Sea, air or courier: the landed-cost arithmetic for wooden goods

BY THE ARTISRAW EDITORIAL TEAM · AUGUST 11, 2026 · UPDATED OCTOBER 6, 2026 · 10 MIN READ

Three modes, one cargo: light, bulky and therefore priced on the space it occupies rather than on what it weighs.

Wooden kitchenware is charged on volume, not weight. Scheduled air freight conventionally divides a carton’s cubic centimetres by 6,000 to get a chargeable weight, an express courier divides by 5,000, and LCL sea freight sets one cubic metre against one tonne. Expressed as densities, that means a shipment is charged on volume until it exceeds roughly 167 kg/m³ by air or 200 kg/m³ by courier — and a packed carton of boards or bowls is almost always below both, because a carton is mostly air.

Buyers who budget freight by the kilo are usually wrong by a wide margin, in the expensive direction. This guide gives the divisors, works one order through all three modes in chargeable units, shows what pallet height is worth in arithmetic, and sets out what landed cost actually contains. There are no rates on this page: they move weekly, and a number here would be wrong by the time you read it. Multiply the units below by your own quotation.

Volumetric weight, in one line

Carriers compare actual weight against a volumetric figure derived from the box dimensions, and charge on whichever is larger:

Ask your forwarder which divisor they apply before you compare two quotations: two prices computed on different divisors are not comparable, and the difference is 20% of the chargeable weight before anyone has quoted a rate.

Worked example: one order, three modes

One carton is 36,000 cm³, or 0.036 m³. Its density is 5 ÷ 0.036 ≈ 139 kg/m³ — below the air threshold of 167 and well below the courier threshold of 200, so it will be charged on volume in both cases:

Now take a full pallet of those cartons. A 120 × 80 cm pallet holds eight of them per layer (0.4 × 0.3 m each against a 0.96 m² deck), and a 1.8 m build takes five 30 cm layers once the pallet itself is allowed for — 40 cartons, 1.44 m³, 200 kg gross:

Three things to take from that table. The courier charges 20% more chargeable weight than air freight for identical cargo, purely from the divisor. Air charges 20% more than the cargo weighs. And the sea figure is in different units entirely, which is why sea and air quotations can only be compared once both are priced — never by looking at the numbers alone.

What pallet height is worth

A pallet is charged on the space it occupies, so the cheapest freight saving available to you is geometry:

Same footprint, two-thirds more goods on the tall build. Tell us the pallet height your warehouse accepts and we will pack to it; tell us late and the cartons get stacked to a height that suits the carton rather than your racking.

The three modes, honestly

• Sea. The default for anything that is not urgent. Slowest, and by a wide margin the cheapest per cubic metre. Sensible from roughly a pallet upward; below that you are paying for consolidation handling that eats the advantage.
• Air. Days rather than weeks, at a multiple of the cost — and the multiple is worst exactly for goods like these, because of the divisor. Justified for samples, for a launch date you cannot move, or for a replenishment that would otherwise cost you a season.
• Courier. Door to door with the paperwork handled, which is genuinely valuable for a first sample box. Priced per parcel on the tightest divisor of the three, so it stops making sense quickly as the order grows.

Where the money actually goes

For a typical first order the freight line is rarely the whole story. Landed cost is:

• the goods, plus
• freight, plus
• duty on the customs value, plus
• clearance and handling, plus
• the inland leg at destination.

A quotation that covers only the first two will be wrong by whatever the last three come to, and the last three do not scale down as the order shrinks — which is why very small orders land expensive per piece however they travel.

One subtlety worth settling with your broker: the EU values imports on a CIF basis, so international freight and insurance are inside the customs value that duty is calculated on, while the United States generally assesses duty on the transaction value of the goods. Same shipment, different duty base — and it can change which incoterm is actually cheapest for you.

Incoterms decide who carries which of those

• EXW. You take over at our door in Sfax. Cheapest on paper, most work for you, and you own every risk from the gate.
• FOB. We handle export clearance and delivery to the port. The common middle ground, and the one most buyers with a forwarder choose.
• DDP. We deliver to your door with duties paid. Simplest to budget because there is one number, and that number includes our estimate of costs at your end.

None is cheaper than the others in a meaningful sense; they move the same costs between two invoices. Choose the one that matches how much of the logistics you want to own — and note the duty-base point above before assuming the all-inclusive option is the expensive one.

Four things that move the number more than the mode does

• Pallet fill. A pallet built to 1.8 m with no voids ships two-thirds more goods than the same footprint built to 1.2 m. The arithmetic is in the table above.
• Carton design. Nesting bowls and stacking boards travel far better than mixed cartons. It is worth a conversation at quotation stage, because it changes the cubic metres before it changes the rate.
• Consolidation. Two orders three weeks apart pay handling twice. One shipment pays it once. Building one order that meets the minimums →
• Document readiness. A shipment held at clearance costs storage and, sometimes, a season. Commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, HS classification and ISPM-15 marks on the pallets travel with the goods; the compliance filings are yours. US declarations → · EU due diligence →

A sensible default

Sample by courier, first production order by sea on FOB unless you have a date you cannot move, and ask for the pallet plan before you approve the quotation. If the timing is genuinely tight, air the part of the order that has to be on the shelf and sail the rest.

And since the unit price does not move with volume, packing and mode are where the savings actually are. Why the price per piece is flat →

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Air freight volumetric convention: length × width × height in centimetres ÷ 6,000, equivalent to 167 kg/m³ — the IATA TACT rule applied in forwarder tariffs. Express couriers conventionally use ÷5,000 (200 kg/m³). Confirm the divisor on your own quotation, since individual carriers may differ.
2. Sea LCL is charged weight or measure, with one cubic metre set against 1,000 kg, usually subject to a one-unit minimum.
3. Customs valuation: the EU applies a CIF basis, the United States generally assesses duty on the transaction value of the goods. Confirm with your customs broker for your own entries.
4. Carton and pallet arithmetic in this article is geometry, worked from the stated illustration (40 × 30 × 30 cm cartons, 5 kg gross, on a 120 × 80 cm pallet) rather than from a price list. No freight rates are quoted anywhere on this page.
5. ArtisRaw export documentation and ISPM-15 heat-treated pallets: see our quality and certifications page.

About ArtisRaw. ArtisRaw (STE ART IS RAW) manufactures handmade Chemlali olive wood kitchenware, tableware and décor in Sfax, Tunisia, for retailers, distributors, hospitality groups and private-label brands. Its quality management system is certified ISO 9001:2015 by Bureau Veritas, certificate n° 45.2025.0143, valid November 2025 to November 2028. Route Saltnia Km 4.5, Sfax, Tunisia.