There are four ways to move goods from China to India, and the right one is decided almost entirely by two numbers: how much space your cargo takes, and how much a week of delay costs you.
The four modes, honestly compared
- Courier — under about 30 kg. Fastest, highest cost per kilo, clearance handled inside the service. Right for samples.
- Air freight — roughly 30 to 500 kg. Six to nine days door to door. Right when a stock-out costs more than the freight gap.
- Sea LCL — from 1 CBM. You buy space inside a shared container. The default for most first orders.
- Sea FCL — from around 15 CBM. A flat rate for the whole box, fewer handling stages, and it lands a few days sooner than LCL.
How freight is actually charged
Sea LCL is charged on weight or measure — per cubic metre, or per 1,000 kg, whichever produces the larger number. For most consumer goods volume wins. For tiles, hardware and machinery parts, weight can win instead, which surprises people.
Air freight is charged on chargeable weight: the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight, where volumetric is length × width × height in centimetres divided by 6,000 — roughly 167 kg per cubic metre. A carton of light, bulky goods is charged on the space it occupies, not what it weighs.
So before you order, ask your supplier for carton dimensions as well as gross weight. Asking them to repack tighter costs nothing and routinely takes 15 to 20% off an air bill.
Why we will not publish a rate per CBM
Because the published ones are not reliable. Look across freight sites today and LCL rates from China to India are quoted anywhere from single-digit dollars per CBM to well over a hundred — because some are quoting ocean freight alone and others are quoting a landed figure with origin charges, destination handling, deconsolidation and delivery included.
A rate that excludes destination charges is not a price, it is a teaser. The only number worth comparing is the doorstep total, and that needs your actual volume, your actual product and a current sailing schedule.
Realistic transit times into Hyderabad
- Sea LCL: 22 to 28 days door to door.
- Sea FCL: 20 to 26 days — it skips deconsolidation.
- Air: 6 to 9 days door to door.
- Courier: 4 to 8 days.
Note those are door to door, not port to port. Hyderabad is inland: cargo discharges at a coastal port and moves inland by rail under customs bond before it is cleared here. Any agent quoting you the same transit as a coastal city is quoting port to port and leaving the rest for you to discover.