Case Studies

The production bases of CK, as a world-renowned clothing brand, are all over the world, and China is one of the very important. Considering that clothing production is highly seasonal and fashion, so timeliness is the most important indicator in the entire transport link. Intermediate links shall be reduced in an effort to better control effectiveness and to avoid problems in convergence. CK requires Chinese logistics companies must contract the whole process from the Chinese factories to foreign stores, it is Door to Door service by air, and it develops harsh terms in the contract. FIC Logistics undertakes part of the transportation of goods of CK in China, which is a rather big challenge for us, and that is why we set up a team dedicated to CK business. Through concerted efforts with all parties, we are able to complete the delivery, achieve a win-win situation and win CK's strong recognition and praise every time. 

Process of CK case:

1. FIC Logistics conduct in-depth exchange and communication with CK import department, confirm the program, so as to reduce and avoid running-in in follow-up operation.

2. FIC Logistics will communicate with the corresponding staff in a rapid matter upon the receipt of the supplier list of CK to confirm the delivery and complete the business plan.

3. FIC Logistics will send people to the factory for random sampling pursuant to CK's instructions, attach the labels, and sent them to the quality control department of CK for testing.

4. FIC Logistics will follow up with the various factories one by one for sorting and cargo consolidation after we have received the goods transport instructions, and report the daily cargo consolidation to CK headquarters.

5. After the cargo consolidation, FIC Logistics pick out the most cost-effective transportation program for CK in line with the delivery and all possible factors.

6. As soon as the goods arrive at the port of destination, FIC Logistics immediately carry out customs clearance, complete the distribution of goods, and deliver them to various stores within CK designated time.

FIC Logistics were much honored to work with this great company and we felt deeply the responsibility and mission when we received the air freight authorization of Bentley Motors. That was not an ordinary air freight transport, it is a responsibility and honor. 

Bentley goods were all plastic and metal parts sourced from various suppliers, its goods were of high value and easy to be deformed damaged, the packaging was very special and demanding. The original packaging of goods delivered to the warehouse was very large and varied in size, and its weight was much greater than the actual weight, which accordingly made the air transport cost extremely high (about 100CBM for each airlift). FIC Logistics team found after the cargo consolidation that the clearance between components would be made fully use of if the original packaging from various goods suppliers was dismantled and recombined. This would greatly reduce the total volume of goods and save the customer a lot of air freight charges. However, the actual operation was much more difficult, first, we had to consider the collocation between trays and cabin space depending on size of all accessories, it was necessary to ensure that the volume of re-packaged goods was in consistence with the size of the airline requirements, at the same time, the stability of the various accessories should be guaranteed and collision and squeezing between were expected to be avoided. It was indeed a great challenge. As approved by Bentley, the original packaging of all the goods was dismantled, and then reasonable arranged and repackaged. In order to save time, more than a dozen colleagues had to work overnight for ten hours in the warehouse and reduce the total merchandise volume from 125CBM reduced to 88CBM, thus reducing the transportation costs by a surprising 29.6% surprising. It was found by the recipient after they arrived at the destination port that the rate of spoiled products was almost zero! 

Highly praised our efficient service and amazed by our noble professionalism, Bentley was deeply impressed and that was a real win-win situation.

A German customer purchased a batch of LCD televisions from Shanghai in the first half of 2016 and the payment term was LC. The customer specified strict requirements on the delivery of goods and it would suffer significant losses in case of delay in delivery. So the sales contract explicitly stipulated the time of shipment and the supplier, in the event of delay, should make corresponding compensation. However, contrary to expectation, the shipment of goods was two weeks later than the original plan. Supplier seemed to have a good reason, arguing that the delay was caused by the inspection by China Customs. It showed the inspection notice issued by China Customs, indicating that it was a force majeure, instead of their own responsibility, and that explained why it did not have to perform the terms of compensation under the contract, the customer had no alternative. That was understandable, it was difficult for foreign customers to check dynamic information about Chinese customs and terminals.

Recommended by a friend, the customers resorted to FIC Logistics China Port & Customs Inquiry system, they entered the container number and all dynamic information was clearly shown, including the return time of containers, customs clearance time, container inspections and so on. They found that suppliers had been lying and the container was not checked by the Chinese Customs and the return time of the container was two weeks late than the original plan. That meant that the delay was caused by untimely loading as a result of supplier's production delays, the supplier made an excuse of customs inspection and forged a customs inspection notice.

