Shipping, Incoterms and Delivery

Where everything ships from

All goods ship from our warehouse in Guangzhou, China. The port of loading is Shenzhen (or Yantian, which is part of the same Shenzhen port complex).

Incoterms

FOB Shenzhen (default). You take the goods on board the vessel at the named port. From that point the risk and the cost transfer to you. Ocean freight, insurance, import duty and customs clearance are all on your account. This is the correct term when you have your own freight forwarder, which most of our buyers do.

CIF <your port> (available on request, and quoted on roughly a sixth of listings). We pay for freight and insurance to the port of discharge you nominate. You still handle import clearance, duty and delivery from the port. CIF is usually the better deal on heavy drive orders, because ocean freight is a large share of the landed cost and we can quote it more efficiently than a forwarder working from a single customer.

EXW and DDP we can arrange in specific cases but do not quote by default — please ask.

Air freight is available and is often the sensible choice for urgent single-unit replacements. It roughly triples freight cost on a drive order but gets it to you in four days.

Ports we quote CIF to routinely

Jebel Ali (AE), Rotterdam (NL), Antwerp (BE), Hamburg (DE), Felixstowe (UK), Long Beach and New York (US), Santos (BR), Singapore (SG), Port Klang (MY), Busan (KR), Laem Chabang (TH), Sydney (AU), Durban (ZA), Lagos (NG), Mombasa (KE), Jeddah (SA), Istanbul (TR), Mumbai (IN) and Port Klang.

Not listed? Ask — we quote CIF to most major ports.

Lead times

Lead time is stated on every product page. For stock held in Guangzhou it is typically:

| Category | Lead time |

| --- | --- |

| Drives and flash | 3-5 days |

| Memory and processors | 3-5 days |

| Switches and routers | 5-7 days |

| Servers, configured | 5-10 days |

| Storage arrays | 10-14 days (burn-in) |

Arrays and custom-configured servers take longer because we test them for 72 hours under load before shipping. We would rather quote an honest ten days than ship something untested on a promise.

Transit time

Transitive depends on term and destination. As a rough guide for sea freight from Shenzhen:

• Europe (Rotterdam, Hamburg, Felixstowe): 30-38 days
• US east coast (New York): 32-40 days
• US west coast (Long Beach): 18-24 days
• Middle East (Jebel Ali, Jeddah): 20-26 days
• South East Asia (Singapore, Port Klang): 5-9 days
• Africa (Durban, Lagos): 28-40 days
• Oceania (Sydney): 18-26 days

These are port-to-port averages. We give you the actual ETD, ETA and vessel name at booking.

Packing

Every drive ships in a conductive anti-static bag with a desiccant pack, inside a foam-cushioned drive caddy. Servers, arrays and switches ship in the original OEM packaging where we have it, in an outer export carton marked for the destination.

Palletised orders are anti-static wrapped and stretch-wrapped. We have not shipped a drive damaged in transit in five years of trading. If something does arrive damaged, photograph the outer packaging before opening it and tell us within 72 hours of delivery.

Documentation

With every shipment we provide:

• Commercial invoice and packing list
• Bill of lading (FOB) or Bill of lading + arrival notice (CIF)
• Certificate of origin if your customs authority requires one — ask before shipping, because it is issued by a chamber of commerce and takes a day
• Full serial number list against the shipment, with per-unit SMART logs on request
• Test reports for anything described as burned in