Freight forwarder in Dubai.
Sea and air from China and Turkey, customs cleared both ends, delivered into our own Dubai warehouse. One company for the freight and the fulfillment, so nothing gets lost in the hand-off.
SamVertex is a Dubai freight forwarder that also operates the destination warehouse. We book the carrier, handle export paperwork in China or Turkey, move the cargo by sea at AED 499 per CBM or by air at AED 35 per chargeable kilo, clear UAE import customs, and deliver into our own Dubai facility or direct to Amazon FBA inbound. Most sellers hire a forwarder and a 3PL separately and then spend their week translating between the two. We are both, so there is one invoice, one tracking thread, and one person to call when a container is flagged.
Everything between the supplier and your shelf, under one roof.
Ocean freight, FCL and LCL
Full and part container loads out of Shanghai, Shenzhen, Ningbo, and Guangzhou, plus Turkish lanes out of Istanbul and Mersin. AED 499 per CBM on the consolidated China lane. Booked, sealed at origin, and delivered to Jebel Ali.
Air freight for urgent and low-volume
AED 35 per chargeable kilogram, which is the greater of actual and volumetric weight. Right answer when a restock is late, a launch date is fixed, or the shipment is small enough that ocean's fixed costs dominate.
Customs clearance at both ends
Export declarations at origin, UAE import clearance at destination. HS classification, commercial invoices, packing lists, certificates of origin. We file in our own name as the declared clearing party, so a query comes to us and not to you.
Multi-supplier consolidation
Four suppliers, one shipment. Goods land at our Guangzhou facility, we receive and inspect each one, photograph any damage, and hold until the full order is ready to move as a single consignment.
Delivery into our own warehouse
The cargo lands where we already store and pick it. No inter-warehouse transfer, no second receiving fee, no gap between the forwarder saying delivered and the 3PL saying received. Dry storage runs AED 85 per CBM per month from there.
Direct-to-FBA and Noon FC injection
For full containers we deliver straight to Amazon's UAE fulfillment center. For part loads we deconsolidate at our warehouse, prep to FNSKU spec, and inject from there on your booked appointment.
Marine and air cargo insurance
Optional all-risk cover, roughly 0.15 to 0.3 percent of CIF value. Carrier liability under a standard bill of lading is capped low enough that a lost container pays out a rounding error on a real shipment.
One thread, human, on WhatsApp
Milestones pushed as they happen rather than a portal you have to remember to check. When something goes wrong you get told the day it goes wrong, not the week the invoice arrives.
Four steps, one company.
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Send us the shipment
Origin port or city, ready date, approximate CBM or chargeable weight, and the incoterm you want to hand over at. We come back the same day with an itemised quote, freight and clearance separated from duty and VAT so you can see what is our fee and what is the government's.
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We collect and consolidate at origin
Your supplier delivers to our Guangzhou facility, or we arrange trucking from an inland factory. We receive, inspect, and photograph. Multiple suppliers merge into one consignment before anything moves.
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We move it and clear it
Export declaration at origin, ocean or air leg, UAE import clearance at Jebel Ali or DXB. If a container gets flagged for inspection we book the slot, attend the yard, and answer the query. You hear about it the same day.
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It lands in our warehouse, ready to sell
Delivered into the same Dubai facility that stores, picks, and ships your orders. Or straight into Amazon FBA inbound if that is where it needs to be. The freight job ends where the fulfillment job starts, with no handover.
