When you ask 运费是多少 without specifying the mode, the supplier will either guess what you want (often incorrectly) or ask you which mode you prefer. Lead with the mode to get a useful answer: 海运运费是多少 (hǎiyùn yùnfèi shì duōshao) or 发快递多少钱 (fā kuàidì duōshao qián).

The most common shipping cost surprise for new buyers is the gap between the supplier’s freight quote and the actual total cost to get goods in hand. A Chinese supplier quoting 运费 (yùnfèi) is almost always quoting the international freight leg only — the cost to move goods from the origin port to the destination port. This excludes origin charges (起运港费用, qǐyùngǎng fèiyòng) like trucking from factory to port, customs declaration fees, and port handling charges, as well as destination charges (目的港费用, mùdìgǎng fèiyòng) like terminal handling, customs clearance, duties, and last-mile delivery. The phrase to get the real number is 全部费用加起来是多少 (quánbù fèiyòng jiā qǐlái shì duōshao — what’s the total when all fees are added together). Alternatively, ask for a DDP (完税后交货, wánshuì hòu jiāohuò) quote, which includes everything to your door, though Chinese suppliers are often reluctant to quote DDP because they cannot control destination-country costs.

There is a pricing rhythm in Chinese freight markets that affects the answer to 运费是多少. Shipping costs are not static — they fluctuate with fuel prices, seasonal demand (rates spike before Chinese New Year and before the Christmas shipping season), and capacity crunches. A freight quote you receive in September might be 30-50% higher than one you received in March. When a supplier quotes a shipping cost, ask 这个价格有效期多久 (zhège jiàgé yǒuxiàoqī duōjiǔ — how long is this price valid?). Freight quotes typically have a validity of 7-30 days. If your order timeline stretches beyond that, the shipping cost can and will change. The supplier is not being dishonest — the freight market genuinely moves that fast.