The customer contacted our customer service to further confirm and got the official evidence, they were provided with dynamic information about Chinese Customs official containers. After confirmation, the customer sent the evidence to the supplier, who in the face of the facts, could not deny and compensate the said customer in accordance with the contract terms.

FIC Logistics customer service staff received a VIP customer's urgent investigation request On February 15, 2016, asking us to investigate the enterprise information of a Chinese supplier (A). We completed the investigation in two business days and sent the results to the customer, who was very shocked and thought it was fortunate to have the said enterprise investigated, or else it would fell into a very passive position and lose a lot of money. The VIP customer was going to pay the advance money to this supplier (A) and establish cooperation. It was found that Supplier A was closely linked with the Supplier B (see the following picture), with which the VIP customer had a lot of economic disputes.

This is the case: The customer had been working with a supplier B in Ningbo, China for two years before 2016 and it produced mascots and accessories for the said customer. According to the contract signed by the two parties, before production of each batch of products, the customer would pay a deposit of 40% to supplier (B). The final order was two containers of goods. The customer did not receive the sample sent from supplier B until and goods were produced, packaged and shipped because it was on a holiday. The customer, upon the receipt of the goods, found that the mascots were of the wrong color, so the customer immediately called supplier B to return and remake the goods. However, supplier would like to offer a discount of 30% for the finished goods as it discovered that the returning and remaking cost could account for 60% of the residual payment. The customer rejected and pointed out that the goods would not be saleable. The two parties failed to reach a consensus and the goods were abandoned and then auctioned by the customs later. Supplier B did not refund the customer's deposit.

The customer received another promotion email from another supplier, namely supplier A in Ningbo two months after the incident. Its products and prices were very attractive and the customer did not find any problems in a site visit, so it was ready to establish cooperation and pay the deposit. Fortunately, the customer learned lessons from the previous mistake and was very cautious, they asked us to investigate this supplier A since we provide free invetigations for VIP customers.

Based on our investigation results, the customer called supplier A and asked about its relationship with supplier B, the person in charge had to hang up the phone as he found that it was impossible to justify himself. According to customer’s speculation, suppliers B deliberately entrusted supplier A to take the initiative to contact the customer, deliberately lower prices to attract customers, intending to cheat the customer of the deposit to make up for their losses.

Throughout the incident, supplier B did not admit their mistakes and bear the corresponding responsibility of returning the deposit and they held a grudge and attempted to revenge, such behavior was very unethical, and such suppliers should also be punished. We are here to appeal to all Chinese suppliers to operate in good faith and to take responsibility instead of discrediting made in China and the Chinese people lose.

TNT Express is one of the largest express companies in the world and it provides postal, express and logistics services for more than 200 countries and regions. However, TNT service is very severely restricted due to some political reasons in many countries in the Middle East. At the same time, TNT and other express companies cannot accept some goods for carriage because of the goods themselves. TNT has to find more options so as to serve customers better. Under this premise, FIC Logistics have the opportunity with cooperate with such a huge industry giant and become a partner of TNT in South China. Such cooperation does not mean an ordinary transportation agency of TNT express, instead TNT will entrust goods they cannot or are not convenient to operate to us and we will handle all the problems in China, and then the goods will be delivered to a TNT designated airport by plane. We need to ensure rapidness and efficiency for all those services to achieve practical results consistent with TNT Express standards.

Our service includes:

1. Warehousing and Cargo consolidation. FIC Logistics contact suppliers from all over China and collect goods according to the instructions of TNT, and then bring them to our Shenzhen warehouse.

2. Sorting, classification, secondary packaging. FIC Logistics have to sort and classify the same kind of goods for secondary packaging and marking with reference to different air pallet sizes and China customs declaration policies in accordance with the specifications of exterior packaging and nature of goods as well as the availability of required documents for customs clearance provided by the supplier.

3. The customs clearance and customs clearing. Since the supplier does not provide customs clearance documents for goods delivered by an express company. FIC Logistics will produce accurate customs clearance documents in consideration the actual situation of goods and the then customs policies to ensure safe clearance of goods.

4. Air freight from China. FIC Logistics can take off from Hong Kong or Mainland China and we will choose the better option according to the actual situation of the goods.

5. Delivery to TNT. After shipment the goods, FIC Logistics will send the bill lading to TNT and follow up the flight dynamics in real time, until secure arrival of goods at certain airports.

