Incoterms (EXW / FOB / DDP)

Why the same pack has several prices

An Incoterm sets who pays for what and where responsibility passes. The same battery at the same factory price produces very different landed costs depending on the term.

• EXW (Ex Works) — the lowest headline number. You collect from our factory and carry everything after that: export clearance, freight, insurance, import duty, delivery.
• FOB (Free On Board) — we deliver to the port and handle export clearance. You take over from the vessel onward. The common default in this trade.
• CIF — as FOB plus sea freight and insurance to the destination port. Import duty and inland delivery remain yours.
• DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) — the highest headline number and the fewest surprises. We deliver to your door with duties paid.

An EXW quote and a DDP quote for the same pack are not comparable, and comparing them as if they were is a common and expensive error.

Where lithium batteries complicate it

Batteries are Class 9 dangerous goods, which changes the arithmetic in ways that do not apply to ordinary cargo.

Not every forwarder handles them, and those that do charge accordingly. Documentation — the UN38.3 test summary and the SDS — must accompany the shipment regardless of term, and a missing document stops goods at whichever point the term made your responsibility.

On EXW in particular, buyers sometimes discover that arranging dangerous-goods export from China is harder than expected. See shipping lithium batteries by air and sea for what that involves.

Choosing a term

DDP if you lack import experience or want a single predictable landed cost.

FOB or EXW if you have a freight forwarder and want control — usually cheaper at volume, and it puts customs classification in your hands.

Whichever you choose, confirm who is the importer of record. That entity carries the compliance obligations — WEEE registration, Battery Regulation duties, and the EU importer checklist — and DDP does not transfer those to us.