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Sea Freight & Shipping Company
Flexible sea freight solutions to support your supply chain requirements
Does your business require a consistently reliable sea freight service? Do you need tailored services to meet your unique requirements? At Pinnacle we offer a range of sea freight services via our extensive global network, access to all major shipping lines and technology to give you the visibility you need throughout your supply chain.
Our Sea Freight Services
We can assist you with cost-effective sea freight shipping options for cargo of all kinds. Whether you need to ship LCL or FCL or you need our expert advice on how best to ship your cargo, we are on hand to make sure you find the perfect shipping solution. Our focus on delivering outstanding service means that you’ll be in the safest of hands.
Export, Import & Cross Trade
Loading, Lashing & Securing
Temperature-controlled cargo
Container CSC plating
FCL & Consolidation
Breakbulk & Charter
PO Management
Track & Trace
Benefits of our Sea Freight services
When shipping via sea with Pinnacle, you’ll be assigned one point of contact to help you with your shipments, so you’ll never be left wondering who to speak to and how to reach them. We offer live 24/7 online tracking so you’ll always know the status of your shipment and our PO Management system gives you the visibility and control you need to manage your supply chain effectively. We also offer a Load Planning Service, which can easily help you to calculate your loads and maximise the capacity of your cargo. We will make sea freight as cost-effective and efficient as possible for you.
Sea Freight in Leicester
We are perfectly situated for managing sea freight movements from Leicestershire, in the midlands with the use of multiple seaports in the midlands and across the UK and Europe. This means further easy access to our global network of carriers, all whilst having one point of contact with us. Not only do we have a dedicated team working out of Leicester, but our Leicestershire location offers generous warehousing facilities, meaning we’re best placed to handle all your sea freight needs.
How We Can Help
Ask our team of global logistics experts for information, pricing, and advice about your planned cargo shipments to and from almost anywhere in the world. Feel rest assured that you’re in the safest of hands when it comes to moving your valuable goods by sea.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Sea freight shipping is a method of transporting goods via ocean cargo vessels/freightliners. Goods are packed into shipping containers, loaded onto the freightliners, and sailed to their destination. Most cargo can be shipped via sea freight, but it can be a relatively slow process (and as such has historically been considered the most cost effective transport mode for very long distance) so products that are urgent, sensitive and / or high value may be more suited to air freight or road freight.
Sea freight is the slowest method of freight transportation. Whilst it is safe and your goods will arrive at their destination, it can be at risk of delays due to multiple stops for loading and unloading along the route and weather conditions at sea and around ports. Ocean shipping can take anywhere from seven days, to well over 50 days, depending on the origin, route and destination points.
Long distances, calling at multiple ports along the route and the management of fuel consumption are key factors that result in sea freight’s relatively slow speeds. Fuel consumption is mostly impacted by both the speed and size of the ship and increases exponentially above 14 knots.
This means there is a balance between moving quickly and conserving fuel. This is done by lengthening shipping times.
The global supply chain (including sea freight) has suffered serious disruptions caused by the recent pandemic. However, during normal times (which we hope to be returning to soon) sea freight is generally a fairly reliable mode of transport for global shipping.
There are three main variables to the cost of transporting goods via sea:
- The sea freight charges set by the carrier company
- Costs associated with handling, customs and clearing the goods at the points of loading and discharge
- Whether your cargo requires its own dedicated full container (referred to as a Full Container Load, or FCL) or whether the goods can be consolidated with other cargo (a Less-than Container Load, or LCL).
- Shipments that require a full container will be charged a flat fee per container, and this amount will be dependent on many variables including origin and destination, volume, and time of year, plus many other factors.
- Shipments that require a less-than container load can be consolidated with other shipments. This will usually be charged a pro-rata rate per 1000 kg’s or 1 cubic meter – whichever number is greater.
Unless you’re moving significant volumes or you have a long standing contract with a shipping line, it’s usually more affordable to work through a freight forwarding company who can organise the freight and manage the logistics for you, as well as having access to discounted shipping rates. The exact calculations will then be done by the freight forwarder.
Sea freight shipment cost is calculated by chargeable weight. The chargeable weight will either be the actual weight or the volumetric weight – whichever is greater.
Working out the actual weight of your cargo is as simple as weighing it. Working out the volumetric weight is also simple, but requires an equation.
Here’s the process for finding the chargeable weight of your shipment:
Example:
- Shipment of 7 pallets (123cm x 125cm x 115cm @700kg each)
- 7 x 700 = 4900kg (actual weight)
- 7 x 1.23 x 1.25 x 1.15 = 12.376cbm
Therefore, you would calculate a sea shipment on 12.376cbm of w/m (w/m = 1000kgs or 1cbm, whichever is the greater).
From port to port, shipping from the UK to Australia usually takes between 40-55 days, dependant upon origin and destination ports and transhipment stops along the route.
Port to port, sea freight from China to the UK can typically take anywhere between approx. 30 and 45 days dependant upon origin and destination ports and transhipment stops along the route.
From port to port, sea freight from China to the USA can take 30-45 days dependant upon origin and destination ports and transhipment stops along the route.
Sea freight from the USA to the UK: East Coast origin ports can take 14-25 days and west coast origin ports can take 33 to 58 days, dependant upon origin and destination ports and transhipment stops along the route.
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