Before the World Cup in Brazil, SUNBOX, a telecom operator of Thailand acquired the exclusive broadcasting rights for the World Cup in Thailand, where there were a total of four major telecom operators, using different set-top boxes and broadcasting different programs, and they were not compatible with each other. To watch exciting World Cup games in time, many Thai families and individual users had to buy a SUNBOX set-top box. To meet the needs of the Thai market, SUNBOX bought 1.6 million set-top boxes from China and the shipping plan involved 80*40HQ. SUNBOX required printed World Cup logo and mascot on the set-top box, the biggest problem was that SUNBOX was not allowed for secondary authorization even it was entitled by FIFA, so it was not supposed to license the right to use the logo and mascot to Chinese factories, while according to Chinese customs requirements, the export of any goods, if its logo was registered, should be subject to the authorization of the registrant (World Cup logo and mascot were registered and archived in China), or the goods would be confiscated. The provision brought a major challenge for SUNBOX and Chinese factories. If the box did not have a printed logo, it would be very harmful to the publicity of SUNBOX in Thailand. But if it took the risk and exported, the goods could be forfeited by Chinese customs and irreparable big loss would be caused.

Our team discussed and formulated a solution to satisfy customer needs: Neutral packaging was used with no logo on the goods when it was produced in a Chinese plant. After customs declaration and exportation to Hong Kong, we would conduct secondary packaging in our Hong Kong warehouse and color boxes printed with the logo would cover the original packaging (because Hong Kong's a free trade port). It was reasonable and legitimate, not only avoided the risks, but also would not violate the Chinese customs laws, when goods arrived in Thailand, SUNBOX could also implement normal publicity and sales. Having confirmed the feasibility of the program once again, SUNBOX CASE awarded us the case. The goods were smoothly delivered after the four months of production period.

On June 12, 2014, 17:00 local time, we received a letter of praise from SUNBOX at the same time when the opening ceremony of the Brazil World Cup kicked off, and they highly affirmed and praised what we had done for the case

We are convinced that as long as we think from the perspective of our customers, we will know the customer's demands, and then find the best solution to provide customized services and to achieve a win-win situation ultimately.

The rapid development of the internet influences the way of thinking and behavior of people around the world. Correspondingly, the rapid expansion of e-business giants around the world impacts on the patterns and habits of purchase of people around the world. In recent years, FIC Logistics gradually find that the purchase of foreign countries from China has been increasingly fragmented and block trades have reduced. In contrast, procurement achieved through a cross-border electronic business platform has increased and gradually become routine. The reason is in fact very simple, commercial activities have to be in pursuit of profit maximization. The traditional way of trade involves importers, wholesalers and other interested parties, resulting in very high prices of goods. And now with the popularization of e-business and the increasingly developed logistics system in China, foreign retailers choose to make purchase directly from China through electronic business sourcing platforms, which can save a variety of interconnections, significantly saving costs and maximizing profits.

This is a very large market and also a huge challenge for China's logistics industry. The biggest difficulty of means of purchase like this is that the warehousing, cargo consolidation and customs clearance for exportations. These goods are basically from many suppliers and involve a very large variety of goods, many goods contain batteries and liquids and other sensitive items, and the packaging of goods of is highly varied, making it extremely complicated and troublesome for warehouse distribution, loading and export declaration. Any carelessness will cause operate errors and result in unnecessary losses.

FIC Logistics has a noticeable number of customers which are foreign supermarkets, chain clubs, and chain gymnasiums and our warehouses can handle very complex cargo consolidation and unloading of goods. For example, we can skillfully complete collection of goods, statistics, reconciliation, secondary packaging, cargo fixation, and loading, for a container of goods that come from more than 200 suppliers. Our rich experience tells us that different goods shall be installed in the specific position of a container to avoid collision and damage the goods. We will strictly check with all suppliers for accurate names of goods, produce relevant declarations to ensure correct customs declaration which might result in detention or confiscation of goods.

Each country, in order to protect the interests of local enterprises, has introduced a number of trade barriers to resist the exporting country with the increase of world trade year by year. Chinese products have been recognized by the rest of the world as the world's largest exporter, so the country has become the main target of anti-dumping by governments. The same product will face distinctly different customs policies when it is imported from China and imported from other countries. For this situation, FIC has developed re-export trade operations to avoid these problems so that customers all countries may smoothly purchase Chinese products. FIC has a strong network in Southeast Asia so it is capable of handling transport operations of this trade mode in a skilled and safe manner.

1. After the procurement of goods from China, we will arrange formal exports from China to a third-party country (mainly to Southeast Asian countries).

2. When the goods arrive in a third-party country, after formal customs clearance, containers will be transport to a designated warehouse, while a two-way shipment will be ordered at the same time (to the final destination country).

