Packing and Labelling Cargo from China: Requirements and Common Mistakes

A box lost at a consolidation warehouse is not just "one box missing" — it means weeks of delay for the entire shipment: searching, reconciling with the factory, back-and-forth with the carrier. And goods crushed inside a container are losses that are almost impossible to recover from the supplier after the fact. AgilFreight's experience shows that more than half of all problems with consolidated cargo from China begin not in transit, but at the packing and labeling stage at the factory. Here is how to prepare your cargo properly so it arrives intact and never goes missing.

Export packaging requirements

Domestic Chinese packaging and export packaging are two different things. By default, a factory packs the way it is used to shipping to local wholesalers: thin cardboard, minimal protection. For an international leg with several transshipments, that is not enough. The baseline requirements:

• Five-ply corrugated cardboard for outer boxes. The three-ply cardboard factories use "by default" cannot withstand stacking in a container.
• Stretch film over every cargo piece — protection against moisture, dust, and boxes opening during transshipment.
• Plastic or cardboard edge protectors on the edges of boxes and pallets — the edges are the first to suffer when straps are tightened.
• Wooden crating for fragile and expensive goods: glass, ceramics, displays, equipment. It adds weight and cost, but for a 35–50 day sea leg with several transshipments it is mandatory.
• Weight per piece should ideally stay under 20–25 kg: heavier boxes get thrown, not carried.

All of these requirements should be spelled out in writing in the purchase order, as a separate clause, before any prepayment. The phrase "pack well" does not work — specifics do: "5-ply carton, stretch film, corner protectors".

Shipping marks: what to write on the boxes

A shipping mark is the labeling on each cargo piece that lets the consolidation warehouse identify your box among hundreds of others. No marking means the box belongs to no one — and those are exactly the ones that get lost. On every piece, on two sides, in waterproof print:

• the client code issued by the carrier (for our clients — the AgilFreight code);
• destination city and consignee;
• piece number and total number of pieces in the shipment (for example, 3/17);
• gross weight of each piece;
• box dimensions (length × width × height);
• a brief description of the contents in English and, where needed, "Fragile" / "This side up" marks.

The piece number "3/17" is not bureaucracy: it is what allows the warehouse to see instantly that 16 boxes arrived instead of 17 and start the search immediately — not after the consolidated shipment has already left.

Palletizing: when it is mandatory

Whether a pallet is needed depends on the delivery method and the nature of the cargo:

Keep in mind that a pallet increases volume: at a sea rate from $235/m³, an extra 15–20 cm of height on each pallet is real money. The right approach is tight, interlocked stacking of boxes with no voids and no overhang beyond the pallet edge. You can compare how the cost changes across delivery methods, volume included, in the shipping calculator.

Protecting fragile goods

For glass, ceramics, electronics with displays, and instruments, the three-barrier principle applies: individual packaging for each unit (bubble wrap or foamed polyethylene), void fill inside the box (paper, foam inserts — the goods must not move when shaken), and a rigid outer barrier (five-ply cardboard plus crating for the sea leg).

A separate note on mixing: never put heavy items in the same box as fragile ones, and never place liquids above electronics. If your shipment contains both, separate them into different pieces back at the factory.

Common mistakes

A list compiled from real cases at our consolidation warehouses:

1. Thin factory cardboard without reinforcement — bottom-row boxes get crushed at the very first stacking.
2. No client code on the boxes — the cargo sits at the warehouse for weeks as unidentified.
3. Mixed SKUs in one box with no packing list inside — impossible to verify completeness without fully unpacking.
4. Labeling with a paper sticker on top of the stretch film — the sticker rips off together with the film at the first transshipment.
5. Piece weight of 40–50 kg — the box gets tipped and thrown, and the contents suffer.
6. A mismatch between the actual number of pieces and the packing list — the entire consolidated shipment is held up until it is resolved.
7. Fragile goods with no marks and no crating on the sea leg — breakage that is discovered only on receipt.

Each of these mistakes "costs" anywhere from several days of delay to the loss of part of the batch — and every one of them can be eliminated with a single letter to the supplier before shipment.

AgilFreight tip: a week before shipment, ask the factory for photos of the packed batch with the markings visible on the boxes. Two minutes spent reviewing photos saves weeks of untangling problems — repacking at the factory is easy, while at a transit warehouse it is a paid service and lost time.

How we pack at AgilFreight warehouses

Our consolidation warehouses in China are the control point between the factory and the border. We receive every incoming cargo by weight and piece count, reconcile it against the packing list, and photograph it. Then, as needed: repacking into five-ply cardboard, stretch film and edge protectors, crating for fragile items, palletizing for the sea or road leg, and applying shipping marks to our standard.

This removes your dependence on the factory's diligence: even if the supplier packed carelessly, the cargo will head into the international leg properly prepared. How consolidation works and what it costs is covered on the consolidated cargo page, and the full breakdown of rates and transit times for every delivery method is in the guide how much shipping from China costs.