Realistic transit, door to door.
| Lane | Mode | Port to port | Door to door |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shanghai to Jebel Ali | FCL | 22 to 28 days | 30 to 38 days |
| Shenzhen to Jebel Ali | FCL | 22 to 28 days | 30 to 38 days |
| Ningbo to Jebel Ali | LCL | 27 to 35 days | 35 to 45 days |
| Guangzhou to Jebel Ali | LCL | 27 to 35 days | 35 to 45 days |
| Guangzhou to Dubai | Air | 3 to 6 days | 6 to 10 days |
| Istanbul to Jebel Ali | FCL | 18 to 24 days | 25 to 32 days |
Door to door includes origin pickup, export clearance, the main leg, UAE import clearance, and drayage into our Dubai warehouse. Add 2 to 5 working days if a container is selected for customs inspection. Rates and schedules tighten sharply in the 4 weeks before Chinese New Year and across the September to November pre-Christmas window.
Incoterms, in plain language.
Ex Works
Your supplier makes the goods available at their factory door and nothing else. You own every cost and every risk from that moment, including Chinese export clearance, which a foreign company cannot file on its own. We handle it through our origin entity, but price EXW carefully: it looks cheapest on the supplier quote and rarely is.
Free On Board
The supplier gets the goods to the origin port and through export clearance. You take over from the ship's rail. This is the sane default for most sellers, and the one we quote against unless you tell us otherwise.
Cost, Insurance and Freight
The supplier arranges the ocean leg and basic insurance to the destination port. Convenient, but you inherit their choice of carrier and their destination agent, who will invoice you local charges you did not agree to. Common source of surprise bills at Jebel Ali.
Delivered Duty Paid
We deliver to your door in the UAE with duty and VAT paid. One number, no surprises. At low LCL volumes the bundled pricing often beats FOB once you count the origin handling you would otherwise pay twice.
Built for importers who are tired of chasing two vendors.
Amazon and Noon sellers restocking quarterly
Bulk inbound from Chinese suppliers, consolidated into one container, cleared, prepped to FNSKU spec, and injected into FBA or Noon FC on the booked appointment. The freight and the prep are the same invoice.
Shopify and D2C brands sourcing from several factories
Three or four suppliers per season, merged at origin into one consignment and one timeline. Landed into the warehouse that already picks and ships your orders.
Wholesalers and distributors moving full containers
FCL on a repeating lane with predictable duty treatment. We handle classification consistently shipment to shipment, so your landed cost model stays stable instead of moving with whoever filed the entry.
What forwarding actually costs.
Freight rates move with the market, so anyone publishing a fixed all-in number is either padding it heavily or about to revise it. Here is what we hold steady and what we quote per shipment.
Consolidated sea freight from China runs AED 499 per cubic metre. Air freight runs AED 35 per chargeable kilogram, which is the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight. Those are our rates and they do not move shipment to shipment.
Duty and VAT are the government's, not ours. UAE import duty is commonly 5 percent of CIF value, with exemptions and different rates by HS code, and import VAT is 5 percent. We pay both on your behalf at cost and show them as separate lines. Anyone bundling them into a single all-in figure is hiding their margin inside your tax bill.
Ocean and air carrier surcharges, origin handling, and inspection fees are quoted per shipment because they genuinely vary by lane, season, and carrier. Send origin, ready date, CBM or chargeable weight, and your incoterm, and the itemised quote comes back the same day.
Storage after landing is AED 85 per cubic metre per month for dry goods. No setup fee, no monthly minimum, no lock-in contract, 15-day payment terms, same-day onboarding.
What goes wrong when the forwarder is not the 3PL.
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The delivered-versus-received gap
The forwarder marks the job delivered at the warehouse gate. The 3PL marks it received when someone books it in, sometimes days later. Your stock is invisible in between and nobody owns the discrepancy. When one company does both, there is no gap to fall into.
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Paying the receiving fee twice
Cargo lands at the forwarder's bonded shed, gets trucked to your 3PL, and gets a second inbound handling charge for the privilege. On LCL volumes this quietly adds a meaningful percentage to landed cost.
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Undervaluing the shipment to shave duty
UAE Customs cross-checks declared values against supplier invoices and industry benchmarks. Getting caught costs more than the saving and flags your future shipments for inspection, which costs you weeks.
