Shipping furniture from China to Singapore: cost, packing, delivery

1Who ships furniture from China, and when it is worth it

Three kinds of people ask us about furniture. Home owners furnishing a new BTO flat, a resale flat or a condo, who have found the sofa and the dining set on Taobao or on a trip to Foshan. Businesses fitting out a café, a shop or an office, buying tables, chairs and shelving by the dozen on 1688. And interior designers and contractors who order for a client and need everything to arrive together. The shipping is the same for all three.

It is worth it from one large piece upwards. Sea freight is priced on volume with a minimum of 1 CBM, so a single stool is billed as a whole cubic metre and is not worth sending on its own, while a sofa, a bed with its mattress or a dining set fills the minimum by itself. Furniture is exactly the kind of cargo sea freight suits: bulky, not urgent and far too large for a courier. The guide to shipping from China to Singapore compares sea, air and courier for everything else.

2Where the furniture comes from: Foshan, Taobao and 1688

Much of China's furniture is made and sold in Foshan, and the Lecong furniture market in the city's Shunde district is where many Singapore buyers go to see pieces in person. Our sea hub is in the same city, in Nanhai district. Whether you buy in a Foshan showroom, direct from a factory, from a Taobao or Tmall shop or from a 1688 wholesaler, the arrangement is the same: the seller does not ship to Singapore, and does not need to. They deliver within China to our hub, and the shipment to Singapore starts there.

You choose the furniture and pay the seller yourself. Our part starts when it reaches the hub. Give the seller this address in Chinese, exactly as written:

1. Ask for a quote first. Your booking confirmation carries a marking code for that order only. The hub matches every delivery to you by that code.
2. Have the code written on every package, with the package number (1/6, 2/6 and so on). On a Taobao or 1688 order, put the code in the recipient name as well.
3. Ask the seller to deliver to the hub's door. Our rate starts at the hub and assumes the furniture is brought to us. If a seller can only send it to a depot for collection, contact us before you order: a pickup is arranged case by case.
4. We count on arrival. Every package is counted against your list. If the count does not match, you hear from us before the furniture sails, while the seller is still easy to reach. We do not open packages unless you ask.

Buying from several sellers is normal: the sofa from one shop, the bed from another, lights from a third. Each delivers to the hub, the earlier pieces wait free for 5 days while the rest arrive, and everything leaves as one consignment with one permit and one delivery. After the free days storage is S$20 per CBM per day, so ask each seller for a dispatch date before you pay and line them up.

Buying from many Taobao shops at once? The Taobao consolidated shipping guide walks through the address, the marking code and how several shops' orders become one shipment.

3What shipping furniture from China to Singapore costs

Sea LCL is S$82 per CBM, hub to door, with a minimum of 1 CBM. A CBM is a cubic metre: the length, width and height of each package in metres, multiplied together and added up. Weight counts only for heavy cargo: LCL is charged on the greater of the volume and the weight at 500 kg per CBM, so 1,000 kg counts as 2 CBM. Most furniture is bulky for its weight and is charged on volume, so a solid wood table usually costs the same to ship as a fabric sofa of the same packed size. Stone or marble tops are the pieces where the weight can decide.

Pieces under the minimum are not billed one by one. The whole consignment is added up first, so the dining table above travels at its own 0.26 CBM once it is part of a larger order. Shipped on its own, a piece under 1 CBM pays the minimum charge of S$82. Enter your own packages in the calculator for the volume and an indicative figure from the published rate.

That is the whole freight bill: one price, no hidden fees. The tax is the other number to budget for, and the import GST calculator works it out from your furniture's price and the freight. The sea freight guide explains each line of the rate.

4Measure it as it will travel

The size that matters is the packed size, not the size in the product photo. Before you pay, ask the seller two questions: how many packages the order ships in, and the length, width and height of each one. Sellers know these figures because their own domestic delivery is priced on them. Send us the list and the quote is built on it.

How a piece is packed changes the bill more than anything else you can control. A wardrobe shipped assembled at 200 × 120 × 60 cm is 1.44 CBM. The same wardrobe flat-packed in three cartons of 205 × 60 × 11 cm is about 0.41 CBM, less than a third. Table legs that come off, bed frames that knock down and shelving that ships flat all save money the same way. If a seller offers both, choose flat-packed unless the piece is one you would not trust yourself to put together.

