Getting a Multi-Tonne Machine Base From Vietnam to Your Floor

Crating, lifting points, ISPM 15, container limits, out-of-gauge cargo and choosing an Incoterm when the part you are buying weighs several tonnes.

Freight on a machine base is not a footnote on the quote. On a three to eight tonne structure, crating and transport decisions can move the landed cost more than the welding hours do, and they are usually decided last by whoever is left holding the problem.

Why this is a different shipping problem

A crate of machined parts is cargo. A machine base is a lift, a load calculation and often a permit. The part is heavy, the centre of gravity is rarely central, the machined faces are the expensive bit and have to survive weeks at sea, and nothing about it is handled without equipment.

Get the crating specification into the RFQ rather than leaving it to be sorted out at dispatch. It belongs in the inspection and test plan as a checked item.

Crating a machine base

Skid or braced pallet. For a base of any weight, a bolted steel skid or a heavily braced timber pallet, with the part bolted down rather than strapped. Strapping is for things that do not weigh four tonnes.

Protecting machined faces. Oil or a vapour-corrosion inhibitor, then a physical cover. A machined face that arrives with a rust bloom becomes an argument about whether it can be cleaned up within the remaining stock. Specify the protection system and ask for photographs before the crate closes.

Lifting points and centre of gravity. Both marked clearly on the outside of the crate. This is a safety matter and it is routinely omitted. Decide at design time where the part may be lifted, including when it is part-machined and the centre of gravity has moved.

Timber and ISPM 15. Any solid wood packaging in international trade must be heat treated and marked to ISPM 15. Standard practice at any competent exporter, but if you need fumigation-free specifically, for a controlled environment or an internal policy, say so up front. Heat treatment and fumigation are different treatments and only one of them leaves residue concerns.

Desiccant and sealing for a long sea leg, particularly through a tropical origin and a temperate destination where condensation inside the crate is a real mechanism.

Container, flat rack or breakbulk

Standard 40 ft container. The binding constraint is usually payload, then internal height, then door opening. A container’s volume suggests far more than its weight limit allows. Once a base sits on a skid, the extra height frequently exceeds the door height even when the bare part would have fitted. Always check crated dimensions and crated weight, never the part’s own.

Flat rack or open top. For anything out of gauge. More expensive, less frequent sailings, and the cargo needs proper securing engineering.

Breakbulk. For genuinely large structures. Slower, more handling, more schedule risk.

Splitting into bolted sections. Sometimes cheaper than out-of-gauge freight, and sometimes the only option. But understand what you are buying: a bolted joint is a stiffness discontinuity, the mating faces must be machined and dowelled, and alignment on site becomes your problem. This is a design decision to be made early with the joint properly engineered, not a shipping workaround applied late. See segmented vs monolithic machine base for how the joint itself is designed and match-machined.

Ports and the inland leg

Vietnam’s main gateways are in the south around Ho Chi Minh City and Cai Mep, and in the north around Haiphong. Which one serves you depends on where the fabricator is, and for heavy cargo the inland leg matters more than it does for light goods.

Road moves of oversize or overweight loads need permits and sometimes escorts, and the route has to be surveyed for bridge and overhead clearances. A fabricator far from a suitable port can be the wrong choice on landed cost even at a better ex-works price. Ask where the shop is and how they normally move heavy pieces before comparing quotes.

Choosing the Incoterm

	Who books freight	Who pays main carriage	Risk transfers	Suits
EXW	You	You	At the seller’s door	Experienced importers with a freight forwarder in Vietnam
FOB	You	You	Once loaded on the vessel	Buyers with their own forwarder and route
CIF	Seller	Seller to destination port	Once loaded on the vessel	Buyers who want the sea leg handled but will clear customs
DAP	Seller	Seller to your named place	On arrival, ready for unloading	First-time importers of heavy cargo

Two traps.

EXW on heavy cargo is harder than it looks. It leaves you arranging collection from a factory yard in Vietnam, which means a local forwarder, a truck with the right capacity and a permit if the load is oversize. It is the cheapest line on the quote and the most work.

DAP does not usually include unloading. The truck arrives at your address with a multi-tonne crate on it, and getting it off is yours. Confirm you have the crane or forklift capacity, and the access, before you assume door delivery means the crate ends on your floor.

For a first heavy import, more seller responsibility rather than less is usually the right trade, even at a higher headline price. You can move to FOB once you know the route.

Crating and Incoterm are decided before the order, as part of sourcing from a machine base supplier.

Inspect before it ships

Dimensional inspection after crating is too late. The checks that matter, final dimensional and geometric inspection and the condition of the machined faces, happen before the part is boxed. On a first order with a new supplier, a third-party inspector attending the final inspection and again before the crate closes is inexpensive against the value of the part and the cost of return freight on several tonnes.

There is effectively no such thing as sending a machine base back. Plan accordingly.

What to put in the RFQ

• Destination: port or door, and the Incoterm you want quoted.
• Crate type, and whether fumigation-free timber is required.
• Machined face protection system.
• Lifting point locations and marking requirements.
• Whether a bolted split is acceptable, and if so where.
• Photographic record required before the crate closes.
• Any access constraints at your end: crane capacity, door height, floor loading.

Quote all of that and the freight number stops being the surprise at the end of the project. Related: what a machine base costs.

Common questions

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