A branded 20 ft container, fully costed: the worked example
By Mohamad Sinno, Charcoal Expert ·
The all-in figure, and what it is not
A 20 ft of Super Premium cube, boxed and branded, comes to $37,425 to the port of discharge — about $1.87 a kilogram — on the assumptions in the ledger below. Three of those lines are ours and three are assumptions you should replace. The branding adds nothing at the price line.
This is the same container as our neutral worked example, with one layer added. If you want the model without the branding question, read that one first — everything here is that page plus the private-label lines, and nothing in the base has been re-derived.
The ledger
| Line | Amount | Basis | Whose number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charcoal, boxed | $35,000 | 20 t × $1,750/t, Super Premium, full packaging | our price |
| Printing your brand on the box | $0 | The print surcharge is carried inside the quoted price, not added to it | our price |
| Plate and setup fee | $0 | Plates and setup for a new design are included in the price; no separate charge is quoted | our price |
| Packaging design | $0 | Offered free with an order; the dielines come with it | our price |
| Samples | $0 | Free, 1–10 kg; paid by the recipient | our price |
| Ocean freight | $1,800 | Replace before you rely on it — this is the volatile line and we do not set it | assumption |
| DG surcharge | $450 | Charcoal books as dangerous goods; carriers price this differently | assumption |
| Insurance | $175 | 0.5% of goods value | assumption |
| Destination duty, VAT and clearance | — | Country-specific and not ours to state; your broker has the only figure that counts | your lane |
| Total, to port of discharge | $37,425 | Excludes destination duty, VAT and clearance | mixed |
Four zeros in that table are the answer to the question this page exists for. Printing your brand costs nothing extra because the surcharge is already inside the quoted price. Plates and setup for a new design are inside it too, and no separate charge is quoted. The design work is free with an order, and so are the samples. The line that does move is the box itself against shipping bulk: $1,600 on this container, which is 80 USD a tonne and the same figure on every grade in our grid.
The line that stays empty
One row in that ledger has no number and will not get one from us. Duty, VAT and clearance depend on a country we do not choose and a classification your broker files, so the row is present, named, and empty on purpose. It is the single largest source of variance in any landed-cost model, and a figure typed here would be the one most likely to be wrong by the time you read it.
That is the only line of its kind left. A plate or setup fee appears in most private-label cost models and it used to sit in this section as something we declined to quote; it is now a priced line at nothing, because plates and setup for a new design are inside the price. The difference matters to a budget: "we don't publish it" leaves you to guess a number, and "it is included" tells you the number is zero.
Recosting for your design and your lane
Three of the lines above are assumptions and are meant to be replaced. Ocean freight is the volatile one: a logistics platform's guide to HS 4402, published 21 May 2026, put 2025 rates at two to four thousand US dollars per 20 ft on Asia–Middle East lanes and three and a half to five and a half thousand on Asia–US West Coast, with third-quarter surcharges on top. That is a dated range from a trade source, not our quotation, and it is wide enough that carrying the midpoint into a budget is worse than asking your forwarder.
The design count is the other lever, and it moves the ledger more than most buyers expect. The minimum is two tonnes per SKU, so this container supports at most 10 designs — and the minimum counts shapes, sizes and packaging variants, not logos, so one artwork in two box sizes is two SKUs. The per-SKU MOQ page works that arithmetic through by shape.
Cash timing is not a cost line but it belongs in a first-container budget: 50% T/T deposit against the proforma invoice, balance against the B/L copy. The deposit is what starts both production and the printing of boxes, so the print clock does not begin on the day you approve a proof — it begins on the day the deposit lands. What that does to a launch date is set out on the lead-time page.
Questions buyers ask
What does the branding actually add to this container?
At the price line, nothing. The print surcharge is inside the quoted figure rather than added to it, so a printed box and a plain one of the same format are quoted the same. The line that does move is having an inner box at all rather than shipping bulk, and on this container that is $1,600 — 80 USD a tonne, the same on every grade.
Is there a plate or setup fee?
No. Plates and setup for a new design are included in the price, and no separate charge is quoted. That is worth stating plainly because it is the line most private-label cost models carry and the one buyers most often budget for twice.
How many designs fit in this container?
The minimum is two tonnes per SKU, so at 20 tonnes the ceiling is 10 — and it is per shape, per size and per packaging variant, not per logo. Two sizes of the same design are two SKUs.
Why is there no duty figure?
Because it depends on a country we do not choose and a classification your broker files. Every other line on this ledger is either ours or a labelled assumption you can replace; a duty rate quoted here would be neither, and it would be the line most likely to be wrong by the time you read it.
Illustrative and dated. Prices basis FOB Tanjung Priok. Prices valid September 2026 · reviewed monthly. Freight, the DG surcharge and insurance are labelled assumptions; destination duty, VAT and clearance are excluded throughout.
Run your numbers instead of ours
Send the grade, the shape and the destination port, and the export desk will replace the three assumption lines with quotes for your lane. The rest of the ledger does not change, which is the point of publishing it this way.