Shipping guides
Importing from China to South Sudan via Mombasa: a buyer's checklist
What to agree with your Chinese supplier before you pay the deposit, written from the problems we see at Mombasa rather than from a template.
For our published door to door prices on this lane, see China to Juba cargo. For the route overview, see China to South Sudan via Kenya. This is the checklist to run with your supplier.
Before you pay the deposit
Agree the incoterm, and understand it
- FOB China. You control the sea freight and everything after it. Usually the best choice, because you pick the line and the forwarder, and you see the real cost of each leg.
- CIF Mombasa. The supplier arranges the sea leg. Convenient, but you inherit their agent and whatever destination charges that agent levies. Those can be substantial, and you won't see them until the goods arrive.
- EXW. You arrange everything from the factory door. Maximum control, maximum work.
Settle the Certificate of Conformity question
Establish whether your goods are within the scope of South Sudan's pre-export verification of conformity programme. If they are, certification must happen in China, before shipment.
Write into the purchase order: that a valid South Sudan CoC is required, that the supplier obtains it, that a copy comes directly to you before the booking is confirmed, and that final payment depends on it.
What exporters get wrong about CoCs
Agree the HS classification
Ask the supplier for their HS code, then verify it against the goods rather than accepting it. The code drives the duty rate and the permit requirements at destination.
Check for regulated content
Chinese consignments frequently include items that are regulated even when the buyer does not think of them that way:
- Lithium batteries, including ones built into devices
- Electrical goods requiring safety certification
- Cosmetics, food and pharmaceuticals
- Chemicals and aerosols
Before the container is sealed
- [ ] Commercial invoice showing the price you actually paid, in the currency you paid it
- [ ] Packing list produced from the actual packing, piece by piece, with marks
- [ ] Bill of lading draft reviewed, with the correct consignee and notify party
- [ ] Certificate of origin naming China
- [ ] Certificate of Conformity in hand, details matching the invoice
- [ ] Photographs of the loaded container and the seal, with the seal number recorded
- [ ] Technical documents for anything that will need classifying: datasheets, material certificates, MSDS
The invoice value trap
The most common and most damaging request from buyers on this lane is for a lower invoice value to reduce duty. It doesn't work and it isn't safe.
South Sudanese customs determine the customs value under the Customs Service Act. An unrealistic invoice invites a valuation query, and the storage and detention accrued while that gets resolved routinely exceeds the duty saved, quite apart from the consequences of a misdeclaration.
Declare the real price. Keep the payment evidence.
Budget the whole chain
Buyers budget the FOB price and the ocean freight, then meet everything else at the port:
- Ocean freight and origin charges
- Port charges at Mombasa
- Container deposit, and detention or demurrage exposure
- Transit bond costs and the road leg to Juba (published rates)
- South Sudan duty, VAT and any excise (see duties and taxes)
- Certificate of Conformity and sector permits
- Clearing agent fees at both ends, and final delivery
Ask us for a landed cost view with the HS code, and we will tell you what we can price firmly and what depends on an assessment we cannot make for you.
Get a quotation
Tell us what you are shipping
Send us the cargo description, weight or volume, and the pickup and delivery addresses. We reply with a written rate, the transit time and the documents you will need.