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Guessing the HS code
Classification sets the duty rate. One digit wrong doubles a duty bill or triggers a hold. It also has to stay consistent across shipments, which is hard when a different broker files each entry.
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Accepting CIF from the supplier
You inherit their carrier and their destination agent, then get invoiced local charges at Jebel Ali that were never in the quote you compared. Ask for FOB and control the destination side yourself.
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Booking into Chinese New Year
Factories close for two to three weeks, ports jam, rates spike. Book six weeks ahead of the window or accept premium pricing and a schedule that will slip.
Questions importers actually ask.
What does a freight forwarder in Dubai actually do?
A forwarder does not own ships or planes. It books space with carriers, prepares and files the export and import declarations, arranges origin pickup and destination drayage, and takes responsibility for the cargo across the whole chain. The useful difference between forwarders is what happens when something goes wrong, and whether the chain ends at a port or at a shelf you can sell from.
How is SamVertex different from a standard freight forwarder?
Most forwarders hand your cargo to a third-party warehouse and their job ends. We operate the destination warehouse ourselves. The container is delivered into the same building that stores, picks, and ships your orders, on one invoice, with one team. That removes the hand-off where most delays and most disputed charges live.
How much does freight forwarding from China to Dubai cost?
Our consolidated sea rate is AED 499 per cubic metre and air is AED 35 per chargeable kilogram. On top of that sit duty and import VAT, which are government charges we pay at cost on your behalf and show separately, plus per-shipment carrier surcharges and origin handling that vary by lane and season. Send us the shipment details and the itemised quote comes back the same day.
Do you handle customs clearance, or do I need a separate broker?
We clear both ends. Export declaration at origin and UAE import clearance at destination, filed in our own name as the declared clearing party. You do not need to appoint a separate broker, and if Dubai Customs raises a query it comes to us.
Which origins do you cover?
China is the main lane, with our own facility in Guangzhou and strong service from Shanghai, Shenzhen (Yantian), Ningbo, and Nansha. Tianjin, Qingdao, and Xiamen load on request. Turkey runs out of Istanbul and Mersin. If your supplier is inland we arrange trucking to whichever port gives the best schedule and rate.
Sea or air, how do I decide?
Run the total landed cost, not the per-unit freight rate. Air wins when the shipment is small, when the goods are high value per kilo, or when being three weeks late costs you more than the freight does. Sea wins on everything bulky and everything planned. Below roughly 200 kg the fixed per-shipment costs of ocean often make air the cheaper answer outright.
Can you deliver straight to Amazon FBA?
Yes for full containers, delivered direct to Amazon's UAE fulfillment center. Part loads have to deconsolidate at our warehouse first, which is usually what you want anyway because that is where we apply FNSKU labels and prep to spec before injection.
What happens if my container is selected for inspection?
We book the inspection slot, attend the yard, and answer whatever query comes up on the commercial invoice or the classification. Inspections typically add two to five working days. You hear about it the day the flag lands, not when the invoice arrives.
Do I need cargo insurance?
Carrier liability under a standard bill of lading is capped at a level that is meaningless on a real shipment, roughly USD 500 per container. All-risk cover costs about 0.15 to 0.3 percent of CIF value. On anything above roughly USD 20,000, or anything fragile, it is not a close call.
Is there a minimum shipment size?
One cubic metre for LCL. Below that the fixed clearance and handling costs apply regardless of how small the load is, so air freight or express courier usually lands cheaper. Tell us the weight and dimensions and we will say plainly which one wins.
How long does it take end to end?
China to our Dubai warehouse runs about 30 to 38 days door to door on FCL and 35 to 45 on LCL. Air is 6 to 10 days door to door. Turkey on FCL is 25 to 32. Add two to five working days if customs selects the container for inspection.
One forwarder, one warehouse, one invoice.
Send us an origin, a ready date, and a rough volume. You get an itemised quote the same day, with duty and VAT shown separately from our fee.