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Shipping to Bali Shipping to Bali

Cost guide

What you pay, broken into the parts you control

Freight is rarely the surprise. The surprise is destination charges, duty on customs' own valuation, and demurrage while a container waits for paperwork.

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In short

Shipping to Bali runs from about USD 300 for a small air parcel to around USD 8,000 for a 40ft sea container, and the four things that move the number are volume, origin, service level and whether your goods are dutiable.

  • Sea freight is the cheapest way to move volume; air is the cheapest way to move urgency
  • Duty is 0% to 40% of CIF value plus VAT at 11%, on customs' valuation not yours
  • Marine insurance is 1% to 3% of declared value and is not optional in practice

The components

What a quote is actually made of

Four blocks. A quote that does not separate them cannot be compared with another quote.

Origin charges

Pickup, export documentation and local handling. Around USD 400-800 for a 20ft container. Professional packing adds USD 200-400 for a small shared load, USD 800-2,000 for a household.

Main freight

Ocean freight for a 20ft is roughly USD 1,200-2,000 before anything else. Shared container space is USD 150-300 per m³. Air is USD 5-15 per kg.

Destination charges

Bali terminal handling, customs brokerage and trucking: around USD 600-1,200 for a 20ft. Container loading and unloading can add USD 300-700. This is the block most often left out of a cheap quote.

Duty, tax, insurance

Duty 0% to 40% of CIF value by HS code, VAT 11%, insurance 1% to 3% of declared value. Duty is an estimate until customs values the goods, and any honest quote says so.

Value tiers

What your budget actually buys

Three bands, from the stored cost guide. Find yours before asking for a quote and the conversation gets much shorter.

Essential economy

USD 300-700

1-2 m³, port to port

Shared container, basic sea freight and port handling at both ends. You arrange origin drop-off, clearance and delivery from Benoa yourself. Transit 20-40 days. For people who already know Bali logistics.

Most chosen

Standard convenience

USD 1,800-3,500

3-5 m³, door to door

Origin pickup, optional packing for fragile items, sea freight, and either port-to-door or door-to-door delivery. Clearance handled by us, duties billed separately. Transit 30-50 days.

Premium full service

USD 5,000-8,000

20ft container, door to door

Professional packing and crating, full marine insurance, all customs formalities, delivery to multiple rooms, unpacking and debris removal. For whole households and high-value goods.

These are indicative bands from our published cost guide, not quotations. Freight rates and bunker surcharges are revised quarterly by the lines, and duty depends on customs' own valuation of your goods.

A general cargo ship alongside with its derricks rigged

What it costs from where you are

Australia is the cheapest and quickest lane. A 20ft from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Fremantle runs USD 3,000-5,000 door-to-door with transit around four to five weeks; shared space averages AUD 380-580 per cubic metre.

The UK routes via Felixstowe, Southampton or London Gateway at USD 3,500-6,000 for a 20ft and six to eight weeks, usually transhipping at Singapore or Malaysia. Europe — Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg, Valencia — sits at USD 3,000-6,000 on much the same timing.

The US splits by coast. West Coast (Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle) is USD 4,000-7,500 and six to nine weeks; East Coast is higher and longer, with 20ft containers from New York quoted USD 4,500-6,500 and transit 45-60 days.

Singapore is the outlier: geographically close, a 20ft can be as low as SGD 1,500-2,500 with transit of 7-14 days, which is why it is the transhipment hub for almost everything else on this list.

Controlling it

Four ways to spend less without buying a worse service

In order of how much they are worth.

  1. 01

    Measure before you book

    Volume drives the quote. Under about 12-15 m³ a shared container beats a half-empty 20ft; over it, a full container is cheaper per cubic metre. Guessing this wrong is the most expensive single error available.

  2. 02

    Ship in the shoulder

    April-May and September-October avoid both monsoon delays and dry-season peak surcharges of 10-20%. Shipping outside the peak can save 10-15% on the same container.

  3. 03

    Split the shipment

    Air-freight the handful of things you need in week one; send the rest by sea. Paying air rates on a whole household to get three boxes early is a common and avoidable mistake.

  4. 04

    Sell the heavy things

    Furnishing a two-bedroom villa locally runs IDR 100-250 million, which can rival a 20ft container. Bulky low-value furniture is usually cheaper to replace in Kerobokan or Gianyar than to ship.

What does not save money: under-declaring value, skipping insurance, or accepting a quote that excludes destination charges. All three cost more than they save.

Get the itemised version

Send your origin, rough inventory and date. You get a line-by-line quote with the exclusions named — and if you already have a quote, send that too and we will tell you what it leaves out.

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