What a 20 ft container of shisha charcoal costs

By Mohamad Sinno, Charcoal Expert · Last updated 21 August 2026

One container, costed line by line. Every input below is tagged either registry — a confirmed figure from our own records — or assumption, a slot you must fill with your own quotation. Nothing here is a landed cost: destination duty, import VAT and terminal charges are excluded on purpose, because they change with the country and we would be guessing.

Container stuffing

How a container is stuffed decides the arrival condition: stack pattern, restraint and the air left above the cargo all belong to the packing plan, not to the vessel.

The inputs, and where each comes from

Input	Value	Provenance	What it rests on
Payload, 20 ft	18.5 t	registry	Hexagonal, stix, octagonal and flat/brix. Confirmed per-shape payload; a 20 ft fills by volume, so shape sets the tonnage.
Payload, 40 ft	26.5 t	registry	Every shape. A 40 ft weighs out before it cubes out, so the figure does not move with shape.
Price per tonne	$1,750	registry	Super Premium, full packaging, ash ceiling 1.9–2.3%. This example's chosen band — pick your own from the grid.
Ocean freight	$1,800 / $2,600	assumption	Illustrative only. Freight is quoted per lane, per week, and is not ours to state — ask your forwarder for the box rate on your route.
Dangerous-goods surcharge	$450	assumption	An estimate line. Carriers band this charge and publish it separately, and it is not binding until you book.
Marine insurance	0.5% of goods value	assumption	A common order of magnitude, not a quotation. Your broker sets the rate against the cargo and the route.

The three registry lines are the only ones we stand behind. The three assumption lines are illustrative, deliberately round, and they are where a copied worked example usually goes wrong: a precise-looking freight figure from someone else's lane in someone else's month is not more accurate than a round one, it is only more convincing.

Order staged for loading

Staging a full order before the container arrives is what lets the load be counted and checked once, rather than argued about after the doors are sealed.

The arithmetic

Basis FOB Tanjung Priok, Super Premium band, full packaging, hexagonal shape.

Line	20 ft (18.5 t)	40 ft (26.5 t)	Provenance
Charcoal	$32,375	$46,375	registry
Ocean freight	$1,800	$2,600	assumption
DG surcharge	$450	$450	assumption
Insurance	$162	$232	assumption
Total, FOB basis plus the buyer's own lines	$34,787	$49,657	mixed

Per tonne delivered to the vessel, that is roughly $1,880 on a 20 ft and $1,874 on a 40 ft. The 40 ft is cheaper per tonne for one reason: the fixed lines — freight, the DG surcharge — spread over 26.5 tonnes instead of 18.5.

Reports measured to date fall within the Diamond band; every tier's ash ceiling is contractual and verified by the batch COA.

How much the assumptions move it

Freight is the volatile line, and it is the one we do not set. Move the 20 ft freight assumption by $500 in either direction — an ordinary swing between quotes on the same lane in the same quarter — and the total moves by more than stepping a whole band up or down on the grid does. Between Super Premium and the band above it, the difference across 18.5 tonnes is $925. Which is the point of showing the tags: the number most worth chasing is usually not the one you are negotiating with us.

Forklift loading

Palletised loading is faster and gentler than hand stuffing, and whether a buyer receives palletised or floor-loaded cargo changes both the carton count and the discharge time.

What is not included

Everything after the ship's rail. Destination duty, import VAT, customs brokerage, terminal handling, inland delivery and any demurrage you incur are all outside this example, and they are not small. How to assemble them into a real landed cost is a separate method: how to calculate the landed cost of a charcoal shipment. What your own country charges on this heading starts at how a charcoal import runs end to end.

The dangerous-goods surcharge above is an estimate, and carriers publish their own. What each line actually charges, and when the figure becomes binding, is covered in what carriers charge for a dangerous-goods container — where the standing rule is that none of it binds until you book.

Assumptions and sources

Payloads (18.5 t / 26.5 t) — registry. Confirmed per-shape figures; the full table by shape is on what a 20 ft and a 40 ft actually hold by shape.
Price per tonne ($1,750) — registry, from the five bands and their prices, basis FOB Tanjung Priok, September 2026.
Ocean freight, DG surcharge, insurance — assumptions. Replace all three before you rely on a total.
Minimum order — 1 × FCL (20 ft or 40 ft).
Excluded — destination duty, import VAT, brokerage, terminal handling, inland delivery, demurrage.

Replace the assumptions with real figures

Send the shape, size, packaging and destination port and you will get this table back as a proforma with our lines fixed — leaving only the ones your forwarder owns.

Ask for a dated quote See the five bands and their prices

Prices valid September 2026 · reviewed monthly. These prices are indicative and dated, not an offer. A binding figure comes on a proforma invoice against your shape, size, packaging and destination. Registry figures are first-party records; assumption figures are illustrative and are not quotations.