Hello all. This is my first post and I am hopeful you will be able to answer any questions I may have in regards to Importing goods into the UK.
I am planning on Importing goods from China / Hong Kong but have absolutely no idea of the process of importing. I have made some initial enquiries to suppliers on Alibaba for DVD-R's and similar. (just to get an idea) but what are the steps I should take?
Really what I am after is for somebody to give me a walkthrough of the steps involved, any red tape, what I can expect from suppliers (can i ask them to pay to get it to the UK)
Do i pay that back or is it at their expense? When and how do I pay the suppliers?
More importantly....once I arrange for the goods to be shipped what happens next?
I am sorry to be asking so much but I have read so much stuff on this subject that my head is hurting and it would just be nice to be able to answer all these questions in this forum so that I have a place to return to and cross question and come back to you all with any other associated problems that I am sure will arrise.
I really appreciate your help and I will be greatful for any help you can offer
Thank you very much
Daniel

Daniel :niceone: you just gotta do lots of reading and reserch, all the best

Hello Daniel, Welcome to the forum.

Have a look at the stickied topics in Payment & Shpping there is lots more useful info in the various topics.

Your supplier should be able to organise the delivery proccess for you if it's a courier.

If it's a larger order a normal courier may not be an option, and you will have to get the goods collected from the port or organise a Freight Agent to take care of it for you.

The price will depend on what terms you agree with the seller. This topic gives a better understanding of this.

Make sure you understand the process before diving in, as it will save you from making costly errors.

As said, make a brew, get a packet of Custard Creams and trawl previous post.

Best of luck.

Hi
Your thread is one asked so many times and the below is something that i provide many first timers as a very rough guide, of course the whole importing proceedure means i could rattle on for hours i will try and list the important parts to make sure that you are in the know of the basics and the rest we can tackle part by part
So in no particular order....

Firstly Rates,

it is important to understand the terms you are buying from the supplier on they will prob give you a CIF rate which means origin charges and frt is included on comm inv, at this stage it is important to find out what charges you will pay in UK as shippers normally get good deals locally but someone has to pay for the charges it costs us consolidators to move the cntr etc, so you end up getting hammered in UK for import charges

Check an FOB rate out which of course you would get from the UK Agent such as ourselves, then you can check what works better for you, you can also ask for an EX WORKS price this means all you pay supplier for is actual goods and you pay the rest from their factory to yours

Secondly Arrival in UK

it is important to know that the cargo will arrive in a groupage cntr if LCL (less than container load) i.e. if we bring in for you we will have to arrange to customs bond the cntr to our customs approved whs then arrnage devan, this takes 1-4 working days on ave depending on volume of cntrs arriving that week. In our bonded whs it will be given a UCN number (Unique consignment number) of which is then the reference for your actual goods and the reference used to clear the goods

Until the goods are cleared and we have received all our funds due the cargo will not be released or delivered to you, this bit many stumble on and think that they can have delivery instantly goods arrive in UK

Important to note here that the clearance proceedures normally take 3-4 days from time of paperwork rcv'd from yourself and full clearance being granted subject to payment from yourself

Thirdly Clearance

Of course there are millions of Tariff codes and all have set Duty and VAT % set to them , some are free some are high, we can advise you on your tariff code or goods accordingly with just a quick mail or call

We would require the following from you - basis commercial goods

Commercial Invoice
Packing list
Bill of lading
Commodity code
VAT number / Psuedo turn
Certificates - now these may not be needed it depends again on your goods and normally these are issued at origin like a certificate or origin (form A) or health cert depending on goods
****note here any products of animal origin like foodstuffs and leather may need port health certs , DO NOT SHIP THESE UNTIL YOU HAVE ENQUIRED FULLY ***
Deferment number - this most do not have, it is an account number set up with customers to take vat/duty from of which you have to put up guarantee's etc, we have one as we are a UK clearing agent but the only companies who have them are those who import a lot of goods - there is a charge for use of this facility as well.

Once we get all docs we would then process through the electronic customs system, this would generate the vat and duty figures of which we would advise you along with all your other charges, once you have paid (normally cleared funds) then we put that through on our deferment account and your goods will go a particular route through customs , route 6 is pretty much instant , route 3 and route 1 could mean a lenthy hold/delay and before you ask it is a random amount depending on what customs want to look into route 1 being the worse

Once full clearance is through then full delivery or collection can take place - of course note that most deliveries within our industry require the consignee to unload unless you payfor a tail lift or the labour to unload

this is a rough guideline and in no way legally binding, there is of course a lot more to it but i have tried to keep it informal as poss but informative

Best regards
Paul

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Last edited by Anthony; 20-10-2009 at 10:24 AM.

Hello Daniel & Welcome to TWF! Enjoy your stay :niceone:

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Thank you Fardel. I will give all this a second read to try and lock all info in and reply soon with no doubt more questions lol.
Once again thank you very much for your time and knowledge.....much appreciated
Daniel

Also thank you all for being so welcoming. It looks like I have found the right place.
Thank you

Hello again all. I have been told many of the suppliers on alibaba cover all costs to get goods to the uk ports but as from then all costs are down to me. One supplier recommended Bibby Distribution (Mark Nichols) as a uk forwarder to deal with. I had a quick chat with him today and he gave me a brief outline of what processes take place once the goods arrive at the uk port. He couldnt be precise with his figures for the simple reason I could not be precise with mine but he said that depending on what the goods were (maybe flash drives for starters)(dvd-r's)(blue ray disks)(what do you think) the duty roughly works out at about 10%....VAT which i guess is 15% ? His costs which he couldnt tell me because i was not sure of what i was bringing in and its dimensions ? (are his cost likely to be high?) and I think there were costs for something else but i cant remember what it was now. oh and costs involved with getting the goods to me (?)
I suppose I am telling you all this to see if this all sounds right and to see if this is the kind of route you all take.......are there better companies to use?....do i need these people or can i cut out this process?(silly question i think)
I suppose I could tell all you what I am planning to import...how much its going to cost me....what supplier I am thinking of using (is Alibaba a good place to shop around?)
and then let you all pull it apart and see what you think ??? let me know if thats a good idea please.....also let me know if you think I am asking too much from you all....I dont want you all to think I am being lazy ... I just think this is the best way for me to learn about the process of Importing....but feel free to tell me to bugger off.lol.
Also just to let you know...as a starting place I hoping to make a good profit by selling my goods through an Ebay shop of some discription.......then maybe down the line supplying retail?
Once again...Thank you very much for your time and assistance
Daniel

Hi, there are some very nice and helpful people on here.... but like in Dragons Den, if you give too much away there is nothing stopping more experienced people stealing the idea. And I dont just mean members!

Here's the UK businesslink website for international trade.

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg...esslink.gov.uk

Scott

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