Block Machine Shipping Cost: Weight, Envelope and Loading

Block machine shipping cost is decided by three physical facts that exist before any forwarder is called: the mass of each piece, the space that piece occupies, and the number of pieces the machine travels in. Our QST1800 leaves the works at 34 t with an envelope of 15,500 × 5,500 × 3,200 mm. The QST1500 leaves at 20 t and 11,500 × 4,550 × 2,800 mm. Both are block machines. They are not the same freight problem.

A rate asked for one block machine comes back as a placeholder, because a forwarder prices a piece list: length, width, height, mass and lift points for every unit. Change the piece list and the same machine moves on a different deck, with a different crane at each end. Freight is a measurement, and it starts on the drawing.

What decides block machine shipping cost before a rate is quoted?

Mass and volume are bought separately, and the carrier charges whichever costs more. A 34 t machine is heavy freight: the steel of the press frame, the hydraulic manifold and the mould sit in a small footprint, so the load per square metre of deck is high and the lifting gear has to be rated for it.

The envelope sets the loading method. At 3,200 mm high the QST1800 does not pass under a closed container roof, and at 5,500 mm across it is wider than a container floor. It moves on a flat rack, under an open top, or in sections. The QST1500, at 11,500 × 4,550 × 2,800 mm, sits lower and narrower but is still outside a closed box, which leaves more loading plans open.

Reading 34 t against 20 t, and what the pallet adds

The gap between 34 t and 20 t changes the equipment at both ends. A 34 t piece needs a heavy lift at the works and a crane of matching capacity in your yard. A 20 t piece goes on a smaller crane and, on some sites, on a large forklift with the right boom. If your yard cannot lift 34 t in one piece, the machine is split before loading, at the factory rather than on the quay.

The pallet is a separate freight line and most buyers forget it. The QST1800 runs 1,400 × 1,400 × 30 mm pallets, the QST1500 runs 1,350 × 1,150 × 30 mm pallets, and a cuber rated at 3,800 pallets per shift turns that many a shift, so the fleet runs into thousands. Ship a starter quantity in the machine container and source the production fleet locally.

Can the machine be split, and what does each piece weigh?

Yes, and the split is the largest lever on freight after the model itself. What travels is not one mass but a set of modules: host press, stacker, pallet feeder, cuber, control cabinet. Our low-position cuber, the QS-1200A, is about 18,000 kg over 12,000 × 3,000 mm of floor. Ship a 20 t QST1500 with that cuber in the same box and the freight doubles before one block is made.

Smaller cubers move the arithmetic. The QS-1000G-A is about 6,200 kg in a 7,500 × 7,000 × 5,500 mm frame, the QS-1000G-C double station about 12,000 kg, and the QS-1000Y travels at 5,000 kg with transport dimensions of 5,000 × 1,900 × 2,500 mm because the crawler frame closes up. A machine built to shrink for the road costs less to move than one cut into sections on the dock.

After a split, every piece needs its own lift points and its own centre of gravity on the drawing. The press frame is the dense mass, the stacker and the conveyors are light frames with a high centre. Sling the press at the lugs welded for it, never around the hydraulic cylinders, and expect the centre of gravity to shift once the mould comes off.

What do crating, sea fastening and the crane at each end add?

Packaging is quoted as a line and it is not padding. Wooden crating suits the small modules: control cabinet, hydraulic power unit, sensors, spares. A steel frame with timber blocking suits the heavy pieces, because it takes the load off the machine feet and spreads it over the deck. A 34 t mass strapped to a deck with nothing under the frame arrives with a bent base.

Sea fastening decides whether the machine arrives square. Lashing alone is not enough at this mass: the deck needs timber blocking against the frame, welded stoppers where the carrier allows them, and locked moving parts. Retract and lock the cylinders, block the mould guide, tie the pallet magazine, all of it workshop work done before the doors close.

Then the two ends. The works needs gear rated for the heaviest piece, and your site needs the same capacity to take it off the truck. If the yard crane is below the heaviest module, the machine ships in smaller pieces at a higher freight cost.

Who pays for what between FOB, CFR and CIF?

FOB ends the seller cost when the piece is on board at the loading port. CFR adds the ocean freight to that point. CIF adds marine insurance on top of CFR. In all three the buyer pays the discharge, the inland haul, the crane at the site and the unloading. A CIF figure can look complete and still leave the longest leg, quay to yard, on your account.

Insurance follows the same line. Under CIF the seller insures the sea leg to the destination port and cover normally stops there, so the inland truck, the crane and the yard handling need their own cover or a wider clause. Declare the value per piece rather than the value of the machine, because a claim is settled on the piece that was damaged.

Why do two quotes for the same machine differ by so much?

Because they are not quoting the same shipment. Five variables move a block machine quote further than the ocean rate does.

• Split plan: one 34 t piece on a flat rack, or six modules across two containers. The second is often cheaper to move and dearer to rebuild.
• Modules included: host alone, host with stacker, host with cuber. The QS-1200A cuber is about 18,000 kg on its own.
• Pallets: shipped with the machine or bought locally. A pallet fleet is measured in containers, not cartons.
• Loading mode: a full container is loaded once and sealed, while a shared one is handled at every consolidation point.
• Packing and fastening: crated and framed on a blocking drawing, or strapped to a deck as it stands.

What should you send a forwarder before asking for a rate?

Put the five on one page and any two quotes become comparable. Send the piece list, not the model name: a forwarder can price a list in an hour and cannot price a model at all.

• Mass and envelope per piece, for a QST1800 host 34 t at 15,500 × 5,500 × 3,200 mm.
• A split drawing marking the lift points and the centre of gravity of every piece.
• Pallet quantity and size, 1,400 × 1,400 × 30 mm or 1,350 × 1,150 × 30 mm, and whether they ship.
• Packing standard per piece: wooden crate, steel frame, or open with blocking.
• Incoterm, insured value per piece, destination site and the lifting capacity available there.
• The heaviest lift your site can make belongs on that list too, because freight is priced against it as much as against machine weight.