What a $6.90 Cutting Board Actually Costs to Land in the US
要約
- ▸Duty + the current 30% tariff + freight add roughly 40% on top of FOB for a US import today.
- ▸The 30% tariff is the single biggest line — bigger than freight, brokerage and base duty combined.
- ▸Freight per unit is small (~$0.30) because the board packs flat and dense — packing efficiency is real money.
数字で見る
what duty, tariff & freight add on top of FOB today
a $6.90 acacia board lands at ≈$9.70 in the US · FOB + 3.2% duty + 30% tariff + freight
Last edition we said the tariff on Chinese goods is a known 30% right now — and promised to show what that actually does to a real product's price. So here it is: the line-by-line landed cost of two of our most-quoted items, a wooden cutting board and a small wooden gift box, the way our quote desk builds it for a US buyer. The headline: duty, tariff and freight add about 40% on top of FOB today. Plannable, but only if you price off the landed number, not the FOB.
| Acacia edge-grain board · 35×25 cm · 2,000 pcs | Per unit |
|---|---|
| FOB Xiamen | $6.90 |
| Base import duty (HS 4419, ~3.2%) | $0.22 |
| Current US tariff (30%) | $2.07 |
| Ocean freight, dense-packed (per unit) | $0.30 |
| Customs / brokerage / last-mile | $0.20 |
| Landed cost, US warehouse | ≈ $9.70 |
Indicative, FOB Xiamen at 2,000 pcs. Your exact duty depends on the HS code your broker assigns — confirm it.
Two things jump out. First, the 30% tariff is the single biggest add — bigger than freight, brokerage and base duty combined. That's why locking orders while the rate is a known quantity matters so much. Second, freight per unit is small — about 30 cents — because the board ships flat and dense. On a bulky product that doesn't pack tight, that line can triple, so packing efficiency is real money.
| Wooden gift box · small · 2,000 pcs | Per unit |
|---|---|
| FOB Xiamen | $3.20 |
| Base import duty (HS 4420, ~3.2%) | $0.10 |
| Current US tariff (30%) | $0.96 |
| Ocean freight, dense-packed (per unit) | $0.25 |
| Customs / brokerage / last-mile | $0.15 |
| Landed cost, US warehouse | ≈ $4.66 |
Here's why this matters for your retail price. A board that lands at $9.70 and sells at a $39-$49 shelf price still leaves healthy margin after Amazon FBA fees — but only if you built the $9.70 into your price, not the $6.90. The brands that get squeezed are the ones who quoted their retailer off FOB and got surprised by the tariff at the port. Price off landed cost, lock the order while the tariff is a known 30%, and the math stays in your favour. The action checklist below is how to run this for your own product.
外部シグナル
The tariff line is the one that moves your number
With the extra US tariff on Chinese goods at 30% (a 20% fentanyl plus 10% reciprocal tariff) on top of the normal ~3.2% duty on wooden kitchenware, the tariff has become the largest single component of the gap between FOB and landed cost. Ocean freight from Xiamen — roughly $1,850-2,400 per 40-ft box to the US West Coast — spreads to only a few cents per unit on a product that packs densely, so for most wooden goods the tariff, not freight, is what decides the landed price. Section 301 reviews remain open, so the number is known today but not settled.
工場フロアから
We run this math on every quote — here it is in the open
Buyers increasingly ask for landed cost, not FOB, so we build the stack for them: take the FOB, add the base duty, add the 30% tariff, add per-unit freight and last-mile. For a $6.90 acacia board the landed cost lands near $9.70; for a $3.20 gift box, near $4.70. The number that surprises first-time importers is always the tariff line, never the freight. Our FOBs are stable, so the entire swing a buyer feels right now is tariff plus freight — and we'd rather show the math than hide it.
今週やるべきこと
- □Confirm your HS code with your broker (4419 for kitchenware, 4420 for boxes) — it sets your exact base duty.
- □Ask your factory for the packed CBM and the per-unit ocean freight, not just the unit FOB.
- □Build your retail price off the landed cost (FOB + duty + 30% tariff + freight), never off FOB.
- □Lock the order while the tariff is a known 30% — Section 301 reviews are still open.
次週予告
Vol. 05 will look at packing and freight: how design-for-nesting and dense cartons quietly cut your landed cost more than haggling over FOB ever will.
Q4の見積を依頼 →クイックQ&A
Is the 30% tariff added to FOB or to FOB plus duty?+
US duties and the additional tariffs are generally assessed on the customs value, which is close to your FOB. So both the ~3.2% base duty and the 30% tariff are calculated on roughly the FOB figure, then added on top — not compounded on each other.
Why is freight only about 30 cents a unit?+
Because a flat cutting board packs densely — a 40-ft container holds a lot of units, so the freight spreads thin. On a bulky product that wastes carton space, the per-unit freight can be several times higher, which is why design-for-packing matters.
Can you give me the landed-cost math for my specific product?+
Yes — send us the product, target size and quantity and we'll build the FOB-to-landed-cost line items for your destination, including the current duty and tariff. MOQ from 500 pcs, quote in 24-48 hours.