3. Container replacement and distribution and other operations will be completed in the warehouse and then loaded goods will be delivered to the wharf for formal export customs declaration, the whole operational process will take 3 to 7 working days.

4. After the completion of the above operations, corresponding documents (CO, FA and etc.) will be prepared, and finally sent to the customers of the destination country in conformity with their requirements for customs clearance.

This is the basic procedure of re-export trade which makes it possible for customers to smoothly purchase goods from China, and avoid a lot of unnecessary troubles in this process. FIC Logistics has many years of operational experience and can ensure the safety, legitimacy of goods and authenticity of documents in the transport process so that customers may have more choices and open up a greater trade market.

FIC Logistics customer service staff received a VIP customer's urgent investigation request On February 15, 2016, asking us to investigate the enterprise information of a Chinese supplier (A). We completed the investigation in two business days and sent the results to the customer, who was very shocked and thought it was fortunate to have the said enterprise investigated, or else it would fell into a very passive position and lose a lot of money. The VIP customer was going to pay the advance money to this supplier (A) and establish cooperation. It was found that Supplier A was closely linked with the Supplier B (see the following picture), with which the VIP customer had a lot of economic disputes.

This is the case: The customer had been working with a supplier B in Ningbo, China for two years before 2016 and it produced mascots and accessories for the said customer. According to the contract signed by the two parties, before production of each batch of products, the customer would pay a deposit of 40% to supplier (B). The final order was two containers of goods. The customer did not receive the sample sent from supplier B until and goods were produced, packaged and shipped because it was on a holiday. The customer, upon the receipt of the goods, found that the mascots were of the wrong color, so the customer immediately called supplier B to return and remake the goods. However, supplier would like to offer a discount of 30% for the finished goods as it discovered that the returning and remaking cost could account for 60% of the residual payment. The customer rejected and pointed out that the goods would not be saleable. The two parties failed to reach a consensus and the goods were abandoned and then auctioned by the customs later. Supplier B did not refund the customer's deposit.

The customer received another promotion email from another supplier, namely supplier A in Ningbo two months after the incident. Its products and prices were very attractive and the customer did not find any problems in a site visit, so it was ready to establish cooperation and pay the deposit. Fortunately, the customer learned lessons from the previous mistake and was very cautious, they asked us to investigate this supplier A since we provide free invetigations for VIP customers.

Based on our investigation results, the customer called supplier A and asked about its relationship with supplier B, the person in charge had to hang up the phone as he found that it was impossible to justify himself. According to customer’s speculation, suppliers B deliberately entrusted supplier A to take the initiative to contact the customer, deliberately lower prices to attract customers, intending to cheat the customer of the deposit to make up for their losses.

Throughout the incident, supplier B did not admit their mistakes and bear the corresponding responsibility of returning the deposit and they held a grudge and attempted to revenge, such behavior was very unethical, and such suppliers should also be punished. We are here to appeal to all Chinese suppliers to operate in good faith and to take responsibility instead of discrediting made in China and the Chinese people lose.

A German customer purchased a batch of LCD televisions from Shanghai in the first half of 2016 and the payment term was LC. The customer specified strict requirements on the delivery of goods and it would suffer significant losses in case of delay in delivery. So the sales contract explicitly stipulated the time of shipment and the supplier, in the event of delay, should make corresponding compensation. However, contrary to expectation, the shipment of goods was two weeks later than the original plan. Supplier seemed to have a good reason, arguing that the delay was caused by the inspection by China Customs. It showed the inspection notice issued by China Customs, indicating that it was a force majeure, instead of their own responsibility, and that explained why it did not have to perform the terms of compensation under the contract, the customer had no alternative. That was understandable, it was difficult for foreign customers to check dynamic information about Chinese customs and terminals.

Recommended by a friend, the customers resorted to FIC Logistics China Port & Customs Inquiry system, they entered the container number and all dynamic information was clearly shown, including the return time of containers, customs clearance time, container inspections and so on. They found that suppliers had been lying and the container was not checked by the Chinese Customs and the return time of the container was two weeks late than the original plan. That meant that the delay was caused by untimely loading as a result of supplier's production delays, the supplier made an excuse of customs inspection and forged a customs inspection notice.

The customer contacted our customer service to further confirm and got the official evidence, they were provided with dynamic information about Chinese Customs official containers. After confirmation, the customer sent the evidence to the supplier, who in the face of the facts, could not deny and compensate the said customer in accordance with the contract terms.