International Freight
Freight forwarding, and the customs clearance that decides whether it arrives.
A container that clears is worth more than a container that sails cheaply. We book the movement, prepare the documentation and clear the goods at destination — with our own people at the origin and destination ends of the corridors we operate.
Modes
Air · sea · road
Own teams at
Origin and destination
Documentation
Prepared, not collected
Incoterms
2020 rules
What it covers
Four components, run as one
01
Freight forwarding
Booking, consolidation and routing by air, sea or road, chosen against your delivery window and the value density of the cargo rather than against a default.
- Full container, groupage and air consolidation
- Routing decided with the customs position in mind, not after it
- Origin handling at Beijing, Noida and the African ports we work
- Cargo insurance arranged where the Incoterms rule leaves it with you
02
Customs clearance
The step that strands cargo. Classification, valuation and documentation prepared before the vessel arrives, and lodged by people who know the office that will examine it.
- Tariff classification and valuation prepared at origin
- Import documentation, licences and certificates identified before shipment
- Clearance lodged at destination by our own teams where we hold offices
- Demurrage and detention exposure managed as a cost, not discovered as one
03
Documentation and compliance
Most delays are documentary. Commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, bill of lading and any sector certificate are prepared as one set and checked against the destination before the goods move.
- One documentary set, prepared and checked together
- Certificates of origin and preferential treatment where available
- Dangerous goods and temperature-controlled documentation where applicable
- Records retained for the audit that may come years later
04
Final-mile delivery
From the port or airport to the site, warehouse or project location, including the inland legs on the Southern African corridors where most foreign shippers stop.
- Inland transport on the Maputo, Beira and Durban corridors
- Project and out-of-gauge cargo handled as its own exercise
- Delivery to site, with proof of delivery returned to the file
- Warehousing and staged release where the site cannot take it all at once
The position
Why the customs position should decide the routing
Freight is quoted as a rate and experienced as a timeline. The rate is decided in an hour; the timeline is decided by whether the documentation matches what the destination expects. A shipment routed for the cheapest ocean leg and cleared by a broker who first sees the file on arrival will lose in demurrage what it saved in freight. We prepare the customs position at origin, because that is where the documents are created and where an error is still free to fix.
Rates, timelines and regulatory positions change. We confirm the current position for your case before you commit — we do not publish figures that may be out of date when you read them.
On one file
- Our own teams at the nodes we operate
- One contract and one point of contact
- Establishment, workforce, procurement and freight available together
- Corridors run in both directions
Common questions
What clients ask
Do you clear customs yourselves or appoint a broker?
Where we hold an office, our own team lodges the entry. Elsewhere we appoint and manage a licensed broker, and we tell you which arrangement applies to your lane rather than presenting one as the other.
Which Incoterms rule should we use?
It depends on where you want risk and cost to pass, and on whether you or the supplier is better placed to arrange the main carriage. We recommend the Incoterms 2020 rule for the shipment and put it in the supply terms before the first order, rather than leaving it to appear on an invoice.
Can you quote a transit time and a rate here?
No, and any page that does is quoting something that changed last week. Ocean rates, air capacity and port congestion move constantly. We quote your lane against current conditions and tell you what the quote assumes.
Do you handle the goods as well as the movement?
Yes. Where we also source the goods, the purchase order, the inspection reports and the shipment sit on one file, and no one can attribute a delay to the other side of a handover.
What about duties and import licences?
Classification determines the duty, and the licence requirement is determined by the commodity and the destination. Both are established before shipment, because discovering a licence requirement at the port is expensive and entirely avoidable.
Tell us the lane, the commodity and the destination.
We return the routing, the documentary set required and the customs position at destination — before anything is booked.