FCA vs CPT vs DAP: Which Incoterm for Doors from China

FOB means the goods are delivered on board a vessel at a named port. A rail consignment from central China to Almaty or Tashkent never goes on board a vessel, so an FOB quote for that route has no clear delivery point — nobody can say where the seller's job ends and the buyer's begins. That is the usual source of disputes about who pays for loading, terminal handling and the first leg of transport.

We still quote FOB and CIF, but only for sea shipments — the usual route for buyers in Southeast Asia and the Gulf. For Central Asia by rail, our quotation uses FCA China or DAP. If a supplier offers you FOB for a train, treat it as a sign that the delivery point has not been thought through.

Under FCA (Free Carrier), the seller clears the goods for export and hands them to the carrier you nominate at a named place in China. From that moment the risk is yours, and the main transport — booking, rail freight, border transit, insurance — is organised and paid by you or your forwarder.

FCA suits importers who already ship other goods from China and have negotiated rail rates of their own, or who consolidate several suppliers into one train. It also makes comparison easier: an FCA China price is the door, the export packing and the export clearance, with nothing hidden in a freight line. We return an FCA China price within one working day of receiving the specification.

What to settle in the contract: the exact handover place and who loads the goods. Incoterms 2020 is precise here — if delivery is at the seller's premises, the seller loads; if it is anywhere else, the seller delivers on its own vehicle, ready for unloading. Write down which one you mean.

Under CPT (Carriage Paid To), the seller contracts and pays for transport to the named destination — for example, CPT Almaty. The detail many buyers miss: risk passes to you when the goods are handed to the first carrier in China, not when they arrive. If a door leaf is damaged in transit, the claim is yours to make, even though the seller booked the train.

CPT also carries no obligation for the seller to insure the cargo. If you buy CPT, arrange cargo insurance yourself or ask for CIP, the variant that adds insurance cover paid by the seller.

CPT is not one of the terms on our standard quotation list. If your finance or compliance team requires it, say so when you ask for a price, and it can be discussed for that shipment.

Under DAP (Delivered at Place), the seller bears the cost and the risk until the goods arrive at the named destination, ready for unloading. That is the closest thing to a delivered door price that a factory can give: freight and transit risk are on the seller's side, so you are comparing doors at your warehouse rather than at a Chinese railway terminal.

What DAP does not include: import customs clearance, import duties and taxes in the destination country, and unloading. Those stay with the buyer under all three terms discussed here. If you need the seller to handle import clearance as well, that would be DDP, which is rarely practical for a first order across a border the factory does not clear goods into.

For Central Asia, DAP is the term we quote for rail shipments. Our full quotation includes freight to your port or city, listed per line item.

Our factory is in Lankao County, Henan. Doors for Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan move overland by rail from the Zhengzhou hub — which is why the named place in an FCA contract and the starting point of a DAP route are both in central China, not at a coastal port.

Production takes 7–10 days to goods ready at the factory. Inspection, packing, booking, customs and transit depend on your destination and forwarder, and are confirmed per shipment rather than promised in advance. When you compare two suppliers' lead times, check whether each one is quoting production only or door-to-door; the difference is usually larger than the difference in production time.

The minimum is 20 pieces per model, and around 25 CBM is where freight cost per door starts working in the buyer's favour; a 40HQ container holds approximately 58–65 CBM. On a small first order, fixed rail or consolidation charges are spread over few doors, so a DAP price can look high next to a bare FCA price. It is not necessarily more expensive once you add your own forwarder's charges to the FCA figure — compare like with like.

You have a forwarder with rail rates out of China: FCA. You want one delivered figure and no logistics work on the Chinese side: DAP. Your internal rules require the seller to buy the freight, and you are comfortable carrying transit risk: CPT, or better CIP. Shipping by sea to Southeast Asia or the Gulf: FOB or CIF remain the natural choices.

Send the door schedule (sizes and quantities per opening), a finish reference, the frame profile and wall thickness, and the destination city with the Incoterm you want. A costed quotation, packing volume and container count come back in writing, per line item — normally within 2–3 working days once the door list and destination are clear.