Thread: buying from USA

Purchasing from the US used to be very good ,half price landed here , but my experience recently has convinced me that the powers at be , commercial & govt , are making it not worth the effort .
The only good solution I can think of is having a friend over there , unfortunately I don't .

Freight has gone through the roof lately. We imported a fertiliser blender from The USA that needed a 40 ft container. When it was ordered the freight was $3,200, months later as it had to be built, the freight went from that $3.2 k to $8,900, It then sat on a wharf in L.A. for a couple of months and we were told if we paid more it would come out earlier. Then it went to Brisbane because the company organising the freight would not land it in Melb or Sydney due to excessive handling charges. Then we had to get it from Brisbane to Melbourne on another boat. I know of another person had a container of aircraft bits and he had the same problem, Shortage of containers or boats.
Best of luck is what I say trying to get anything from over there.
Lindsay

Hi Don
Your $3,000 quote may be quite realistic.
Last month I asked for an approx freight quote for a short engine from Detroit, via Philadelphia to Sydney, as part of a shared container. (Called Groupage). It was going to be $3,500. I was shocked.
Apparently, container shipping prices have increased a minimum of six fold. In addition, Covid delays have added complexities and additional handling costs. Now shipping fuel (bunker oil) has also increased due to the Ukraine war.
best wishes. Jeffoir.

Originally Posted by Jeffoir

Hi Don
Your $3,000 quote may be quite realistic.
Last month I asked for an approx freight quote for a short engine from Detroit, via Philadelphia to Sydney, as part of a shared container. (Called Groupage). It was going to be $3,500. I was shocked.
Apparently, container shipping prices have increased a minimum of six fold. In addition, Covid delays have added complexities and additional handling costs. Now shipping fuel (bunker oil) has also increased due to the Ukraine war.
best wishes. Jeffoir.

Yes, i work in freight forwarding and its a nightmare at the moment trying to get space. The US is the worst for freight as the inland transport to a port can often be more than the frt to AU.

Originally Posted by Don 130

I want to buy a gearbox and associated bits and pieces from USA. I've tried the company's email 'contact us' service and was told they have an agent here in Australia, but after another couple of follow up emails, I now don't get a response.
I'm now thinking of using another method, there are many advertised on the web. The boxed item weighs 325Lb and one of those services quoted over $3,000.00 to ship it.
So, what are the tried and proven services for such weighty items, and what would be a reasonable price for the freight charge of something like that.
Don.

I have NFI but just wonder if "When you book a collection with DHL by Phone, our standard maximum weight is also 70kg per parcel with a maximum parcel size of 120 x 80 x 80cm, but our Customer Service team will be happy to quote for parcels up to 300kg with a maximum length of 300cm."

Note also 325lb is only147.41752kg

As mentioned I have no Idea if this would work or how much it would cost!

Our shipping for a container has gone from $2500 up to over $10k now. Crazy times