Block Machine FOB Price: What Is Inside the Number and What Stays Out

A block machine FOB price is the figure that stops at the ship's rail of a named port of loading, and it is the only figure two suppliers can honestly be compared on. It carries the machine, the sea packing, the truck to that port, the export paperwork and the lift on board. It carries nothing after that. Most disagreements about quotations are disagreements about where one offer stopped and the other started.

Treat the rest of this page as a boundary map. On one side sits what the price includes, which you must not pay twice for. On the other sits what you will pay a forwarder, a port agent, a trucker and a clearing agent, and none of that is machine cost. Once you know which side a charge falls on, you can budget a plant without a freight quote in hand.

What does a block machine FOB price actually cover?

Four things, worth naming in order. Packing for sea: the frame blocked and braced, machined faces greased and wrapped, hydraulic and electrical items sealed against salt air. Inland haulage: machine, moulds and pallets trucked from the works to the named loading port, with the permits an oversized load needs. Export clearance: the export declaration and the documents that let the goods leave. Loading on board: the crane or ramp that puts the cargo on the vessel, with the stowage supervision that goes with it.

Everything after the lift is yours. Ocean freight to the destination port. Marine insurance, which on a 34 t frame carrying 280 kN vibration assemblies is not a formality. Port charges at destination: terminal handling, documentation, and whatever the local authority levies. Inland delivery from that port to your yard, offloading, and import clearance with its duty and its inspections. Then the plant-level items no supplier quotes: foundation, power entry and the commissioning crew.

Why does a 15,500 mm frame change the shipping arrangement?

Start with the envelope, not the tonnage. A QST1800 stands 15,500 x 5,500 x 3,200 mm and weighs 34 t. A QST1500 stands 11,500 x 4,550 x 2,800 mm and weighs 20 t. Both travel as assembled machines, not as crates. A 3,200 mm height is above the internal height of a closed container, so that frame goes on a flat rack, on deck, as break-bulk, or in sections that are rejoined on site.

That choice carries three prices. The crane class at each end. The lashing and sea fastening that a deck cargo needs. And the site work to rejoin sections and realign the frame before the first pallet is pressed. One piece means a heavy lift and few site hours. Four sections mean four lighter lifts, a welder, and a longer commissioning window.

The pallet set sails as its own consignment and often takes more volume than the machine. A QST1800 runs a 1,400 x 1,400 x 30 mm pallet; a QST1500 runs a 1,350 x 1,150 x 30 mm pallet. At a 15 to 25 second cycle you need enough pallets to fill the curing racks while another set is turned, so the stack is measured in cubic metres and pays freight by volume. That share of the bill is not machine cost at all.

Why name the destination port before you ask for a price?

FOB names a port of loading, so the same machine quoted FOB from two different ports gives two different prices, and neither supplier is lying. The variable is the land leg: distance from the works to that port, permits for an oversized load, and the crane that lifts it. Name the destination port first, and the loading port follows from the routing that serves it, so both suppliers quote the same land leg.

Fixing the destination also fixes what you add later. Freight and insurance from a stated port to a stated port are the same whichever machine you buy, so the gap between two offers is machine plus land leg, which is the gap you can act on. Leave the destination open and you are comparing a short truck ride with a long one, then calling the difference a machine price.

Some suppliers answer with CIF to your port instead. That folds freight and insurance into their number, which is convenient and harder to audit, because the sea leg disappears into one figure. Ask for both, FOB and CIF, on the same loading port and the same destination, and the difference between the two is the freight they are paying.

How do you put two offers on one basis in four steps?

Four steps, in this order. Skipping the first one wastes the other three.

• Fix the basis in writing: one Incoterm, one named loading port, one named destination port, one validity date. Put it in the enquiry so both replies answer the same question.
• Ask for the inclusion list, item by item: machine, moulds, pallets, sea packing, inland haulage, export clearance, loading. Anything not listed is excluded, whatever the covering letter implies.
• Price the leg you will pay yourself: destination port to your yard, offloading, and the crane. Your forwarder can price that in a week, and it does not change with the machine you choose.
• Add the import side: clearance, duty, inspections. Fix the destination port and these are identical for both offers, so they cancel in the comparison while staying in your budget.

Which costs sit outside every FOB number?

The list is longer than most buyers expect, and every line is paid by you.

• Insurance and survey: marine cover for a 34 t lift, plus any pre-shipment inspection your bank or your insurer requires.
• Port storage: charged by the day against cargo sitting on the quay when a vessel or a document slips.
• Import duty, VAT and any inspection that holds the cargo at the destination port.
• Foundation and anchor bolts: a 34 t frame vibrating at 3,800 to 4,500 times a minute puts load into concrete that must be designed for it before the machine lands.
• Power entry: cables, protection and a transformer sized to 104 kW, feeding a hydraulic package rated at 31.5 MPa that draws hardest at start-up.
• Commissioning: travel, visas, accommodation and local labour for the crew that levels, aligns and test-runs the line.

What should go into the enquiry?

Six lines in an email get you comparable numbers. Anything shorter gets you a headline figure and a second round of questions.

• Product mix and block dimensions, because the capacity figure moves with the mould.
• The pallet size you intend to run, so the pallet set is quoted with the machine.
• Incoterm and both ports, loading and destination.
• Shipping envelope: overall dimensions, total weight, number of sections and the heaviest single piece.
• Power available at your transformer, and the distance from it to the foundation.
• Whether commissioning is inside the price or on a separate line.