5Packing that survives a shared container

In a shared container your furniture is loaded alongside other importers' cargo, and it is handled at the hub, at the port and again at delivery. Domestic packing meant for a short truck ride inside China is often not enough. Ask the seller for export packing and say the goods are going overseas by sea:

• Corners and edges protected with foam or cardboard corner guards, then the whole piece wrapped.
• Glass, marble, sintered stone and mirrors in a wooden frame or crate. Sellers call it 打木架, and most will do it for a small charge.
• Upholstery in plastic first, to keep damp and dust out, then padding, then an outer layer that can take a scuff.
• Loose parts such as legs, screws and shelf pins taped inside the main package or boxed and numbered, never loose.
• Every package numbered and marked with your code, so a missing one is noticed at the hub, not in your living room.

If a seller will not crate a fragile piece, we can arrange crating at the hub on request; tell us which pieces when you ask for a quote and it is included in the confirmed quote. A crate adds to the packed size, so it adds to the volume too. Your furniture is covered in transit at its declared invoice value: missing cargo is compensated in full, and damage is assessed case by case on the photos at arrival and the state of the packing. Good packing is what keeps that from ever being a question.

6A few pieces or a whole flat: LCL or your own container

A few pieces, or one room, go LCL at the per-CBM rate. A whole flat, a landed house or a shop fit-out is where a container of your own (FCL) starts to be worth quoting: nothing else shares the box and nothing is stacked on your furniture. Full containers are quoted per booking because carrier rates move weekly, so we do not print a container price. Ask for both figures on the same list and compare them. Transit is the same either way, and LCL versus FCL goes through the choice.

7GST and paperwork for furniture

Furniture is not a dutiable category in Singapore, so there is no customs duty, but GST at 9% applies to every import, for a business or a home. It is charged on the customs value: the price you paid for the furniture, plus freight and insurance. There is no low-value exemption for goods arriving as sea freight. We lodge the import permit as a Registered Declaring Agent, pay the GST at clearance and pass it through at cost, as its own line on your invoice.

Two documents are needed: an invoice showing the seller, a plain description of each piece, the quantity and the price actually paid, and a packing list with the package count and sizes. A Taobao or 1688 order screenshot is accepted as the invoice if it shows those things clearly. Declare what you paid. A lower figure is a false declaration, and it is also the figure a claim would be settled at. The GST and customs clearance guide covers the detail.

8Delivery into an HDB flat, condo or shop

We deliver to your flat or unit, not just the lobby. Stairs, a timed delivery and unpacking are special handling, outside the published rate and quoted when you tell us about them, so the figure you confirm is the figure you pay. Crated pieces can be opened on the day by our uncrating and disposal crew, who take the wood and packing away, and knock-down furniture can be put together the same day by our furniture assembly team, who quote from a photo and fit wardrobes and cabinets to the wall. When you ask for a quote, tell us:

• The floor, and whether a lift reaches it. If a piece will not fit in the lift, the stair carry is quoted separately.
• The size of the lift door and the lift car, if you are shipping a sofa, a wardrobe or a long table top.
• Whether the condo or building needs a loading-bay booking or a mover's permit, and who arranges it with the management office.
• Any delivery window the building enforces, and any date you cannot be there.

Someone must be at the address to receive the delivery, check the package count and sign for it. Flat-packed furniture arrives flat-packed. If you need it assembled, check with us when you ask for a quote.

9Things that come with furniture and need a word first

10How long it takes, start to finish

Three stretches of time add up. The seller's lead time comes first: stock pieces leave quickly, but made-to-order furniture takes as long as the factory says, so ask for the dispatch date in writing. Then the domestic delivery to our hub. Then our part: cargo that reaches the hub on a working day leaves on the next working day, departures run Monday to Saturday, and sea transit is 10–14 days from the hub to your door, customs clearance and delivery included. The transit times guide shows today's next departure and its estimated arrival.

11How to get a quote for your furniture

Send those through the quote request form and the instant quote appears as you type, you get a reference number immediately, and the confirmed quote follows in writing within a few hours. If it is easier to send product links and photos, WhatsApp +65 8162 1037 works too; we answer every day, 9:00am to 6:00pm Singapore time. Nothing is booked and nothing is payable until you accept the confirmed quote, and you pay when the furniture reaches Singapore, before we deliver it, by PayNow or bank transfer.